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<p>Is that so? Then somebody needs to tell that to General Catalyst Partners, one of the more successful VC firms in the world, because they recently hired David Danielson out of MIT *even before he officially completed his engineering PhD<a href=“although%20he%20did%20later%20complete%20it”>/i</a> Nor had Danielson even worked for a startup before in his life, let alone ever having founded one. But GC didn’t seem to care about that, as they not only hired him, but had him co-found the firms clean energy division. {Danielson later became Assistant Secretary of Energy under the Obama Administration.}</p>
<p>What makes that example all the more poignant is that Danielson was not exactly a ‘disgruntled’ or ‘frustrated’ MIT student, but rather one of the very best and dedicated ones, having won Karl Taylor Compton Student Prize for excellence in student achievement in citizenship and devotion to MIT. Yet the fact remains that Danielson chose never to work as an engineer at all, instead becoming a venture capitalist and (now) government policy maker. </p>
<p>[Obama</a> nominates former Boston VC to Energy Department post from Business Updates](<a href=“http://www.boston.com/Boston/businessupdates/2011/07/obama-nominates-former-boston-energy-department-post/jVQQ0darC4j0zC10I6Jx9M/index.html]Obama”>http://www.boston.com/Boston/businessupdates/2011/07/obama-nominates-former-boston-energy-department-post/jVQQ0darC4j0zC10I6Jx9M/index.html)</p>
<p>[Dr</a>. David Danielson](<a href=“http://arpa-e.energy.gov/About/Team/DrDavidDanielson.aspx]Dr”>http://arpa-e.energy.gov/About/Team/DrDavidDanielson.aspx)</p>
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