Troy Henikoff
Adjunct Lecturer in Entrepreneurship
Troy Henikoff teaches entrepreneurship at Kellogg, where he has been on the faculty since 2012, and is managing director of MATH Venture Partners.
He co-founded Excelerate Labs in 2010, the accelerator that became Techstars Chicago in 2013. He remains a senior advisor to Techstars and helped relaunch Techstars Chicago in 2026. He serves on the board of 1871, the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center, and on the boards of several early-stage companies.
Before investing, Troy spent 25 years building companies. He co-founded and ran SurePayroll, the nation’s first online payroll company, later acquired by Paychex. He was CEO of OneWed.com, President of Amacai, and President of Systemetrics; he built the technology behind Jellyvision’s “You Don’t Know Jack!”; and his first company was Specialized Systems and Software.
A decade of his short lessons for founders — on raising capital, customer acquisition, financial modeling and pricing, each with a full searchable transcript — is collected at startups.henikoff.com.
Troy holds a BS in Engineering from Brown University and a Master’s in Project Management from Northwestern.
-
-
-
Masters of Project Management, 2008, McCormick School of Engineering, Northwestern University
Bachelors of Science, 1986, Mechanical Engineering/Design, Brown University -
Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2012-present
Faculty Coach - New Venture Challenge, Booth School of Business, University of Chicago, 2011-present
Adjunt Professor of Entrepreneurship, Business Institutions, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Northwestern University, 2004-2011
Visiting Professor, Croma Business Academy, Crioma Business Academy, 2004-2005
Guest Lecturer, Entrepreneurship, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 1993-2009 -
Co-Founder and CEO, Excelerate, LLC, 2010-present
Administrative Member, FireStarter Fund, 2012-present
CEO, OneWed.com, 2007-2010
President, Amacai Information Corporation, 2005-2007
Founder, AuctionScience, 2003-2004
Co-Founder and President, SurePayroll, 1999-2002
Director of Technology, Jellyvision, Inc., 1998-1999
President, Systemetrics, a division of Medline Industries, 1992-1997
Founder and President, Specialized Systems and Software, Inc., 1986-1992
Field Study (ENTR-498-0)
Field Studies include those opportunities outside of the regular curriculum in which a student is working with an outside company or non-profit organization to address a real-world business challenge for course credit under the oversight of a faculty member.
New Venture Launch: The Business (ENTR-466-5)
This experiential course is designed for students who have developed business concepts that have been tested and demonstrate evidence of compelling product-market fit. New Venture Launch: The Business focuses on translating early validation into a scalable and investable company. Students will refine and stress-test their business models, build realistic financial projections, and develop clear, compelling investor narratives. A significant portion of the work takes place outside the classroom, requiring students to actively engage with customers, partners, and industry experts to test assumptions and validate hypotheses in real-world conditions. This course is intensive, hands-on, and execution-focused. Students should expect ambiguity, iteration, and frequent course correction as part of the learning process. Admission is by application only. The companion course to this course is New Venture Launch: The Entrepreneur, which centers on the person leading the venture. Together, the two courses address the dual realities of entrepreneurship: designing a viable business and developing the capacity to lead it.
If you are not currently registered for New Venture Development, ENTR 464-0 and you are interested in this class, please contact entrepreneurship@kellogg.northwestern.edu
