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Gain Perspective

Identify Bottlenecks and Poor Assumptions

Managing Partner

Ed Engler

It's been 37 years since Ed joined his first startup in 1989. Since then he's been witness to Pittsburgh's remarkable rise as an international technology hub. Ed founded Summa Technologies in 1996 and served many of the region's largest companies as well as the most innovative changemakers. In 2002, Ed led Summa to win the Fastest Growing Company in Pittsburgh award. Thereafter Summa also joined the Inc. 500 for several years and was voted one of the Best Places To Work many years running. Summa was sold to CGI in 2017. Ed also led 3 venture funds: Summa VentureWorks, a strategic fund inside Summa Technologies, Pittsburgh Equity Partners which is one of Pittsburgh's best performing funds and 3 Points Rising which Ed operates as a consultancy and family office. Since 1998, Ed has analyzed thousands of opportunities, spent long years on boards and management teams of dozens of companies and had over 15 successful exits to date. Ed designed the Readiness To Scale diagnostics to help him measure which companies would be most likely to succeed. Now these proven models are available to you too.

Ed will help you understand your journey and avoid the pitfalls. He'll help you find the best possible guidance and work with you to craft an amazing future.

Using the lastest AI methods with stage-based learning goals for you to ensure you and your team know what you need to know before you need to know it. Leverage Ed's years of experience, lightweight digital assessments, customized coaching and agile methods to ensure you make progress fast without wasting time, money and your own equity. After all, your company is by far your largest asset. It would be good to manage your risks.

Gain from Ed's experience and learn quickly to get the outcome you're looking for!

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60 Deals

18 operating companies

17 exits

About Ed

Ed’s career started in 1986 as a systems software developer building a series of large-scale disruptive systems for companies big and small. As technology spread from specialist technology companies to every company, Ed focused on architecting and selling solutions to real problems, not just highly capable technology. He founded Summa Technologies in 1996 to deliver these solutions. Summa exploded onto the IT services scene, winning Pittsburgh's Fastest Growing Company in 2002, many Best Places To Work Awards and placed on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing companies in Amercia for several years. Summa also won awards from IBM, SalesForce, Sheetz and others for innovation solutions that had extraordinary impact for customers. Summa was sold to CGI in 2017 in an all cash exit. In 2000, Ed founded his first venture fund, Summa VentureWorks to invest in pre-seed B2B software companies building technology in strategic enterprise markets. In 2009, Ed founded and was Managing Partner for Pittsburgh Equity Partners to invest in early stage technology companies in the Pittsburgh region and beyond. Pittsburgh Equity Partners invested in and exited ShowClix, Industry Weapon, Voci, Wombat and others providing double digit returns for over 30 individual and institutional investors. Ed received his BS in Applied Mathematics/Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon in 1986 and completed the Entrepreneurial Management Program at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon in 2003. Ed was an Associate Adjunct Professor at Carnegie Mellon where he taught Entrepreneurship to students from the CIT, INI and HCI schools from 2013-2017.

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Count On Ed

Deep experience translated into education and tools with a focus on your future

What you can count on me to:

Bring perspective and proven methods
Challenge your assumptions
Focus on high value initiatives
Hold you accountable to your commitments

What you can not count on me for:

Cheerleading : Comfortable conversations don't save companies
Implementation : I'll draft and collaborate but you and your team execute
Working for free : You need to see value in what I do and pay for it

Get in Touch

I'm excited to meet you too! Please let me know what your goals and top issues are and then we'll email you a link to pick a time on my calendar.