Questions with Idealab CEO Marcia Goodstein

What is Idealab?

We're a technology incubator. We started in 1996 and our mission is to make companies that we hope will have an impact on the world. Most of our ideas come from Bill Gross, our founder, and we recruit the teams with the initial seed investment, and we have a suite of operational support that we provide to all the companies like finance, legal, HR, or facilities.

Why work with high school interns in the summer?

We really enjoy working with interns because first of all, we were giving back to the community. Second, because it’s a way of introducing what we do to a wide range of people. We have interns that we've hosted as high schoolers who come back to college and then come back to work for us. It's a long-term recruiting effort and it's a little bit of a community-building effort to try and interact with our local community.

Why did the Idealab Charitable Foundation decide to donate to PTL?

Because we encourage and appreciate and love seeing entrepreneurial efforts of all kinds. It's a pleasure to spearhead efforts that mirror and complement what we do.

What are you excited about this summer?

Well, it's really great being back in the office. So this is April and things are starting to ramp up and look normal. So I'm looking forward to just getting a regular cadence back where all the employees come in. And it's the first summer in three years that we've been able to host interns again because, you know, we have a place to go and there are people around. So I'm looking forward to that kind of normalcy returning.

How would you encourage others to partner with PTL?

I would encourage others by saying it's a great, easy, low-risk way of addressing our concerns about diversity and income inequality in the neighborhood. If we work here, we have an obligation, I believe, to interact with our local community, and it's one of the most rewarding ways to do that because you get to meet the next generation that's going to come through your doors and help influence them if they see things that they like to do or discover new areas. You know, we've had interns come in thinking that they love design, but turns out maybe not so much after spending a week in design or vice versa, noticing that they really like something else, that they didn't even know existed. So we really enjoy doing that and we would encourage every company to do it.

Anything exciting that you would like to shout out?

Well, we've had a good year at Idealab. We've had two companies that went public this year in the clean tech space, Energy Vault and Heliogen. So we're really proud of them, and we have more coming up with Carbon Capture. And we have a Stirling engine company called Flowing Energy that's also working on a prototype. So we're excited by the things that we're doing and look forward to great success with all of us.

What do you do in your free time?

I read. I listen to books. I knit, and I watch the news. I spend as much time with my kids as I can.

What’s in your playlist?

Everything from stuff I listened to in high schools, like the talking heads and The Proclaimers to Mozart and David Bowie.

Favorite time of day?

Morning. I wake up early in the morning and I love the first 2 hours of the day.

Sweet or savory foods?

I refuse to choose. I love both. I prefer savory at the beginning and sweet at the end.

What makes you smile the most?

I love seeing a positive impact. When the Ukraine war started, we put out a matching effort to match up to $15,000 in donations to anything that people wanted to donate to for relief in Ukraine. And, we raised a full $15,000! It makes me smile that we were able to do that.

What are three things you can’t live without?

My phone. Food. Books!

Favorite book?

My favorite of all time for a long time was Pride and Prejudice. There's another great book called Soldier of the Great War that I think is one of the all-time best. I read 200 books a year. I can't even begin to tell you my favorite books because there are too many.

Favorite food?

Bacon.

Where do you work best?

Pre-pandemic, the answer would have been in my office (at Idealab). I have since made my office at home a better working environment for me. So I have to say my home office, but hopefully, that shifts back here.

Do you prefer remote, hybrid, or in-person?

I would prefer to say I like hybrid solutions so that people have the flexibility. But my practical answer is I think people have to be fully in the office.