Chandra Briggman is a product innovation and marketing executive with experience that spans both start-ups and large enterprises. As the former Director of Digital for USPS, she built the first digital division and innovation lab for the organization. She currently runs Venture Café - a networking platform in Cambridge, MA - known world-wide for connecting entrepreneurs, investors, and enterprise innovators through its unique, weekly and monthly event series. She is founder of Wide Angle Media – a digital media content and curated event production firm.
Chandra is an observer and proponent of human-centered, conscious and systems innovation, and illustrates how to achieve inclusive innovation by activating the “inventor” in everyone. Her upbringing in an agricultural community has made her a champion of biomimicry and circular design principles as a guide for innovation. She teaches product innovation, lean startup principles, and agile methodologies at General Assembly Boston and the Harvard Startup Bootcamp. Chandra mentors entrepreneurs at the Babson University’s WINLab accelerator, Founder Institute Boston, Hult Prize 2018, Brandeis University 3Day Startup and Boston University Sino Summit.
Chandra’s sharp advice is grounded in the hard lessons learned from her journey growing up in the rural South – an environment that didn’t fully prepare her for the challenges of navigating life outside of a small town. Being one of the first in her family to attend college with no mentors, her experience with failure has informed her point of view on how hustle and relationships can help one overcome limitations of early life.
Chandra holds a Master’s from both Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Johns Hopkins University, and Bachelors from Columbia International University.
SUMMARY
MIT Sloan Fellow; Director of Venture Café Kendall in Cambridge, MA; Founder of Wide Angle Media; Former Head of Digital Platforms & Innovation Lab at USPS, Instructor at Harvard Startup Bootcamp & General Assembly; Mentor at Babson WIN Lab, Founder Institute Boston, Hult Prize 2018, Brandeis University, and Boston University; Public Speaker; Nonprofit Board Chair
TOPICS:
Entrepreneurship, product innovation (biomimicry and circular design), inclusive innovation, women in the workplace, and women in tech.
