Creating Big Entrepreneurial Wins

Chuck Templeton (@CTemp) is passionate about early-stage and emerging companies and is focused on using business to find solutions to today’s biggest challenges. He is currently the managing director of Impact Engine (TheImpactEngine.com), a venture accelerator focused on helping for-profit companies that address environmental and/or societal challenges increase their chances of success. 

He took his first big step as an entrepreneur in San Francisco when he founded OpenTable, Inc., which went public on the NASDAQ in May 2009 (OPEN). He helped build an industry-leading company that changed the way full-service restaurants manage their top-line growth and the way diners make dinner reservations. While CEO, he recruited and hired the first management team, obtained and allocated company resources, led the business and product strategy, and carefully crafted a highly dedicated culture. OpenTable is the global leader in restaurant reservations, with customers in all 50 states and over 18 countries. 

He used that experience to support the GrubHub.com team as an advisor and director as the company grew to be the national leader in providing hungry diners with all their food delivery and take-out options while helping independent restaurants use technology to operate more profitably. In addition, he has had the pleasure of being involved in over two dozen start-ups as an entrepreneur, investor, board member, or advisor. 

Chuck spent three years serving in the US Army, becoming Ranger and Sniper qualified. Most importantly, he has an amazing wife and two awesome daughters.

Current

• Managing Director, Impact Engine: Venture accelerator focused on for-profit businesses that address environmental and/or societal challenges 
• Chairman, GrubHub.com: Online real-time delivery and pickup solution for restaurants and their diners 
• Director, PVPower.com: Helping local solar installers design, price, quote, and install photovoltaic renewable energy systems 
• Director, Getable.com: Helping local rental stores use the web to manage their rental inventory and find new customers 
• Director, I-Go Cars: Nonprofit innovator in responsible multimodal transportation solutions and car sharing 
• Director, TaskRabbit.com: Two-sided network of people who need to get things done and people willing to do those things

Education

BS in environmental economics from California Polytechnic State University
MBA in entrepreneurship and leadership from Kellogg School of Management
Constant student of leadership and entrepreneurship

The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries (2011)

The Power of Convergence: Linking Business Strategies and Technology Decisions to Create Sustainable Success by Faisal Hoque, et al. (2011)

The Social Entrepreneur’s Handbook: How to Start, Build, and Run a Business That Improves the World by Rupert Scofield (2011)

The Startup Game: Inside the Partnership between Venture Capitalists and Entrepreneurs by William H. Draper (2011)

Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup by David G. Cohen and Brad Feld (2010)

The Silicon Valley Way: Discover 45 Secrets for Successful Start-Ups (2nd Edition) by Elton B. Sherwin Jr. (2010)

Start Small, Stay Small: A Developer’s Guide to Launching a Startup by Rob Walling and Mike Taber (2010)

Loops: The Seven Keys to Small Business Success by Mike Chaet and Stephen C. Lundin (2009)

Mission, Inc.: The Practitioner’s Guide to Social Enterprise by Kevin Lynch and Julius Walls (2009)

How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas (Updated Edition) by David Bornstein (2007)

Winning the 3-Legged Race: When Business and Technology Run Together by Faisal Hoque, et al. (2005)