Name Semyon Dukach | Role Angel investor | |
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Alma mater Columbia UniversityMassachusetts Institute of Technology Known for Managing Director of Techstars in BostonFounder of the Troublemaker AwardChairman of SMTPMember of Strategic InvestmentsFounder of Amphibian Investments | ||
Semyon dukach s bio life beyond mit blackjack team
Semyon Dukach (born October 25, 1968) is Managing Director of Techstars in Boston. He is also known as a top angel investor, the Chairman of SMTP (company) (NASDAQ: SMTP), and a former professional blackjack player with the MIT Blackjack Team. He played with Strategic Investments and later was one of the founding members and team leaders on Amphibian Investments whose exploits were chronicled in Ben Mezrich's Busting Vegas and referred to in Mezrich's Bringing Down the House. Dukach was the main character in Busting Vegas and the only member of the MIT blackjack team to be referred to by his real name in either book.
Contents
- Semyon dukach s bio life beyond mit blackjack team
- Semyon dukach angel investor mission vision values
- Early life
- Blackjack career
- Angel investor
- Other ventures
- Family
- References
Semyon dukach angel investor mission vision values
Early life
Born on 25 October 1968 in Moscow, Dukach moved to the US in 1979 at the age of 11. He completed a BS in Computer Science at Columbia University in New York in 1990 and a MS in Computer Science at MIT in Boston in 1993.
At a young age Semyon developed an interest in video games and specifically Pac-Man. Semyon became proficient at the game by reading Ken Uston's Mastering PAC-MAN. This led him to read Uston's other titles on blackjack, giving him an understanding of the basics of card counting before he was approached to play with the MIT Blackjack Team.
Blackjack career
While attending MIT, Dukach was trained as a player on the MIT Blackjack team whose exploits were loosely depicted in the Hollywood movie 21.
Starting out with Strategic Investments (SI) in 1992, Dukach was a major player on the team. At the end of 1993 SI dissolved and Semyon was involved in a team effort with the remaining players from SI for the next year. By 1995 Dukach and a few players split off from that team and formed a second, independent team. This new team was referred to as the Amphibians and the team that they left was referred to as the Reptiles.
Since stopping play in the late 1990s, Dukach's involvement in blackjack has been limited.
Angel investor
Xconomy lists Semyon as a top Angel Investor in New England. According to his website, he has invested in over 100 start up companies, and provides marketing and team building advice to companies he invests in. Some of his investments include Amino, Arcbazar, Bellabeat, Bia Sport, Boatbound, Bolt, Buttercoin, Camiolog, Cangrade, Krash, CoachUp, Codeship, CoEverywhere, Crunchbutton, Dashbell, Donde Esta, Double Robotics, Enertiv, Faraday Bikes, Fashion Project, Freightfarms, ImageSurge, Jebbitt, HelmetHub, Mapkin, Meograph, OpenBay, Ovuline, Petcube, Physical Apps, Pintofeed, Plowme, Preply, Quanergy, Rallyware, Regalii, Simpleprints, Socrative, Splashscore, Sproutel, Strongarm, Terrafugia, Tindie, Trefis, Reactor Media, ViralGains, Wanderu, and Zagster.
As of March 2014, Dukach is the Managing Director of the Techstars startup accelerator in Boston.
Other ventures
He has also been involved in many other notable ventures outside of his blackjack and angel investing career:
Family
Dukach is the brother of Inna Dukach the opera singer married to Sean Altman, former front man of Rockapella.