“I spent my early years trying not to get recruited into gangs, getting shot at, watching my friends get murdered, and thinking that if I don’t leave, I will die,” says Anderson, who was raised in Chicago. “I was fortunate to survive.”

But he thrived, building an impressive career at the likes of HP, Intel, and the Palo Alto Research Center. Now he is applying his management expertise as CEO of Costa Pickleball, a Las Vegas–based startup that sells high-performance paddles in decorative designs. Beyond giving customers a way to, as he says, “bring their identity to the court,” he is also betting on technology: He’s developing a quieter type of paddle he expects will provide a competitive advantage. 

Succeeding in today’s pickleball market will be tough, but Anderson thinks he has what it takes, partly thanks to an important lesson he learned at MIT: “There’s nothing you can’t accomplish if you are willing to put effort into it.”

Read more at www.technologyreview.com/alumni-profiles.