From robotics to small business investing.
A real arc, not a founder myth. Robotics researcher, then cofounder of a nine-figure technology company, then investor in mission-critical small businesses, now running two firms that buy and back the operators acquiring them.
- Early career · NASA
Robotics at NASA Ames
Researcher in the Intelligent Robotics Group at NASA Ames. Hardware, firmware, and the realization that the hardest engineering problems are almost always organizational, not technical.
- First decade
Cofounded a nine-figure technology company
Operator and cofounder of an enterprise technology company that scaled into the nine-figure range. Learned how to pick the right CEO, build leverage around them, and compound real economics.
- Investing era
From operator to investor
Started writing checks into mission-critical small businesses I could actually help. Early investor in Neurotone AI alongside Rick Carlson — an AI auditory training company doing what the best ETA deals do: combine startup velocity with a derisked, well-known foundation.
- Now · Search Fund Ventures
Search Fund Ventures + SMB Investor Network
Cofounded a fund + syndicate buying profitable, essential SMBs in the lower middle market. We back operators with entrepreneurial DNA and help them transform core operations with modern tools. AI doesn't replace good operators — it gives them leverage.
- Now · ARCOS Labs
Head of R&D
Working on enterprise IP protection for the AI era. The systems that let companies actually own their data and models in a world where everything is being trained on, copied, and remixed.
- Now · Personal R&D
Metatransformer
A private project on voice-first human-computer interaction. Mic and camera in, agents in the middle, clean handoffs to a small operator team. The keyboard is the bottleneck — most of what I run, I'd rather run from a pool deck.