I’ve been an entrepreneur for 20+ years in technology, finance, renewable energy, and real food. Today, I mostly invest through New Frontier Holdings, a firm I started in 2010.
I started my first company (Technacity) in college at the University of Illinois. I spent winter break printing business cards and emailing everyone I knew about website development (it wasn’t a lot of people). Since then I’ve co-founded or helped found a number of companies: in finance (Infinium Capital), energy (Energy.me, Amp Americas, Carbon Solutions Group), and real food (The Fresh Factory). As an investor, I’ve been active in real estate (R2) and venture capital (GreatPoint) having been a general partner and helped start funds in each.
Along the way, I’ve coded having worked on an early VR education game, put some of the first classes online, wrote trading software, wrote a media buying optimization engine, and recently learned Python—man, these kids have it easy. I’ve traded stocks, bonds, volatility, oil, natural gas, electricity, and carbon credits. They made fun of us when we showed up with handheld computers in the trading pits. I’ve been in business with PhDs and farmers (sometimes people who are both) and I’ve spent a lot of time on farms, trading floors, and in data centers. At times, I’ve done graphic design, the accounting, and made the coffee.
All of this I view as related—it’s always been about learning something new and trying to create value. A lot of it sits at the intersection of markets, technology, and big social problems like climate change. I’m particularly proud of the climate impact we’ve had at companies like Amp and Carbon Solutions Group and my work with Acumen Fund where I serve on the board.
I live and work in Chicago with my wife Kris but we try to spend at least a few months every other year in the Bay Area. We also own a small farm in Wisconsin that we’ve recently turned into an animal shelter through a partnership with Alive Rescue. Most weekends you can find us there with our misfit rescue dogs running in the fields (the dogs—less so us).
Recently, I’ve become a graduate student at large at the University of Chicago and am focusing mostly on artificial intelligence, philosophy, and cognitive science.
This site serves as a way to collect and organize my thoughts—it’s more for me than anybody but maybe someone will find it useful.