CU Boulder
I went to CU to study molecular biology and ended up working on Linux, storage, networks, and security.
Wolf of
Williamsburg
We’ve all heard of The Wolf of Wall Street. Williamsburg is not Wall Street.
I spent most of my tech career living and building in this neighborhood. I watched it change, and changed right along with it, while staying curious enough to chase every crazy idea that came along. Success was always more about the journey and the stories than the big payday.
This page is the timeline of that. Every company, side project, business, property play, hustle, and ridiculous commercial idea I’ve tried. The ones that worked, the ones that failed, and the ones that never made it past a conversation.
Right now I’m the co-founder and CPTO of Goodword, an AI relationship management platform. I’m also continuing Wolf Works, my growth and AI advisory practice, and launching Wolf Works Labs, an incubator and accelerator for early founders who need someone to build their MVP and help them raise financing.
The endeavors.
The jobs, the companies, the side projects, and the things I keep coming back to. A lot of these were happening at the same time.
Get into the storiesAll the companies & side projects
- University of Colorado Boulder2002
- Praxis Technology2003
- SimAuthor2004
- Beatport2006
- Peek2009
- Reality Check Network2010
- Monk Networks2010
- Shutterstock2010
- Ops Dojo2011
- Reonomy2015
- Blue Sky Capital Partners2015
- Aaptiv2017
- Apply2020
- TRX2021
- Wahoo Fitness2022
- Wolf Works2024
- Goodword2024
- Notserious VenturesTBD
- New North CapitalTBD
Cycling
In 2023, I finally rode across the country, from Los Angeles to New York in 29 days.
Beatport
I kept the servers and store running while Beatport grew, with more consulting work waiting after hours.
Houses
I bought a battered Victorian in Poughkeepsie, then spent years working through what needed fixing.
Monk Networks
We were still figuring out the business, but we had a very orange logo.
Engineering
Before the product roles, there were server rooms, network cables, and a lot of work done by hand.
Shutterstock
I spent nearly five years building teams and infrastructure at Shutterstock, through the IPO and plenty of late-night alerts.
Running
Early runs, commute miles, and days on the trails have kept fitting around everything else.
Reonomy
I led technology and product at Reonomy, turning commercial real estate data into something people could actually use.
Building products
I like getting from a sketch and a conversation to something someone can actually try.
Aaptiv
I led technology, product, and eventually content at a fitness company where I could run or ride to work with the team.
Racing
I once had the fastest bike split, ran an extra 300 meters, and lost the duathlon by four seconds.
Apply
I co-founded a sticker company and handled the digital side, while the stickers still had to get made, packed, and delivered.
Marketing & ecommerce
At Apply, I built the digital store and bought the first three stickers myself to check that it worked.
TRX
I worked on subscriptions, the online store, and getting TRX Training Club out into the world.
Travel
A weekend in Estes Park once came down to finding a cabin that would let the puppy come too.
Wolf Works
Wolf Works is where my advisory work and the things I want to build have a home.
Data & AI
Building Goodword has meant figuring out what email, calendars, and AI can actually tell us about a relationship.
Wahoo Fitness
At Wahoo, I worked on subscriptions and ecommerce in the bikes-and-technology overlap I was already spending my time in.
Side projects
Monk Networks got as far as plans, spreadsheets, software in progress, and a logo I immediately sent to my family.
Goodword
I’m the co-founder and CPTO of Goodword, building a product around the people and context scattered across our working lives.
Teams
At Reonomy in 2015, I held off on hiring one engineering director and wrote a spec for two or three team leads instead.
Life & people
One Friday in Brooklyn, I went to hear a band in an office after everyone cleared their desks.
Find a thread.
- Building products
- Engineering
- Data & AI
- Marketing & ecommerce
- Teams
- Side projects
- Cycling
- Running
- Racing
- Travel
- Houses
- Life & people
23 stories mentioning Peek. Newest first.
- The Network Kept WorkingA recruiter from Reonomy, a product colleague from Peek, and friends from the Shutterstock years all resurfaced while I built the team around Aaptiv.
- Seven Months of StartupsIn a fast stretch, I moved from Peek to a hosting company, then joined Shutterstock and kept Ops Dojo going on the side.
- New BeginningsI asked an old Beatport executive to help build a managed-infrastructure company on the side.
- Tunnels Show Up AgainThe old Peek mobile-network integration came back to life after months of routing questions and another round of troubleshooting.
- Sure, Just Call MeI had left Peek for a new CTO job. The old team still needed help with the network, and I still answered.
- Passion Now. Safe Later.Facebook, Shutterstock, and Reality Check offered three different futures. I chose the fifteen-person hosting company.
- The Rows Didn't MatchA database import kept producing the wrong row count during a week that also included illness and a London data-center trip.
- The Data Center Needed a CarA consulting job in Somerset required a rental car because I could not find a practical transit route from Manhattan.
- Holy Shit, FacebookA Facebook recruiter found my profile while I was already holding down multiple startup jobs in New York.
- Only Young OnceI had a third job offer, a three-person startup that needed to scale, and a very loose theory about burnout.
- References ClearedAdaptiveBlue offered me a consulting systems job, my old Beatport references checked out, and I had no scanner.
- Let's Make It HappenThe music-store side project had a team, a rough market, and enough of my schedule cleared to begin after New Year's.
- Sorry for the Email LookupCraigslist replies had failed me before, so I found the founder's address and made sure my half-time Linux application reached a person.
- How Many Tracks?After Beatport I helped think through storage, catalog size, interfaces, and customers for a new high-quality music store idea.
- HollaA Peek SMS gateway test began with one word, then moved through two phone numbers and one less interesting message.
- Where All Trac Updates GoThe first TechOps list test bounced. Two minutes later, I tried again with a destination for every Peek infrastructure ticket.
- Baker What?Finishing my degree came down to an expensive New York classroom or a little-known online college built around six-week terms.
- Sent from My PeekA five-word Peek-device email asked whether the previous test had arrived and how work was going.
- Add One SpaceAfter leaving Yodle, I kept helping with its Zenoss monitoring and proposed one space to stop a loose process match.
- Off EC2 in Twelve MonthsPeek had more than fifty compute nodes in Amazon, and I was already pricing the first half cabinet for our own equipment.
- Official. Again.A few weeks after joining Yodle, I gave notice and took the Director of Technical Operations job at Peek.
- Almost to IndianaWe were driving our belongings east while Peek was already asking me to price a data center and route traffic back to Amazon.
- Nobody Answered at 3 A.M.A Peek email outage lasted four hours because the POP nodes failed overnight and nobody answered the monitoring call.