About Me

Systems thinker. Tool collector. Hands-on learner. Monterey Bay-based.

I've always needed to understand how things work. Not metaphorically, but literally. When I was a kid, my room was nicknamed Circuit City—stacked with tape decks, CD players, old receivers, anything I could get my hands on. I wasn't fixing or flipping. I was connecting. Learning how the parts made the whole.

That instinct shaped everything that followed. When I encounter a new system, I disappear for a while—research until I'm blue in the face, push every side of the box to understand every possible angle. Only then do I start building.

I've worked inside sales teams, tech companies, venture firms, and operating roles. Each was a new machine to understand: How does it run? Where does it break? How can it work better? Get in the seat, learn the system, go deep—rebuild it, optimize it, then onto the next one.

IGN & Oracle – Cold calls and quotas during the 2008 crash
Santa Clara MBA – Pausing to retool
Driscoll's – Learning P&Ls and grower economics
Alexander Group – GTM strategy and frameworks
Lyft – Scaling B2B from 1% to 25% of revenue
Lightspeed – Building the systems behind $8B+ in venture investments

Over time, I started noticing a pattern: I wasn't just building skills—I was collecting operating systems. Figuring out how they ticked. Developing a mental toolkit to improve them from both sides of the table—as an operator inside companies and as someone who understood how investors evaluate and support those same companies.

The Move

In 2024, we made two big decisions that would reshape our lives.

The first was moving our family. Starting in January 2024, my wife and I began seriously discussing relocating closer to where she grew up—the Scotts Valley and Monterey Bay area. By summer 2024, we made the move. It was a huge change that came with initial shock and uncertainty, but we wanted our kids to grow up connected to the mountains, beach, and community here. After settling in, we realized it was one of the best decisions we've made for our family.

The second decision was professional. Around the same time in early 2024, I started exploring ETA (Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition) from a learning perspective—scratching an entrepreneurial itch. By late 2024, I approached Lightspeed about my interest in exploring new opportunities during the next fund cycle. Fund cycles are natural transition points in venture capital, and I wanted to give plenty of runway for a smooth handoff.

In March 2025, I officially left Lightspeed and dove into ETA full-time for the next five months. In total, I spent almost a year exploring small business ownership—part-time for about eight months, then full-time for five. I went deep: analyzed deals, built financial models, talked to owners, and tested what it would really feel like to run something end-to-end.

Ultimately, ETA wasn't the right fit, but the exploration was invaluable. I learned about business models, risk assessment, and myself. One big change—the family move—worked beautifully. The other taught me what I needed to know about my own path forward.

Now

I'm exploring what's next and where my background creates unique value. Five years inside a top-tier VC firm plus deep operational experience scaling companies gives me an unusual perspective—I understand both what organizations need and how investors think about those same challenges.

Maybe you're a tech company trying to scale operationally while navigating the venture ecosystem. Maybe you're a larger organization looking to create a step change, adopt new technology, or solve complex problems. Maybe you're at a VC firm that could benefit from someone who's built these systems before. If any of that resonates, I'd probably be useful.

I'm also drawn to people thinking about the next phase of tools, systems, AI, and workflows. How individuals can build enterprise-level personal infrastructure. How AI changes what's possible for small teams. How the barriers between "user" and "builder" are disappearing.

Right now I'm building personal AI systems using Raspberry Pis, exploring how accessible technology can create new possibilities for individuals and organizations. Writing more. Trying to share what I learn. Creating signals for the kind of people I'd like to work with, learn from, or connect with.

The through-line remains the same: I fall asleep to How It's Made. Not out of boredom—out of peace. There's something deeply comforting about watching a process unfold. Car shows, engine rebuilds, CNC machines, YouTube rabbit holes—I get joy from seeing the right tool do the right job.

Whether it's venture operations, company scaling, or personal AI workflows—it's all systems problems. And that's what I love.

→ try → learn → build → reflect → repeat

If something here resonates—whether you're dealing with operational challenges, thinking about venture dynamics, or exploring what's possible with new tools—feel free to reach out. I'm always up for trading notes about what works, what doesn't, and what might be coming next.