I attended the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) In Baltimore, MD and graduated from their graphic design program in 2008. I spent the next several years working as an interactive designer for Under Armour in the early days of their e-commerce business.
In 2013, I moved to Los Angeles to start a design studio with my friend, Alex Pines, which ultimately turned into Rubric a few years later (once we joined forces with another friend’s firm). The studio allowed us to work with every kind of business you could imagine, from non-profits, to tech startups, to household brand names like Patagonia. I quickly learned that I liked working with businesses in complex domains solving difficult problems.
In 2014, we were lucky enough to cross paths with Steve Lockshin, the founder of AdvicePeriod (and later Vanilla). We began working with AdvicePeriod in developing some of their client materials and learned a lot about the industry in the process. We would go on to work with AdvicePeriod in building a prototype of what would later become Vanilla.
I have been a part of several other projects over the years including MasonPay, a fintech startup created to help people pay off high-interest credit card debt in the most efficient way possible. Over the course of a year we were able to help thousands of people take a chunk out of a collective $30M+ in credit card debt.
I currently live in Richmond, VA with my wife and two children.
Personal
Music has always been a huge part of my life. I have played in a few bands and have been lucky enough to travel around the world doing so. I started playing guitar when I was 13 after seeing Metallica on TV playing Woodstock 99. I grew up skateboarding which also exposed me to punk music in my early teens which was very influential.
Health also plays a major role in my life. I believe that health is the foundation of everything that we do in life and that “success” cannot be defined without it. I’m a fan of functional medicine and the work of people like Chris Kresser and others that continue innovate in the space (my wife, Raquel, is a certified health coach through their program). I also follow the work of folks like Robb Wolf and Diana Rodgers that are doing exciting things in regenerative agriculture. With the help of Rubric, I volunteered to their latest project Sacred Cow.
Fitness has been an essential part of my life since I was in my teens. I have been lifting weights in various capacities since I was in high school. Over the years I have done just about everything and tried several different styles from powerlifting, bodybuilding, calisthenics, to CrossFit, etc. in addition to running. Most people also notice that I rarely sit in chairs and am an evangelist of Kelly Starrett’s work, his book Becoming A Supple Leopard being a guiding light. I am a huge fan of home gyms and have been exclusively in my garage gym since 2017. It is probably one of my favorite things to talk about, FYI.