If there's a single thread through all of it, it's discipline — a habit I learned long before business, as a distance runner.

The work behind the lessons:

• Graphic Intelligence Agency (1997–2005) — I founded GIA to help the printing and photography industries survive their biggest disruption in a century: the shift to digital. We guided an entire industry through that transition with training and consulting. In 2005, GIA was acquired by GretagMacbeth, a global color-measurement company based in Zurich.

• GretagMacbeth Global Services (2005–2008) — I stayed on to run their Global Services unit — my first experience leading inside a large, established organization rather than building my own. I earned my MBA from the University of Michigan along the way. In 2006, GretagMacbeth was acquired by X-Rite.

• Hatch Ventures & ExpandShare (2008–2024) — In 2008 I founded Hatch Ventures and launched ExpandShare, on a simple idea: workplace training could actually be something people wanted to use. Over time we focused entirely on the restaurant industry, building training and operations software that grew to serve more than 7,000 restaurant locations. In 2024, ExpandShare was acquired by Restaurant365, the industry's leading restaurant management platform — where I stayed on through the transition. In the middle of it all, my amazing wife Sarah and I welcomed our son, Finnegan. Nothing puts a company transition in perspective quite like a newborn.

Between chapters:

When the ExpandShare transition wrapped, I did something I'd never done in my career: I took a real break. I traveled, raced my bike, and spent time on what matters most — before turning to the work I care about now.

Outside of work:

I've been a runner most of my life — I ran cross country and track at Indiana University in the early 90's, and it shaped me more than any class or job could have. Running is a daily grind, full of mornings you'd rather stay in bed. But the sport is unforgiving: the miles don't care how you feel. That lesson — discipline is showing up when you don't feel like it — built every company I've been part of, one cold Indiana morning run at a time.

My body doesn't let me run like that anymore, but the drive to compete never went anywhere — these days it goes into the bike, where I still jump into a few "old man" races each year. My running has mellowed into jogging, and hiking has become my favorite way to unplug, usually with my family and our dog, Penny, somewhere on a trail in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

I'm the proud father of two: my daughter Sydney, who's 23, and my son Finnegan, who's just getting started. Twenty-one years apart — I like to say we have a truly modern family.