It all started in 1995 when my grandpa bought a copy machine and I started making counterfeit bills with my classmates pictures where the dead presidents should be. I sold them for $2 a piece or 3 for $5 until the school shut it down and I switched to selling mix tapes before moving onto building geocities sites for local businesses.
Some kids grew up playing with dolls or legos; I grew up playing business.
My most profitable childhood venture was mowing the neighbors lawns - I later learned that this was partially because my grandfather was fertilizing their yards while they were at work. This was before Nest and Ring when the only home security was the stay-at-home parents in the neighborhood and they didn't snitch on each other.
I had an unconventional childhood which left me with a strong sense of purpose and confidence that I could conquer anything I chose, regardless of my experience or expertise in an area, as long as I work hard.
This led me to be the first-in-the-family to do a lot of things; starting college part time at 15, moving to Italy at 16 for a year abroad, launching and selling a company in my early 20s, moving from a 7,200 person town to NYC to work in VC-backed startups, publishing a book, selling another company, being on tv, speaking at conferences around the country, grad school, and more.
Nearly 3 decades after my first (childhood) entrepreneurial venture I'm still in the business of building businesses and love it.
Today I run A1M with one of my oldest marketing friends who I met on Twitter in the early 2010s. We split our time between advising high-growth SaaS startups and founders, working directly with clients to drive revenue through adoption of AI and robust, automation systems, and producing content to help make good marketing more accessible for all.
