About Beth

Beth Polish was an early leader in the New York tech community – founding COO/CFO of iVillage, president of Dreamlife (co-founded with Tony Robbins and backed by Allen & Co.), head of corporate development at Wit Capital, managing director at KPMG, and CFO of Goldman Sachs Ventures.   She also has wide deal experience as an investment banker and as a partner with a venture firm.  She has raised significant capital from leading institutional and strategic investors and negotiated complex strategic partnerships that were game-changing for the companies involved.

Beth created and for 5 years led Hearst Corporate Innovation, reporting to the CEO. She successfully executed a mandate to create a sustainable pipeline of new digital business ideas from within Hearst, build bridges across independent Hearst groups, and foster a company-wide culture of innovation.

As president and founder of The Critical Junctures Group she is currently providing company-building expertise and interim CXO services focused on growth strategies, business models, corporate development, finance, and operations in diverse industries (among them big-data software, Internet of Things, digital health care, remote staffing, and retail), and she has testified successfully as an expert witness on company valuation.

Beth was a producer of the Off-Broadway play Rosetta Street, PBS’s An American Tribute to Vaclav Havel , Farm Aid IV, and 3 Grammy-nominated children’s programs.  She serves on the Boards of the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, WAHVE, Inc., and the Women’s Leadership Exchange, and for years was an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at NYU. She is the author of the DROOM Primer^® series and Publisher at DROOM Books.

Beth is a mentor with Springboard Enterprises, Techstars NY, Innovation Norway, and Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator and has been a speaker at conferences and meetings across the US and in Europe, including at the Stockholm School of Economics and the European Journalism Centre.  She has a BA in Anthropology from Franklin and Marshall College and an MBA from Harvard.