I’m a Web3 entrepreneur working on bold projects that create a more equitable internet. 

• I’m passionate about finding the easiest ways to create the most amount of transformation.

• I explore opportunities that turn blue-sky thinking into plausible movement making.

• I build bridges that facilitate the right people with the right process

• I cut beneath the surface in a very pointed, but gentle way making it pretty easy to love me.

My Bio

Former Head of Platform at Struck Crypto, an LA based crypto venture capital firm. I was working with some pretty amazing portfolio companies grow and prosper in the Web3 space.

Former co-founder at Instigation Protocol. I worked across almost every use case in crypto including identity, DeFi primitives, Layer 1 infrastructure, node infrastructure, middlewear solutions, NFT projects, data economy solutions - all focused on supporting their G2M securing partners and growing revenue.

Despite being able to work on the most exciting digital transformation in a lifetime, what I love most is hanging out with my wife and new puppy.

Any, and all foundational success is because I’ve learned from, and appreciate my role at home as a husband to a psychic medium (I know - very cool!), and as a fur dad to a couple of burgeoning 4-legged Instagram celebs.

I have flaws, let’s get a few of them out of the way: 

• IKEA furniture scares me

• I was extremely cheap until the age of 33

• I cheated on my driving exam, which is why I sometimes go through red lights today.

The biggest compliment I’ve ever received:

“You’ve never met a stranger” - my wife

TV character I wish was a real person:

• Ted Lasso

My doppelganger:

• Oscar Isaac (Google him, you’ve loved his movies, I know it)

The 12 minutes that changed my own path:

• Watch > Why some of us don’t have one true calling

Pre-Crypto Career

If we randomly met in Italy and you wanted to hear about my life without mentioning the word crypto over an Aperol Spritz, this is what I would say:

• I had a 1.3 GPA coming out of high school. 

The only school that accepted me was the University of Hartford. My uncle got me a meeting with the dean at Virginia Tech and he said I had to get an A in Calculus to transfer. I don’t even know why he said that, but I didn’t question him. I wanted out so bad I got an A in calculus after never getting an A in my life to that point.

• I transferred to Virginia Tech (Go Hokies!) my sophomore year and immediately went back to not trying and got academically suspended 1 year later. 

The same dean with the Calculus demand called my Dad to tell him personally. I bounced back, got focused, and got a degree.

• As a kid, I was a bootlegger and a Subway sandwich artist.

I had what seems like 20 jobs before I even graduated from Virginia Tech. I was a retail associate at Sears, register person at Dairy Queen, a busboy at a pub, reseller of illegally purchased beer with mark up, night shift employee at Subway, camp counselor for 2nd graders, landscaper for the town of Blacksburg, Virginia, baker at Texas Roadhouse, a professional survey taker, pit boss for an illegal gambling operation, and not sure what to call it but the person who puts forks in a box for dining sets sold at department stores. 

A sampling of adult jobs before I started in crypto:

Yahoo
I started my career at Yahoo. Specifically, HotJobs, selling to recruiters across the country. 

Learned:

• Leaders matter. I had a great boss that inspired us every day. We performed beyond our individual skills at the time.  

• Doing little things matter consistently is just as important as doing something big once.

Successes/Failure:

• I wanted to make more money and doing the same thing in the same geographies wasn’t going to cut it. Like an NFL GM...I started trading. I traded most of my area codes in major metro (NYC, Chicago, etc.) areas for a larger volume of area codes in secondary markets (Milwaukee, Providence, etc.). I doubled my earnings the next quarter.

• I was so bad administratively, my boss had to do my paperwork just so he wouldn’t look bad.

DigitalTown

I led business development securing contracts with municipalities at first, and as that sales process proved unsustainable, ended up finding product market fit and revenue generation with top level domains such as .LONDON, .MIAMI, .NYC, and several others.

Learned:

• Founders with big vision don’t always make great operators.

• Selling something in ways people are accustomed to purchasing solutions is key to solving the cold start problem

Success/Failure:

• I fell into crypto because of this role, and am forever grateful

• Built a lot of edge case features for many customers vs. building use case features for customers willing to buy which strained resources.

CH2M

Positioned, bid, and then won mega-infrastructure projects across the Middle East. My biggest win was the Dubai Expo job.

Learned:

• Just because you win a contract doesn’t mean you did everything right, and if you lose it doesn’t mean you did everything wrong

• Eventually, lack of passion either exceeds your raw talent or erodes it rending you less capable to an organization and less desirable

• Corporate processes are helpful, although the trade off is your personal form of expression that creates the light bulb moments

Success/Failure:

• I met my now wife. 

• Worked my way into utter exhaustion.

Some things I value outside of my work that makes me good at it:

Me, with a microphone:

Me, with a pen: