As documented in Jean-Jacques Degroof's book From the Basement to the Dome - How MIT's Unique Culture Created a Thriving Entrepreneurial Community:

"In 1989, a couple of members of the E-Club approached its advisor, Joe Hadzima, to teach club members how to write a business plan as a non-credit, club sponsored IAP (Independent Activities Period) offering. While Hadzima was considering the request, one of the students published an announcement of the seminar in the IAP catalog, which essentially forced Hadzima to teach it! In doing so, the students followed an informal but widespread moto at MIT: "Ask forgiveness, not permission!" .....The first session drew several hundred attendees, reflecting the growing interest in entrepreneurship among the MIT student community."
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Joost Bonsen is an innovation ecologist studying exponential technologies and new venture dynamics across multiple scales. He serves as Lecturer in Media Arts & Sciences at MIT, teaching the Media Ventures, Development Ventures, and Revolutionary Ventures classes as well as the Understanding MIT, Future Explorations, and Nuts & Bolts of New Ventures seminars.

A former lead organizer of MIT's $100K Entrepreneurship Competition, Joost helped grow the Competition by an order of magnitude, create the Emerging Markets / Development Track, and continues to serve on the Board. He has previously served as Board member of the MIT Enterprise Forum (both Cambridge & Global), the MIT Global Startup Workshop, and the MIT Muddy Charles Pub. In the mid-1990s Joost created and ran the MIT Founders Study, the first global census to quantify the economic impact of MIT-related entrepreneurs, findings later published by BankBoston as MIT: The Impact of Innovation.

Joost is co-creator of Howtoons, producer of educational cartoons which show kids everywhere "How To" build things using everyday materials and tools. For over a decade he hosted a weekly television show called Maximizing Progress (previously High Tech Fever) creating some 500 unique interviews with inventors, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, professional service providers, and more, and has run dozens of entrepreneurial networking VentureNights at the MIT Muddy Charles Pub since the mid-1990s, as noted in The Venture Café book and The Economist.

Joost earned his Bachelor's in Bio-Electrical Engineering at MIT as well as the Sloan Fellows (then MOT Management of Technology) Master's degree at MIT Sloan and wrote his thesis on The Innovation Institute: From Creative Inquiry Through Real-World Impact at MIT.
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• YouTube video of Virtual Ink Product today.
• Complete Virtual Ink Plan

Yonald founded Virtual Ink in 1997 with his graduate school colleagues and served as CTO and as a Director until early 2001. He conceived the flagship product, Mimio, a portable retrofit pen-tracking system that records handwritten notes from a conventional whiteboard to a personal computer. The business was launched while at MIT and won $10,000 in 1997 in the prestigious MIT $50k Entrepreneurship Competition. Virtual Ink was acquired by Newell Rubbermaid (NYSE:NWL).  Download the Virtual Ink Executive Summary.

Mr. Chery currently holds 12 patents in the United States, 4 patents in the United Kingdom, with several more pending in the United States, Europe, and Asia.  See an IPVision Forward Patent Landscape Map of Mr Chery's patents.

Mr. Chery often speaks about technology strategy, team-building, business plan development, and entrepreneurship and has lectured on such topics at MIT's Sloan School of Management.  Mr. Chery holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and a M.S. in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, both from MIT.
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