Below you’ll find a quick overview of a wonderful and curiously-filled career of ups, downs, and side-to-sides; and to think that we’ve only gotten started!
Summary & Overview
I am (and have been) an entrepreneur, enterprise executive, award-winning indie app developer, angel investor, day trader, writer, educator, parent, and coach.
As startup founder and CEO I have bootstrapped / raised venture capital and relish the challenge of delivering products that people want with mission-driven, distributed teams and very limited resources towards large outcomes, with acquisitions of all sizes, including an exit to a Fortune 300.
As an enterprise executive I’ve built, designed, and deployed cross-functional teams to achieve strategic, long-term growth and I particularly enjoy using my technical skillset to communicate difficult concepts into understandable experiences.
And I’ve been fortunate to turn my 20+ years as a software engineer and designer into award-winning products, including 2 design awards from Apple for a macOS desktop app.
With 2 advanced degrees — including a Masters in Education — I love teaching, training, and coaching others to succeed. I try to apply these as a dad to one boy and two girls who have my heart entirely.
I am eternally grateful for so many opportunities to fail my way to meaning and purpose.
Work & Project History
- Valkyrie AI (2024) — As Chief Product Officer I built the product & engineering workflows for a novel combination of LLMs and Knowledge Graphs. Raised $4.5m in pre-seed funding with customers like Call of Duty, Pandora, and the Department of Defense.
- dotEARTH (2023) — Product Leader at a venture studio founded by Mark Pincus (founder / CEO of Zynga) focused on designing generative AI concepts using frontier tech like OpenAI (ChatGPT), Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, Hugging Face, Grok, and more.
- SupportLogic (2023) — VP of Product overseeing 3+ enterprise product lines using AI / ML / NLP and ChatGPT-centric tech. Raised $62M via Series B.
- Heal.me (2023) — CTO tasked with scaling systems and team in preparation for pivot to fully-automated, self-serve SaaS and marketplace platform. Raised $2.8m.
- Meera Health (2023) — Cofounder / CTO building an AI-powered, 4-sided marketplace for clinical trials. Stopped work after proof of concept failed to find market-fit.
- Sats App (2022) — Head of Engineering / CTO building the first mobile neobank in Nigeria leveraging USDC rails; raised $3m+ but failed to find PMF.
- BTC Jobs (2022) — Job board, newsletter, and community for bitcoiners.
- BTC.email (TBD) — Bitcoin plus email minus the spam.
- Trading Bitcoin (2022) — Newsletter and community on trading bitcoin perpetual future option swaps.
- YEN (’17-’21) — CEO / Founder, raised $4.1m+ for the first social “MEX” (Crypto Meta Exchange), pivoted to B2B “Community SaaS” for Bitcoiners. Along the way I built numerous products and community tools like The Bitcoin Pub, CryptoYum (mobile news app), CoinPuffs (market capitalization, prices, and alerts), YEN Camp, and published a free email course — 10 Days of Bitcoin — in partnership with HighBrow.
- Pinpoint (’16-’18) — Cofounder / Product / Evangelism, raised $16.5m+ for B2B engineering insights and analytics platform; acquired.
- Try George (2017) — A simple, elegant, and cute To-Do app for iOS.
- Desk (’13-’18) — Award-winning writing, blogging, and notetaking app for macOS; won 2 Apple Design Awards and featured worldwide.
- MNML (’16-’18) — Desktop app for Medium.com; featured worldwide.
- YouTube (’09-’21) — Multi-channel daily vlog / livestream.
- Blog, Newsletter(s) (’01-’21) — Wrote daily for 20+ years. Mastered content marketing.
- UP2398 (2016) — Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR); technical due diligence and coaching for portfolio companies while figuring out my next project.
- EVE (’15-’16) — Founder / CEO; built a clever Slackbot that automated HR (1099s, W-2s, I9s) for SMBs with machine learning.
- Teeny Tokyo (’15-’17) — Image editing app for macOS, powered by a dinosaur.
- Learn Capital (’15-’16) — Advisor, special projs, technical diligence, team coaching.
- Projector (’15-’16) — COO / Product; mobile notifications and analytics; raised $4.5m.
- Geneva Capital (2015) — Fundraising advisor, technical diligence, and strategy.
- Zesty (’15-’16) — COO / PeopleOps, YC c/o ’14, raised $21m.
- Assembly (2015) — COO / Product / Operations, YC c/o ’13, raised $3m.
- The Iron Yard (’11-’15) — Cofounder, strategy, growth, and communications for the largest coding bootcamp in US; raised a small seed and grew to 15+ retail locations across 10+ states. Acquired by Apollo Global Management (Fortune 300).
- Pressgram (’12-’14) — Crowdfunded $56k+ via Kickstarter for iOS mobile-social photography and blogging app. Raised an additional $300k.
