i build products and companies that solve problems for people.
in the past, built, grew, & exited 5 companies for $3m to $165m.
across edtech, fintech, & healthcare, to public, strategic, & PE acquirers.
beliefs
- children hardly listen but always imitate. act accordingly.
- be honest even when it's inconvenient, be kind always
- smile. there's always someone out there cooler than you.
- plan for the worst, then f-it, go for it.
past (chronological)
- studied biomedical engineering & math at st. louis university
- quit med school at mizzou a week before classes started
- instead, taught 5th & 8th grade math/science via tfa in south Chicago
- after tfa, built an edtech startup (got lotsa users but nobody wanted to pay so we killed it)
- moved to austin to build MakerSquare, a coding bootcamp
- sold it to hack reactor and became ceo
- on the side started TeslaMR with two friends in their 60s
- sold hack reactor in '18 to galvanize and became ceo... again
- sold galvanize in '20 to $LRN for $165m
- tried to retire, lasted 8 months, realized I'm a builder forever
- raised $6m from Coinbase & others in '22 to build Macro
- failed to scale it, so turned it profitable & returned capital to investors in '24
- throughout the above, lived in nyc, sf, denver, austin, and chicago
