I’m a serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist.

I’m a co-founder of Akamai Technologies; the founder and CEO of the venture capital firm JUMP Investors which has invested in more than 90 early-to-late-stage technology companies including Google, Seagate, and Lyft; the founder and CEO of Sandee, the largest, most comprehensive, and most trusted website for beaches around the world – more than 100,000 beaches in 212 countries; the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Thrive Properties, a real estate investment firm; the owner and CEO of CollarCard, a promotional products company; and the host of the popular Top 10 Business and Entrepreneur podcast In Search of Excellence.

For the past 25 years, I’ve been a trusted advisor to over 50 companies, a public speaker at leading universities, a dedicated mentor, and a professional coach to students, young professionals, mid-career professionals, senior executives, founders, CEOs, and professional athletes in the NFL, NBA, and NHL.  

Things I advise on:
✔️Pursuing the idea that’s been in your head for years
✔️ Starting a company
✔️ Getting your first customers
✔️Growing your business
✔️Creating meaningful relationships
✔️Meeting anybody at any level in any industry
✔️Getting any job even if companies aren’t hiring
✔️Creating the best pitch deck
✔️Raising money
✔️Fixing your startup bottlenecks
✔️Being the most prepared person in the room
✔️Learning the intangibles (which are often more important than the tangibles)
✔️ Recruiting experienced employees, advisors, and board members
✔️Quitting your job
✔️Taking calculating risks
✔️Chasing and pursuing your dreams
✔️Investing
✔️& more

I have a crazy story about overcoming significant obstacles, overcoming failure, staying the course, and pursuing my dreams until I achieved them.

I moved to Los Angeles when I was 24 years old after graduating law school with $3,000 in the bank, didn’t know anybody there, lost my job five in five and a half weeks, found a job that required a minimum 3-hour commute 6 days a week, was told I had to leave six months later, and found my third job in eight months.

At the time I was miserable – I hated practicing law, badly needed and wanted a change, and finally convinced myself it was time to pursue my lifelong dream of starting my own company and earning a significant amount of money.

I wrote 300 cold letters to CEOs after being told nobody would meet with me, landed 80 meetings, was hired as the Assistant to the Chairman at a Fortune 500 company, stayed for three years, saved up enough money to live without a salary, started a company in Boston with three people at MIT that grew in value to $14 billion in less than two years, and started my own VC firm among many other companies.

My motto Anything Is Possible.