Michael Goldberg is an experienced venture capitalist and entrepreneur whose teaching is focused on the fields of entrepreneurship and early stage finance. Goldberg is an Associate Professor of Design and Innovation at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University. Goldberg is also the inaugural Executive Director of the Veale Institute for Entrepreneurship at Case Western Reserve University. With support from the Burton D. Morgan Foundation, Goldberg created a massive open online course (MOOC) called Beyond Silicon Valley: Growing Entrepreneurship in Transitioning Economies, which has attracted over 175,000 students from 190 countries with subtitles in 16 languages (most on Coursera platform). Inc.com named Beyond Silicon Valley one of the top online classes that "will make you smarter and more interesting." Beyond Silicon Valley was also named by the AACSB as one of its 25 winners of its Entrepreneurship Spotlight Challenge (2017) and Innovations That Inspire (2020). Goldberg spoke about the impact of his MOOC at TEDxHeraklion in Crete (February 2015) and TEDxFulbright in Santa Monica (September 2015). He is also the author of Beyond Silicon Valley: How One Online Course Helped Support Global Entrepreneurs.
Goldberg co-founded the Bridge Investment Fund, a venture capital fund focused on investing in Israeli medical device companies that have synergies with the leading health care industries and institutions in Cleveland.
Goldberg was the Director of International Business Development for America Online, responsible for structuring and negotiating international partnerships in Asia, including AOL’s joint venture with Lenovo to develop interactive services for the China market. Goldberg spent several years in South Africa working for the National Democratic Institute, designing and implementing voter education programs for South Africa’s historic first democratic election in 1994. Goldberg also worked for Microsoft and the International Management Group (IMG).
Goldberg has deep experience teaching entrepreneurship in international markets. He was awarded Fulbright fellowships to teach entrepreneurship at the National Economics University in Hanoi, Vietnam (2012), the Polytechnic in Windhoek, Namibia (2015) and the Asociación Canaria de Startups, Empresas de Base Tecnológica e Inversores Ángeles (Emerge) in the Canary Islands, Spain (2018). Goldberg has also been a visiting professor teaching courses on entrepreneurial management and finance at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey and the ALBA Graduate School of Business in Athens, Greece. He has conducted seminars on behalf of the US Department of State on entrepreneurship in Argentina, Austria, Botswana, Cambodia, Chile, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Kosovo, Laos, Macedonia, Morocco, Myanmar, Namibia, the Netherlands, Philippines, Portugal, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Tanzania, Tunisia, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Goldberg is active in the entrepreneurship community in Cleveland, serving as a mentor to entrepreneurs through Jumpstart and Plug and Play. He has appeared as a frequent guest panelist on MSNBC’s “Your Business” and written on international entrepreneurship for Forbes, CNBC, Entrepreneur.com and The Huffington Post.
Goldberg earned a BA from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, MA in International Relations from the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University and MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.