Chief Change Officer
#194 Yale Ventures Managing Director Josh Geballe: Bridging the Academic-Entrepreneurial Divide
Sun, 23 Feb 2025
The classic career path? Boring. Josh Geballe ditched his CFO seat at IBM Europe for a 16-person startup because, well, why not? Over three decades, he’s jumped between industries, from leading companies to managing state-wide crises, all in the pursuit of impact. Now, at Yale Ventures, he’s proving that a career built on risk-taking and gut instincts isn’t just rewarding—it’s how industries evolve. Key Highlights of Our Interview: Big Corporate to Small Chaos “Jumping from one of the world’s biggest companies to a 16-person startup was like going from a luxury cruise to a whitewater raft. Every day brought new challenges—chasing customers, closing funding rounds, and ensuring payroll didn’t bounce. It wasn’t for the faint-hearted, but I embraced the chaos because it was exactly the dynamic challenge I craved.” The Two Engines of Growth: Impact and Challenge “My career choices boil down to two drivers: solving meaningful problems that make a positive impact on society and embracing challenges that push me to grow personally and professionally. It’s how I’ve turned a seemingly unusual career journey into a purposeful adventure.” Gut Instinct: The Silent Strategist “For all the logic and strategy in career decisions, sometimes it comes down to a gut feeling. Big moves in my career have often hinged on an instinctual ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ and I’ve been fortunate that those instincts have steered me right—no regrets, just leaps of faith.” Bridging the Academic-Entrepreneurial Divide “Helping brilliant minds shift from academic jargon to investor-friendly pitches is a key part of the role. It’s all about connecting ideas to resources—whether that’s investors, teammates, or future opportunities. And for students? It’s about teaching them to innovate and navigate their career paths, with or without a startup dream right now.” Connect with Us: Host: Vince Chan | Guest: Josh Geballe ______________________ --Chief Change Officer-- Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself. Open a World of Deep Human Intelligence for Growth Progressives, Visionary Underdogs, Transformation Gurus & Bold Hearts. 6 Million+ All-Time Downloads. Reaching 80+ Countries Daily. Global Top 3% Podcast. Top 10 US Business. Top 1 US Careers. >>>100,000+ subscribers are outgrowing. Act Today.<<< --Chief Change Officer--Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself.Open a World of Expansive Human Intelligencefor Transformation Gurus, Black Sheep,Unsung Visionaries & Bold Hearts.12 Million+ All-Time Downloads.Reaching 80+ Countries Daily.Global Top 3% Podcast.Top 10 US Business.Top 1 US Careers.>>>140,000+ are outgrowing. Act Today.<<<
Who is Josh Geballe and what is Yale Ventures?
Hi, everyone. Welcome to our show, Chief Change Officer. I'm Vince Chen, your ambitious human host. Our show is a modernist community for change progressives in organizational and human transformation from around the world. Today, we're talking with Josh Chabot, the managing director of Yale Ventures. You've likely heard of Yale University, but what about Yale Ventures?
It's a key part of the Yale's innovation ecosystem, collaborating with faculty, students, entrepreneurs, and local governments to drive all sorts of innovation activities. Yale Ventures, for example, helps scientists and scholars turn their inventions into real products, the commercialization process, so to speak.
A system in raising money, build teams, and support students in developing the innovation ideas. And a little personal note, George and I are both MBA alum from the Yale School of Management. We both graduated in year 2002. He chose a path in consulting. I went into finance. George's career has been nothing short of remarkable, filled with impact and challenges.
I'll save the specifics for you to discover in this episode. Among many roles, George was pivotal in managing Connecticut's COVID-19 health response. For those interested in his contribution during that critical period, check out the YouTube link in the show notes where he hosted a press conference. Without further ado, let's dive in.
Great. Thanks, Vince, for having me. I'm delighted to be here. As you point out, I started at Yale as an undergraduate, worked for a few years, went back to Yale to the School of Management to get an MBA, and then spent the majority of my career in the technology industry, so initially 11 years at IBM.
climbing the corporate ladder, a number of different roles and client facing consulting roles, the integral finance organization, general management, but left to become the CEO of a software startup that was doing scientific data management, cloud software as a service for scientists and grew that company.
Over a number of years, ultimately we were acquired by Thermo Fisher Scientific, one of the major global scientific tools companies. Worked there for a couple of years as running a new division they created when we were acquired called Digital Science. That was a combination of our business plus some other software assets that they had.
And once that was integration was set up and my team was integrated, Left was taking some time off for the first time in my career. And he got a call from the woman who led the Series B investment in my startup company, letting me know that Her husband had just got elected governor of the state of Connecticut and asking if I wanted to get involved in the administration.
And so that led to three years of a detour into the public sector where I worked for the governor here in Connecticut as the chief operating officer for the state responsible for all the executive branch agencies and
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