Jan 2021 – Mar 2022 · 1 yr 2 mos · Chicago, Illinois, United States

Jun 2020 – Present · 5 yrs 11 mos

Mar 2020 – Present · 6 yrs 2 mos · Chicago, Illinois, United States

• I write on topics related to entrepreneurship and in particular how to develop the mental resilience to succeed as an entrepreneur.

Sep 2018 – Jan 2021 · 2 yrs 4 mos · Greater Chicago Area

• I was responsible for building the global community of technology partners and systems integrators that form the ecosystem for Docusign's Agreement Cloud platform. Like any open platform, we become exponentially more valuable for our customers and shareholders with a robust network of partners to help extend our capabilities and adapt them to the specific needs of a particular client. My job was to develop that network of partners around the world.
• I was also the Impact leader for Chicago. In that capacity, I worked to coordinate the fundraising and volunteer efforts of the Docusign Global Impact organization and the value it brings to the Chicago community.

Mar 2017 – Sep 2018 · 1 yr 6 mos · Greater Chicago Area

• I joined SpringCM as the company raised $25M and was bringing in new executive leadership with the goal of accelerating growth and putting us in a position for an eventual liquidity event through an acquisition or IPO.
• My primary responsibilities included:
• Developing and aligning the company behind our go to market strategy
• Product marketing with a particular focus on analyst relations
• Developing our ecosystem partners including systems integrators, and technology partners including Salesforce.com and Docusign.
• The successful next step in the journey was announced in September of 2018 when we agreed to be acquired by Docusign for more than $220M in cash.

Nov 2015 – Dec 2016 · 1 yr 1 mo · Greater Chicago Area

• I ran two practice areas at Rise Interactive:
• 1) Account Strategy: Developing strategic plans for our clients to meet and exceed their various business goals through digital marketing.
• 2) Personalization: The proprietary Connex Personalization platform, a SAAS platform built on the foundation from SimpleRelevance that allowed our clients to easily use their data to allocate budget and target messaging at an individual level across channels.

Jan 2015 – Present · 11 yrs 4 mos

• SCALE YOUR EVEREST is the guidebook for those entrepreneurs that want to build up their mental resilience—a road map that I desperately needed in my darkest moments—and a way for those who love and support entrepreneurs to experience a glimpse of what they’re going through.
• This book helps entrepreneurs:
• Be aware of Delusions of Grandeur and recognize the existence of the Death Zone of Imposter Syndrome that follows as they scale their venture.
• Develop the ability to discern where they are in the entrepreneurial journey and learn to separate their identity from their business.
• Understand the fact that the Death Zone is universal and the defining part of the entrepreneur's journey.
• Identify the effects of the Death Zone. Entrepreneurs are often operating in a weakened state, coping with symptoms like addiction, sleeplessness, eating disorders, and broken relationships that impact their decision-making.
• Manage those effects by practicing self-forgiveness, understanding the art of stillness, and making an effort to be truly present in the journey.
• Help others - team members, peers, loved ones - build their own mental resilience as they share in the journey.

Oct 2013 – Present · 12 yrs 7 mos · Chicago

• I invest in a variety of early stage companies, typically in a Series Seed or Series A round. Most of these companies are B2B SAAS or companies with a specific social purpose headquartered in Chicago or the Midwest.
• I don't evaluate unsolicited business pitches from LinkedIn.
• In addition to the investments I make, I volunteer time to help entrepreneurs who are getting their organizations off the ground through the growth stage. I focus the time spent mentoring through the following organizations as a way of both giving back to those who have helped me and giving forward to the next generation.
• UNC Adams Apprentice Scholars
• Techstars
• 1871 Chicago
• Kellogg/Northwestern
• Mindframe Connect

Oct 2011 – Dec 2015 · 4 yrs 2 mos · Chicago, IL

• SimpleRelevance was founded to simplify the process of applying AI to digital marketing. We built the industry's first platform to combine demographic, psychographic and behavioral data into a single data architecture, allowing for personalization of content and marketing materials at an individual level.
• Through the process, we raised two rounds of venture capital and debt totaling approximately $5M and a roster of Fortune 500 clients including Allstate, Discover, Grainger and Gannett.
• We were in the 1% of companies accepted to Techstars Chicago in 2013 and along the way received a variety of awards including a Moxie Award for Best B2B Startup and a Chicago Innovation Award.
• In December 2015, we sold to Rise Interactive

Jun 2010 – Jul 2014 · 4 yrs 1 mo · Chicago, IL

• Late one night, three amigos decided that the thing Chicago needed was more pizza. Frustrated that we couldn't order a Papa Johns like we had in the good old days of college (and especially missing that famous garlic sauce,) we set to work righting that wrong.
• We ended up building a franchise group of 7 Papa Johns restaurants in Chicago which we built to a multi-million dollar organization employing over 200 people before selling to a larger franchise group in 2014.

Apr 2010 – Mar 2011 · 11 mos

• I manage a team of 6 senior sellers with a quota of more than $50M in 6 midwestern states. The team specializes in IT Infrastructure Optimization solutions primarily around virtualization, cloud computing, data center strategy, IT Service Managemnt (ITIL,) managed services and storage optimization.

Jan 2008 – Apr 2010 · 2 yrs 3 mos

• I lead a team of architects and subject matter experts, designing and selling complex, cross brand solutions. Clients are primarily (but not exclusively) Chicago area financial services clients.

May 2007 – Jan 2008 · 8 mos

• Responsible for sales of IBM's Strategy and Architecture services within the Central region of the United States.

Jul 2004 – May 2007 · 2 yrs 10 mos

• IT Architect – Global Technology Services
• 2005 to Present
• Architect in general IT, as well as SOA.
• Used engagement knowledge and teamed across IBM to be an instrumental part of creating a repeatable Grid Solution. Key activities included creating ICAP, forging relationships with business partners, training other team members, and stimulating demand at conferences.
• Worked as delivery practitioner and project manager and gained the trust of the client which allowed the team to grow opportunities at customer locations.
• Managed engagements with clients, as well as internal teams and ensured milestones and customer satisfaction goals were met.
• IT Specialist – Business Consulting Services
• 2004 – April 2005
• Re-engineered the deliverable creation process to save team 40 hours per month, as well as reduce errors in the ticket reporting by 75%.

Jan 2010 – Jan 2010 · 0 mo

• I enjoy climbing up and sometimes skiing down large, high altitude mountains. Among my successful summits to date:
• Mt Everest
• Mt Aconcagua
• Mt Rainier
• Mt Kilimanjairo
• Mountaineering has a special place in my soul for a variety of reasons. The time spent in nature and away from modern technology is a key one, as well as the unity of physical, mental and emotional resilience required to be successful. I have learned through successes and failures that it's not about whether I can climb the mountain, it's about how I learn to overcome my own weaknesses and obstacles to eventually succeed. As Sir Edmund Hillary said, "It's not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves."

Jan 2002 – Jan 2004 · 2 yrs · Chapel Hill, NC

• A dorm room fantasy in real life, I was one of three college friends who founded one of the pioneers that created the "Email Service Provider" and eventually "Marketing Automation" space. The company raised over $50M and sold for $186M.
• As a co-founder, I did what co-founders do. Built infrastructure, helped on the business side, wrote code, pretty much whatever the business needed.