- 8BIT (’09-’13) — Founder / CEO of an award-winning WordPress theme (“Standard Theme“) and content network. Raised seed round; product acq. by WooThemes (Automattic), omni-media acq. by WPEngine.
- Action & Influence (’12-’14) — Cofounder and product for a team performance tool based on analytics and behavioral science.
- ChairCo (2013) — Professional coaching and leadership consulting.
- Web Hosting for Dummies (2013) — Technical Editor for the 1st edition.
- ChurchCrunch (’08-’13) — CEO / Chief Editor of the #1 tech blog / network for churches / non-profits. Acquired in 2013.
- BoosterThon (2012) — CTO and special projects.
- BlogCheck (’11-’12) — Web and iOS-based server monitoring. Acq. in 2012.
- Twitch Technologies (’11-’12) — CTO for alternative keyboard technology.
- SoChurch (’10-’12) — Cofounder and Chief Evangelist for a B2B SaaS communication / community platform for churches and non-profits. Raised small seed round.
- BeaconAds (’10-’11) — Niche advertising network platform. Acq. in 2011.
- Church Analytics (’10-’11) — Real-time web / mobile analytics. Acq. in 2011.
- Milk Engine (’08-’13) — Web consulting, strategy, and technology.
- North Point Ministries (’08-’10) — Creative Director overseeing a number of technical projects including the 1st online broadcasting service in its class.
- Gospelr (’08-’09) — Christian / non-profit twitter-like app, using Twitter’s API. TechCrunch’d and then acquired in 2009.
- DateCraft (’07-’08) — Dating website and social network for World of Warcraft players. Kotaku’d, Mashable, et.al., and then acquired in 2008.
- Second Adoption Media (’07-’08) — Social network for adoptees.
- Fox, NewsCorp (’07-’08) — Executive Product Director overseeing M&A; purchased Beliefnet and large editorial network.
- Dell, Inc. (’06-’08) — Engineer, product manager, content producer.
- Lord’s Church of Austin (2007) — Youth Pastor, preacher, and babysitter for K-12.
- Life Multimedia (’06-’07) — Boutique web design and marketing agency.
- Starbucks (’05-’06) — Part-time Barista, pulling shots like it’s going out of style.
- FedEx, Kinkos (2005) — Copier and back-room paper boy.
- Patient Care Technologies (2005) — Local network engineer.
- Internap (2005) — NOC engineer; got my CCNA / CCDA for routing / networking.
- Georgia Institute of Technology (’01-’05) — Various jobs from copying VHS lecture tape decks to rewriting class registration software and web design manuals for staff. Worked in the Economic Improvement Dept. building web-based education for their ISO9000 / 13000 standards in Macromedia (Adobe) Flash. Tutored english to the football team, worked the Help Desk at the library, volunteered at the “Sound Room” and taught breakdancing / hip-hop on the weekends.
- Johnson & Johnson (’99-’05) — I worked as an intern and contractor building web tools for Acuvue.com before and during college.
- Publix (’97-’01) — Bag boy to stock to garbage disposal and cart retrieval.
- Joseph’s Pizza (’00-’01) — Cashier, front-of-house, and waiting tables.
- JS Computer Repair Company (’97-’01) — Fixed local SMB computers / networks.
- Boar’s Head Deli (’99-’00) — Prep, cut, and serve deli meat.
- PakMail (’98-’99) — Cashier and mail package packager extraordinaire.
- Panera Bread (’98-’99) — Prep cook and dish washer.
- Melkior Design (’97-’99) — My first real company! Built
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websites and flash games while modding Unreal Tournament maps and hacking King’s Quest.
Education
- Dallas Seminary (’06-’12) — Masters in Education and Masters in Biblical Studies, focus on team dynamics, performance, and the tech-driven pedagogy.
- Prepare / Enrich (2008) — Certified marriage / pre-marriage counseling.
- Georgia Institute of Technology (’01-’05) — B.S. Science, Technology, & Culture
- The Bolles School (’97-’01) — Senior quote: Kaizen.
- American School in Japan (’94-’97) — Where I fell in love with the internet.
Volunteer Experience
- Mentor, Blue Startups — Helping entrepreneurs win.
- Coach / Speaker, University of Hawai’i — Challenging younger engineers to think bigger and more broadly about their careers.
- Soccer Coach — Earned “G” and “F” Coaching License(s) through The US Soccer Federation; coached youth and U7 / 8 co-ed soccer teams.
- Youth Pastor — Preached 4 times a week and mentored / loved-on a small community of 50+ humans for a Korean Church.
- TEK Styles — Hip-hop and breakdance instructor.
- Defy Ventures — Coach and mentor to EITs (“Entrepreneurs in Training”).
🎱 🤖 🍣