Ventures
Actionworks: Education company that builds entrepreneurship and innovation programs for the U.S. Department of State, Intel, the University of Texas, and dozens more.
Minimum Viable Video: Cohort-based course teaching how to make videos to get customers, connections, and capital.
Coaching: I help founders, engineers, and tech workers become more successful around video and business.
(Previously) 3 Day Startup: 10-year CEO journey scaling an entrepreneurship bootcamp to 50 countries.
Personal
- My fiancé and I (and her ridiculous cats) split our time between Austin, TX and Savannah, GA
- Interests: LLMs, Formula 1, Mexican food, Alvvays, Nolan films, cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman’s theory of reality, Longhorn football
- I’m 4 years deep into writing a from-the-trenches newsletter of stories and tips on video, entrepreneurship, and AI
- I’ve had a hell of a lot easier time building companies than figuring out vulnerability; that came with Personal Boards of Directors
I manage a mysterious health condition—maybe you’ll be the one to diagnose it?RESOLVED!
Contact
DM me on Twitter or email me at my name at actionworks dot co (not dot com).
Blog
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How to shoot your shot with an important person
It’s 2009 at a party during the SXSW tech conference in Austin. Tim Ferriss, author and angel investor riding high off of the success of the Four Hour Work Week, is in conversation with a conference attendee in the middle of the venue. I am a bright-eyed first-time founder with puppy dog energy, desperate for capital and connections. Landing Tim as an investor would give my startup both. Despite my nerves, I know I should approach him.
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The first thing your customers see
I spent a week in Boston working with founders at Intel’s Ignite program, a corporate accelerator that helps deep tech startups find product/market fit and sell to enterprise. My role was to help these founders attract more customers and investors through video. I wrote this so people not in Intel’s program could benefit from what we covered.
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How I Go From Idea to Filming
A write up of my low effort, no scriptwriting, no memorization workflow for how I generate ideas and get them to where I’m ready to talk about them on camera.
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I Got Taken for a Ride in India
And it was totally worth it. I knew my trip to India was going to get weird when I got a stomach bug before I landed at Indira Gandhi International Airport. Frankly, it was a win to cross that distance without causing an international incident in the airplane lavatory.
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The Upside of Getting Screwed Over
I’m an advisor to a company that makes beef jerky. The founders are Bolivian and their product has done well down there…but the market is small. They relocated the business to Texas and I’ve been helping them get the business in motion. One of the founders shared a story that I can’t stop thinking about…
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Where Nobody Wants You to Become a Millionaire
A “one that got away” shady business deal in Russia…Nine years ago, a colleague-of-a-colleague had a connection to someone who worked under Putin. Putin wanted to beef up Russia’s economic presence in the East as a hedge against the West’s global business dominance. Putin had selected Vladivostok—a port city abutting China and the Pacific—as the next big thing for Russian entrepreneurship.