I was born and raised in California by a school teacher and a non-profit worker.
Since I can remember, I've loved everything about business. At 12 years old I started my first business, a skateboard company called J Man. I raised $650 and got set up with a manufacturer in the midwest and within months was selling product at the skatepark and local retail stores. From that point on I was hooked, and while other kids my age looked up to athletes and astronauts, I looked up to entrepreneurs. I could not wait to one day be an "international business man."
Despite my early success with J-Man, I went on to work a number of odd jobs, from mowing lawns, to picking up cigarette butts before school at a night club, to later working at a Ritz Carlton during college. In every job l've had, I've strived to deliver a great experience to customers and have fun while doing it.
I was lucky to start working on my first real business, Branded Native, while still in school at UC Santa Barbara. Branded Native is a YouTube-based ad-network that has paid out 10s of millions of dollars to independent content creators. The company has been profitable for over 20 straight quarters and has shown me just how life changing a lifestyle business can be.
After stepping back as CEO from Branded Native at 24, I went on to found Party Round with my wife Sarah. Party Round quickly became known for our viral-marketing, and we raised over $10MM from a16z, Google's Gradient Ventures, and others. Party Round was covered by Axios, Business Insider, The New York Times, and more. In 2022, we evolved the company into Capital, a full stack financial services platform for early stage startups. While building Capital, we created New York Tech Week, which is now part of a16z's Tech Week, and became widely known for our Founder Series campaign, before exiting to Rho in 2023.
Since then, I've doubled-down on creating and investing in early-stage companies. I've often found myself playing the role of "producer" by helping bring together ideas, talent, and capital to catalyze new company formation. I have been lucky to help start a few companies in this way, including Rorra, Workweek, Anon, Resource Monitor, and Deterrence.
I care deeply about the craft of entrepreneurship and have admiration and respect for anyone that turns the visions in their head into reality. To me business is an art-form, and I feel lucky to spend most of my waking hours doing it. So far, startups have been the best way I've found to use my talent and I plan to continue this work for many decades to come.