Founder of Plano & Simple

Professional experience

Linda Plano is the founder of Plano & Simple, which provides pitch and business coaching for entrepreneurs. Since 2005, she has coached nearly 600 entrepreneurs in Boston, across the US and internationally, in person and online. They have gone on to raise well over $250M. Linda’s clients have been in life sciences, cleantech, IT, mobile, high tech, retail and services. They have included first time entrepreneurs, students, professors, serial entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and government employees. Prior to starting Plano & Simple, Linda was the Associate Director of the Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center (MTTC), where she coached entrepreneurs one-on-one, to present in front of small, influential groups and for large audiences. She helped to produce a dozen major investor pitch events, including annual Conferences on Clean Energy and Early Stage Life Sciences Conferences featuring dozens of entrepreneurs pitching to hundreds of attendees. Linda helped launch the Ignite Clean Energy Business Competition in 2004 with other founding members of the Energy Special Interest Group at the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge. The competition was merged in 2010 with the Cleantech Open, a nationwide competition and international showcase for early stage cleantech companies. Her work in entrepreneurship led to awards from the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council, the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge and the Global MIT Enterprise Forum, as well as board seats on the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust, the New England Clean Energy Council and both the local and global MIT Enterprise Forums. Linda’s has a PhD in Materials Science & Engineering from Stanford and a BS in Physics from MIT. She lives in the South End of Boston in Massachusetts, USA.