Four startups founded and exited. Three billion-dollar outcomes advised. An incubator built, thousands of students taught, and a lot of scar tissue earned the ordinary way — by getting some of it wrong first.
I've co-founded and scaled four startups to successful exits, and advised three companies to billion-dollar outcomes — an IPO, a merger, and a private-equity deal. Along the way I launched a startup incubator at San José State University and taught thousands of business students as an adjunct professor.
My whole career sits at the intersection of innovation, strategy, and execution. That's an easy sentence to write and a hard one to live: most people are good at one of the three and quietly hope the other two sort themselves out. They don't. The interesting work is always in the seams between them — where a good idea meets a real market and something has to give.
I still build. I founded Radi8, an AI marketing platform, and Foclarity, a go-to-market tool for CEOs, because I'd rather use the things I recommend than just recommend them. And I wrote What Holds Up the Roof to put twenty-five years of that thinking into one place a founder can actually finish.
These days I spend most of my time with growth-stage founders — in the room, at a whiteboard, working on the decisions that will still matter in two years.
The best evidence that someone can help you build something is that they're still building things themselves.
An AI marketing platform I founded and use every day — the engine behind the execution in my Fractional CMO work.
See how I use it →A go-to-market tool for CEOs, built out of the same frustration that started most of my companies: the advice existed, the system didn't.
A community and podcast for growth-stage founders — peer groups, workshops, and candid conversation about what actually works.
Explore it →The four principles of entrepreneurship, told as a business fable — a founder learning what keeps a business standing when the plan falls apart.
Read about the book →I launched a startup incubator at San José State University, helping student founders get from idea to something real.
Years as an adjunct professor teaching business students — which is where I learned to explain strategy without hiding behind the jargon.
And these days a visible body of work beats a resume — it's evidence, not claims. So I help founders build both: the business, and the reputation that makes people trust them before the first conversation.
Worth knowing before you book a call, so you can decide whether this is the kind of help you want.
I'll tell you what I actually think, early, including when the answer is "this isn't the problem you should be solving." You can do whatever you like with it — but you won't have to guess where I stand.
I've seen enough beautiful strategy die in a drawer. Everything we decide has to survive contact with a real buyer and a real calendar, or it isn't a strategy — it's a slide.
I like the room, the whiteboard, and the argument. I'd rather be a colleague you call when something breaks than a consultant who shows up for the readout.
Book thirty minutes and ask me anything about your business. No pitch, no BS — and you'll get a feel for whether we'd work well together.
Book 30 minutes with me