Early on, I was influenced by my father’s pursuit for a career that made meaningful impact on the world. He was a pilot for the US Air Force. I didn’t have the eyesight to pursue an aviation career, so I decided to tackle poverty instead. And very specifically, I wanted to do this as a diplomat.
I went off to BYU, studied economics and political science, and was thrilled when offered a position with the US State Department’s Near-Eastern
Affairs desk. I joined the team only a few days after President George W. Bush announced the “surge” in Iraq, and the team I joined would be focused on promoting economic activity in the country.
State Department work wasn’t exactly my cup of tea, throwing all of my life plans into disarray. I realized the non-profit world was where I should have been all along and moved to South Africa to work for Habitat for Humanity.
And again, I have a less-than-ideal experience. I coped with regular soft-serve ice cream cones from McDonald’s with my wife. It was in that McDonald’s and among students from the University of Pretoria that I realized that if I was ever going to have the impact I wanted to have, I’d need to learn how business worked. Shortly thereafter, I enrolled at Harvard Business School where I earned my MBA, and, while trying to decide if I was about to embark on a major career pivot or not, I was invited to join the staff of Mayor Kevin Johnson in my home region of Sacramento.
Since that time, I’ve been working with startups. I help founders get their ideas off the ground and tackle major world challenges. I love investing in founders with awe-inspiring tenacity. I love their vision and unique insights into improving everything.
Now, as an investor and teacher at UC Davis where I serve as the director of the Student Startup Center overseeing operations of makerspace, events and plasma accelerator programs for all undergraduates on campus, I’m finally having the impact I always aspired to have. And I get to do it from home, reaching out to the world, with some of the most amazing people you can imagine.