Bootstrapped entrepreneur, technologist, and investor.

I’m a bootstrapped entrepreneur, technologist, and investor. The last 10 years, I’ve built a platform utilized by hundreds of millions of users over the last decade generating nearly $100M in revenue as my time as CEO. Today, I’m Chair of the Board of my second company as it continues along its growth journey, and I’ve set my eyes towards the fintech space.

 

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Me… in a nutshell

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Bootstrapped Entrepreneur That Just Doesn’t Quit

I started my first successful company at 17 with a $200 investment that I barely scrapped together. I saved up the profits from my first company, while continuing and completing my college education as a first generation college student. 

As a first generation American, my parents instilled values in me that have been key drivers of my success:

  • perseverance

  • determination

  • discipline

  • passion

  • ethics

At 19, I parlayed that success into my second company, Adscend Media. Within 18 months of founding, we hit an 8 figure revenue run rate. Again, bootstrapped and totally debt free. Of course, Adscend Media is nothing like it was in 2009. In 2021, Adscend is mostly a holding company compromised of rewarded platform assets that all work to grow together. During our existence, we’ve turned down countless offers for acquisition. We have a plan, and we’re sticking to it. 

As of early 2021, I am the Chair of the Board and continue to support Adscend's growth as a platform company.

Long Term Fundamental Investor

As I generated increasing profits from my companies, I’ve deployed a large amount of capital into assets across real estate, private investments, public investments, etc. since 2011.

Over the years, I’ve also clearly defined my investing style: Fundamental Investing. As a fundamental investor, I seek to understand a business from the inside out and ultimately the appropriate valuation that drives a business. Whether it’s a fast growing startup or a mature company, I try to identify margins of safety and invest for a long term hold. As a fundamental investor, I don’t limit myself to value or growth companies, I just care a lot about the valuation I invest at. I also keep an eye across the world, with a significant number of assets deployed into emerging markets.

I further drive my investing thesis by assessing the macroeconomic environment and investing accordingly. Given that economics is a great passion of mine, I genuinely enjoy this and it comes in handy. 

As an investor the last 10 years, I’ve had a chance to see my fair share of corrections and recession scares. As a founder, I’ve had my chance to see my fair share of nearly company killing events as well, and a chance to also recover from it stronger than before. So, I always keep my eye on the ball. 

My all time favorite investors:

Ray Dalio, Warren Buffet, Charlie Munger, Peter Lynch, Joel Greenblatt, Benjamin Graham, John Bogle

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Web 3.0 Enthusiast

As an original nonbeliever, I’m absolutely convinced the future of the internet will be driven by blockchain. Today, many innovators call this Web 3.0. I spent much of my free time in 2021 understanding the foundation of blockchain technology, existing frameworks that exist, what it’s really solving, and ultimately the incentives that drive the ecosystem. 

To say I’m convinced is an understatement. 

As my time as co-founder & CEO of a rewarded ad platform company, I had a chance to really understand incentives, virtual currencies, transactional security, how to build an entirely new marketplace many times over, how to lead with technologically driven competitive advantages, and ultimately what makes people tick. I also had a chance to do this at scale, overseeing many billions of transactions. This experience led to a greater interest in economics in 2016. After years of studying, I’ve been able to bridge my knowledge from Adscend with thousands of hours spent studying economics/finance and then, now, countless hours studying blockchain technology. 

I’m excited about Web 3.0, and I believe it will change the internet as we know it within a decade’s time. As I explore my next start up in this space, I’m also investing in young companies where I can provide value in addition to capital. 

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