Entrepreneurs In Residence

Will Sanchez
Venture Partner, Thundermark Capital
Lecturer and Entrepreneur in Residence, MIT
Former Co-founder, CoolChip Technologies

Will is a technology entrepreneur with experience founding, leading, and operating venture-backed technology companies. Will specializes in the commercialization of advanced technology in design, manufacturing and materials, semiconductors, and telecommunications. His primary interests include sourcing advanced technologies and building businesses around the commercializing of these technologies. 

He is a Venture Partner at Thundermark Capital, a venture capital firm investing in early-stage deep-tech startups pursuing fundamental breakthroughs in science and engineering with the potential to profoundly impact industries and people’s lives. His investment interests revolve around improving human productivity and advancing life sciences with the help of AI & robotics, and Intelligence Amplification and Cybernetics—the role of machines is to amplify human intelligence, augment human decision-making.

Prior to MIT, Will co-founded CoolChip Technologies, an MIT spinout commercializing proprietary electronics cooling technologies. As President and CEO, Will was responsible for overall operations across the U.S., China, Japan, and Taiwan, including supply chain management, business and corporate development, research & development, and strategic partnerships. Prior to CoolChip, Will was a researcher and instructor at MIT EECS. While at MIT, Will co-founded Vecarius, Inc., a startup addressing energy efficiency in commercial and military applications. He has also held positions at Telefonica and the CIA.

Will is an active community member, serving as a mentor for a public-private partnership designed to tackle the underrepresentation of black and Latino employees in Boston’s innovation economy, Hack. Diversity; a mentor for the Air Force Accelerator powered by Techstars; and a volunteer in various Christian-based ministries throughout greater Boston. Will also serves as an Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship and is a Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management where he teaches entrepreneurship. Will earned B.Sc., M.Eng., and Ph.D. degrees from MIT, and lives in Massachusetts with his wife and two daughters.

Kaitlyn Trabucco ‘07
Senior Product Manager, Twitter
Former Co-founder & COO, Educents

Kailtyn is the Senior Product Manager at Twitter working with the machine learning and advertising teams. Before joining the product team at Twitter, Kaitlyn was the co-founder and COO of Educents.com, an online marketplace for educational tools (acquired July 2018). Educents aspired to provide affordable education to everyone, and Kaitlyn’s role covered all aspects of operations and growth, including managing, motivating and building a team to transform the edtech landscape. Educents is one of the few female-founded companies that has successfully raised more than $15 million in venture capital to fuel their growth.

Prior to launching Educents, she lived in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, helping women entrepreneurs build their own businesses. Kaitlyn started her career at Tiffany & Co. leading West Coast Operations as the youngest manager in company history.

Kaitlyn graduated from Gordon College and went on to earn an MBA at the Lorry I. Lokey Graduate School of Business. Today, she lives in windy San Francisco with her husband and daughter.

Mark Norman
Managing Partner, Fraser McCombs Capital
Former President, Zipcar

Mark is a Managing Partner at Fraser McCombs Capital, a venture and growth equity fund focused on investing in automotive technology. Mark joined Fraser McCombs in 2015 as the latest endeavor in his career involving many aspects of the automotive industry, including OEM manufacturing & distribution, retail and mobility services.

Mark graduated from Rice University with a B.A. in Economics. He began his career at Deloitte & Touche as a business analyst in their management consulting group. He joined a client to start Summit Systems, a joint venture to assemble and distribute personal computers throughout Russia and Eastern Europe, and soon become its Managing Director. 

Upon receiving his MBA from Harvard Business School, Mark joined Ford Motor Company, working in various roles in marketing, sales, manufacturing & international business development. After 8 years at Ford, he was recruited to DaimlerChrysler as Vice President of Sales & Marketing Operations. He was promoted to president and CEO of DaimlerChrysler Canada, leading the company’s third-largest market with $5 billion in revenue and more than 10,000 employees.

In 2006, Mark became CEO of Flexcar, an early-stage carsharing company. Flexcar was acquired by Zipcar, where Mark served as president and led the company’s expansion across North America and Europe, creating the world’s largest carsharing network. Mark and the Zipcar team managed the company’s IPO and subsequent sale to Avis Budget Group. After Zipcar, Mark jumped into automotive retail as a top operating executive for The Herb Chambers Companies, one of the largest privately-held automotive dealership groups in North America. 

Mark and his wife, Sandi, have four children and reside near Boston. Mark is a member of Highrock Church in Arlington.