I spent sixteen years building a company that couldn't run without me.

It worked, mostly. ExpandShare grew, ended up serving more than 7,000 restaurant locations, and Restaurant365 bought it in 2024. But for most of those years the company ran on my back, and the ceiling I kept hitting wasn't the market or the product. It was me.

I work now with software founders somewhere past $5M — the point where every decision still routes through you, your leadership team is made of loyal early people who've been outgrown, and the obvious move looks like raising more money and hiring your way out. Usually that isn't the answer. The bottleneck is rarely capital.

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

Distance running teaches one thing above everything else: you're building something that has to keep improving when nobody is watching and nobody is there to push you. That turns out to be the whole job.

Why I do this

To leave every company, team, and person I work with stronger than I found them — and still strengthening after me.

The work behind the lessons

Graphic Intelligence Agency (1997–2005). I founded GIA to help the printing and photography industries survive the shift to digital, through training and consulting. GretagMacbeth acquired it in 2005.

GretagMacbeth, then X-Rite (2005–2007). I stayed on after the acquisition to run the Global Services unit, and earned my MBA at Michigan while I did it. X-Rite acquired GretagMacbeth in 2006. It was my first lesson in what happens to a company — and to a founder — after the deal closes.

ExpandShare (2008–2024). Workplace training software, built on the idea that training should be worth the time it takes. We specialized in restaurants and grew to more than 7,000 locations, mostly on our own cash. Restaurant365 acquired us in 2024. Sarah and I welcomed our son Finnegan during that stretch.

Restaurant365 (2024–2025). I stayed through the integration year as Head of Training Ecosystem — the part of an exit nobody prepares you for, and the reason I can tell a founder the truth about what happens after the wire hits.

Hatch Ventures (2025–present). Where I am now.

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 bikes, and spent time on things that had been waiting too long. Then I came back knowing what I wanted this chapter to be.

What I stand for

Be selective. I take work only where I like the people, believe I can help, and know they're up for the hard part. Three yeses, or I pass. Even when the account is big and the year is slow.

Elevate others. I share what I know, openly. Knowledge is a multiplier, not a secret. I succeed only when the people I influence surpass me. Even when it gives away work I could have charged for and time I don't have.

Stay a student. I say "I don't know" quickly, then go find out. The moment I stop being taught, I stop being useful. Even when it exposes something significant I don't know.

Be safe to talk to. What a client tells me stays with me. If I tell their story, I tell it with their name and their blessing — or I don't tell it. When I get something wrong, I say so and fix it before anyone has to ask. Even when it costs me the reference, the partner, or the client.

Outside of work

I've been a runner my whole life, and I raced cross country and track at Indiana in the early nineties. It shaped how I think about nearly everything.

"Running is a daily grind, full of mornings you'd rather stay in bed. Discipline is showing up when you don't feel like it."

Age has taken some of the running, so the competitive part goes into cycling now, with the occasional race. Mostly it's jogging, and hiking in Cuyahoga Valley with my family and our dog Penny.

I'm a proud father to Sydney, 23, and to Finnegan, 2. Twenty-one years apart — a true modern family. I’m very lucky.