I was building before I had a word for it.

Figure it out. Build it. Make it useful.

I built my first website at nine. At eleven, I made a game mod. That work still finds a home in OpenRCT communities. At twelve, I started a business breeding and selling exotic lizards, including bearded dragons.

I sold my first website at fourteen and my first design at fifteen. I was building websites for things I cared about, solving the next problem and learning how to get someone interested long before I thought of any of it as entrepreneurship.

The pattern never really changed. The problems just got bigger.

Now and then.

The current work comes first. Everything before it helps explain how I got here, including the ones that did not make it. Four of these companies are operating today. The other three taught me more than the wins did.

1. NOW
   

   ColdStart
   Co-founder & CEO · Operating

   Building a repeatable model for distribution. Startupfest first place and Plug and Play Innovation Challenge winner. The culmination of the product and growth questions that came before it.

2. Earlier
   

   Bindr
   Co-founder & CTO · Operating

   Building something personal. The idea that lingered for years, then grew faster than anything I had built before. Forbes pick, TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 200, Startupfest prize winner, now reaching millions of people.

3. Earlier
   

   Sweet Ride
   CTO · Went to market, ran out of funding

   It worked. We went to market, it was successful, and we built a whole driver ecosystem around it. It laid the groundwork for going into my next ventures, and it still ultimately ran out of funding. I retain equity.

4. Earlier
   

   ModLinQ
   Founder · Break-even, still live

   One app for the car community. It got thousands of users on its own and broke even, and it runs today. The lesson was worth more than the win: nobody actually needed the problem solved. It was an add-on to Facebook Groups and Events, and car people care about their own cars far more than anyone else’s. Being successful does not mean people keep coming back.

5. Earlier
   

   Original Pixel
   Founder & CEO · Operating

   Building for myself as well as for others. The turning point where I began owning the whole machine. Still running.

6. Earlier
   Subtle
   Founder · Quit too early

   File storage, email and in-house apps connected in one place for our customers at Chop Dawg, before Dropbox or Google Drive existed. Thousands of users. We quit because it was not perfect. It was ahead of its time, and the biggest mistake was doubting ourselves over bugs. We should have pressed on.

7. THEN
   Chop Dawg
   CTO · Operating

   Building for other founders and seeing their successes and failures up close. An early education in how products and businesses come together. Still running today.

There is a life around the work.

I love cars, travel and roller coasters. I like difficult things, especially the ones somebody is certain I cannot do. That curiosity is part of how I build, but it is also simply part of who I am.

Community matters.

I care about helping people with type 1 diabetes and supporting LGBTQIA+ communities. These causes belong in my life beyond any company story.

Bindr’s presence at Pride is one example of the work meeting the people it is for.

Keep showing up.

I have a lot of time for people who have a million reasons not to do something and do it anyway. The ones who build for years, make it work and then keep making it better. Persistence is one of the things I notice first in other founders.