How I went from a middle class family in a small town TO “accomplished MIT alum” TO flameout TO doing what I love -sharing my insights and helping thousands become better business thinkers, smarter and more successful.

“Ram is an amazing thinker!”
– Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, World’s #1 Leadership Thinker & Coach

“Ram is one of the smartest and nicest people I know. He’s superb at conceptualizing new ideas and business models.”
– Richard Guha, Former CEO Alliant Energy

Ram Iyer is a five-time entrepreneur, immigrant, former Fortune 100 exec, and Silicon Valley venture capitalist. He built one venture that did business in 16 countries and on the next venture, lost his entire life savings. MONEY magazine labeled him as “The Comeback Kid”. He’s had multiple experiences in surviving, recovering, and thriving. He has graduate degrees in engineering and business, one from MIT. He runs the Business Thinking Institute in Princeton.

He provides unique insights that will help you succeed as an individual, employee, entrepreneur, entrepreneur, business leader, or civic leader. He is a straight shooter who speaks from personal successes and failures, speaks to many experts, and combines research with psychology and common sense. 

Ram has been featured at the following institutions & publications:

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THIS IS MY JOURNEY

New Normal Ventures

Launched the website to share knowledge and insights on how people can survive, recover and thrive in the new normal and to provide insights, strategies and tools to help successful people become more successful – and how everybody can become more intelligent, better thinkers and learners, and more successful. 

Business Thinking Institute

Launched the Business Thinking Institute to share my learning and insights to help improve people’s lives by becoming better business thinkers (providing and receiving more value) –  see www.businessthinking.com

Introspection

Examined my successes and failures, and identified the ‘silent killers of success’ – reasons why many smart people are unsuccessful, the need for business thinking to succeed in life, how to become smarter & more successful, and more

Failure and near-bankruptcy

Started a fourth company, when I thought I was ‘too smart to fail’, that almost drove me bankrupt

The Comeback Kid

MONEY magazine named me the COMBEBACK KID for the recovery and turnaround after layoff and two failed startups

The Big Success

Started a third company that served clients in 16 countries. Clients included DuPont, Pfizer, SONY, Charming Shoppes  and Cargill

Death on Runway

Started 2 companies that never got off the ground – they died on the ‘runway’

Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist

Worked as a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley, investing in wireless startups.

Lucent Technologies

Worked at Lucent Technologies, heading up strategy and marketing for a $4.3B business

M.I.T.

I gained admission into Columbia, Cornell, the University of Chicago and MIT. I graduated with my second master’s degree – from MIT.

Boeing Airplane Co. – Assembly Robots

Worked for Boeing in Seattle, designing robots to assemble the 777 and 757 airplane fuselages. While in Seattle, I summited Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Whitney (highest point in the lower 48 states) and Mt. Rainier

Designed Mobile Robots

Designed mobile robots in the late 80s and early 90s long before they were widely accepted. Clients included the US Airforce and Eastman Kodak

Bachelors in Engineering

I got a bachelors in engineering and came to the US to go to graduate school with a full scholarship– got a masters in underwater robotics

My Early Years

I was raised in a small town in southern India by my father, a high school principal and my mother, a high school teacher. Dad was the first college graduate in the entire family, and Mom was the first woman to graduate from college. Between my two sisters and our spouses, we have 13 master’s degrees