On an Epic Winning Streak

Serial tech entrepreneur and investor Tom Noonan, a 1983 mechanical engineering graduate, is a perfect 10 for 10 with the companies he’s helped create, beating the long startup odds by following his passions and never giving up.

If passion for your work is the key to career success, it’s no wonder Tom Noonan has such an outstanding track record. Over the past two decades, the serial tech entrepreneur and investor says that not one of the 10 businesses he’s launched has failed. Even for someone as practical as Noonan, that’s putting it mildly. His achievements are stunning.

During that time, Noonan has launched a bevy of tech companies such as LeapFrog, Actuation Electronics, and Endgame, but he might be best known for the 2007 sale of Internet Security Systems Inc. (ISS) — a firm he co-founded with former Tech student Chris Klaus — to IBM, which carried the impressive price tag of $1.6 billion. The Atlanta-based firm offered security services and software to companies and governments in 48 countries.

Three years later, in 2010, Noonan and a few former ISS employees founded JouleX, where they figured out how to control the energy consumption of internet-ready devices. Noonan led the charge as JouleX CEO, all the way to its $107 million acquisition by Cisco less than three years after founding the company.

Today, Noonan is a founding general partner at TechOperators, an Atlanta cyber security and IT solutions firm that selects startups to invest in and helps them grow. Noonan often acts as an adviser, offering guidance to newbie CEOs and making sure the right people meet each other.

But don’t say he’s just a coach. Noonan and his business partners take an active role in the companies they choose to invest in, always considering what contribution a new business will make to the world of tech. That 10-0 winning streak is not just for show. And the game is still very much in play.

Read the rest of the story from the Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine.