How I got here
I’ve been doing “business stuff” for a long time. In middle school, I designed simple websites for Texas companies. It felt neat to be 14 years old and making $70 per hour.
In high school, I started a web hosting company called vs3 Web Services. I got really lucky: if you searched on Yahoo! for the phrase “cheap web hosting,” my page was the first one to show up. That success helped pay for my college.
I went to Wake Forest University in North Carolina. I was a Presidential Scholar in Entrepreneurship and a member of the Lilting Banshees Comedy Troupe.
One project that I worked on in college got a lot of press: BuddyGopher was like a blog for away messages on AOL Instant Messenger. We had thousands of daily users and full-page features in USA Today, The Washington Post, and more.
I tried to build BuddyGopher into a big company, including moving to India after college, but that didn’t work out. I still learned a lot. I love India. In 2011, I produced a Bollywood music video.
Anyhow. Back in my 20s, I helped build and grow our family business. My father started Flight Display Systems in the basement of our house. The company made avionics equipment for private jets and military aircraft.
I joined right after college. I helped him hire his first employees, then we grew it to 75 people. My father had all the ideas and industry experience, but I led our hiring, marketing, and international sales. My mother was our CFO. It really was a family business! Then we sold it.
Please note: I have spent the last 28 years habitually over-sharing my life on the internet. As such, you will find hundreds of unflattering photographs and video clips of me. I make no apologies for this. But trust that I will be extremely charming, and perhaps even slightly attractive, when we meet in real life.
But back to my story.
I used to hate museums. That’s why I started Museum Hack: to make museums more fun.
Museum Hack
I spent my 30s in the hustle and bustle of New York City, launching and growing Museum Hack.
My company was featured in a popular TEDx talk and written about in The New York Times. Then I grew it to a multi-million dollar business.
In 2019, I sold Museum Hack in an interesting way. It starts with a juicy takeover; read the story here.
Austin
I left New York City in 2020. I never thought I’d say that, because I considered myself a real New Yorker. But now I love my new life.
In early 2021, I moved to Austin, Texas. I bought two paddle boards, I’ve started a new business, and I swim in Barton Springs Pool almost every week. I run a small family office, too. I hope to give more philanthropically. I want to make the world better in certain ways.
A few years ago, I rented out an entire indoor water park for my 40th birthday. That was fun. I got engaged, too. But please don’t tell Lauren that I’m comparing her to an indoor water park.
I wonder what I’ll do with the rest of my 40s. I have some ideas! Like working on this PatronView project to help museum fundraising stuff. And starting a family. But let’s see.
