Paul Silva
The Innovative Thinking and Entrepreneurship Summit
Breakout Session C: Best Practices for New Business Launch
Paul Silva is the Founder and Managing Partner at Angel Catalyst, a firm providing turnkey management solutions for angel investor groups. Through this company Paul serves as the Manager of the River Valley Investors, a Western Massachusetts based angel investor network. There he helped the group find the right organizational model, built their deal flow network, and helped them recruit and retain a critical mass of investors. Also through Angel Catalyst, Paul helped the Boynton Angels of Worcester find the right organizational model.
In 2000 Paul co-founded All inPlay, a company that creates software that allows the blind and fully sighted a way to play and interact together as equals. For the company Paul raised $250,000 from angel investors, served as Lead Designer of the company's games, led the development team creating the games, founded and maintained the All inPlay online community, and assisted in business development activities.
Outside of his work Paul serves as the Chairman of the UMass Amherst Entrepreneurship Initiative and as an advisor to the Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation's Entrepreneurship Initiative, organizations that equip students with the training and connections to become entrepreneurs. Paul also sits on the board of the Lemelson Assistive Technology Development Center, an organization that provides students with an experiential education in applied design, invention, and entrepreneurship through engagement in assistive technology and universal design problem-solving.
While attending university Paul co-founded and helped lead the UMass Amherst Entrepreneurship Initiative, co-founded and lead the local Chapter of the Society of Physics Students, and was awarded the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Excellence in Service and Alumni Leadership awards. Paul holds a BS in computational physics from the University (2000).
