Tim Weiss studies the rise of start-up entrepreneurship, particularly in Kenya and the U.S.. Through qualitative and ethnographic work, he creates new knowledge on how to build scalable businesses in contexts where there is no established blueprint for successfully commercializing innovation. He also conducts cultural analyses of start-up entrepreneurship to explain its worldwide expansion and social effects.
Assistant Professor Tim Weiss
Department of Management, Imperial College London
Tim’s doctoral work focused on Kenya’s start-up world and ICT sector. Since 2014, he has been engaged in a longitudinal, real-time ethnographic study of Kenyan start-up entrepreneurs. Tim’s other research projects include a cultural analysis of the spirit of entrepreneurship, and an examination of an informal vehicle repair cluster in Kenya. He is editor of the open-access book Digital Kenya: An Entrepreneurial Revolution in the Making (Palgrave, 2017).
Tim joined the faculty of the Department of Management at Imperial College London in 2019. Previously, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Work, Technology & Organization in Stanford’s Management Science and Engineering Department. Tim holds a doctorate and master’s degree from a start-up academic institution, Zeppelin University in Germany, and a bachelor of science in business administration from the University of Vienna.
Before becoming an academic researcher, Tim worked in international development aid in Kenya and Ethiopia. Outside work, he enjoys spending time with his wife and young son as well as cycling, meditation and boxing.