Mike Zisman LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/mike-zisman-51528/

GolfGenius Website - www.golfgenius.com/

This is our fourth episode of The Turn. Welcome to a different side of golf. This season will include 9 episodes with one released every 9 days. In these episodes, we’ll approach what each individual does both on and off the golf course with a business perspective in mind.

This week we hear from one of the leading entrepreneurs in golf technology, plus the first person to give me a job - Michael Zisman, the founder of Golf Genius.

Mike served on the faculty of M.I.T. in 1977 after receiving his Ph.D. in Decision Sciences from Wharton. He left M.I.T. to pursue a career in technology in 1979 when he founded Soft-Switch, a leading pioneer in the email industry. In 1994, Mike sold Soft-Switch with to Lotus Development Corp. for $62 million where he became CEO. Eleven months later, IBM bought Lotus for more than $3 billion. Mike subsequently held executive positions at IBM in the Storage Systems Group, On Demand Strategy, and corporate strategy divisions before retiring in 2004. He since served as a Managing Director at Internet Capital Group until 2010 and is now on several boards as an investor.

It goes without saying that Mike has had astounding success in IT services — and golf genius is no exception. Mike founded Golf Genius in 2009. As a tournament management software, Golf Genius has processed over 20 million rounds in the past 12 months, is used by over 9,500 golf clubs in 53 countries, and recently they’ve partnered with the USGA, R&A, and other major global golf associations to build the infrastructure for the new world handicap system. Mike and I talk about the essence of entrepreneurship, building technology companies from the ground up, how Golf Genius is embracing data for the future of golf, and much more. You’ll learn how Mike is relentless and has a killer instinct in creating groundbreaking startups. I’m sure you’ll walk away having heard something insightful like I did