I build playful things with purpose.

Built before

• 2023Internet Game 2.0WhatA one-of-a-kind multiplayer platform: party games you play in the browser with 2 friends or hundreds of people. It grew into a product for remote teams.WhyWe set out to build something purely fun, then figured out that games are an amazing way to connect with your coworkers. The inside jokes and silliness make everything else at work easier.LessonSomething being great doesn't mean there's a market for it. Ours was head and shoulders above everything else in the space, but people didn't actually want it. Figure out what your customers need first.Still live
• 2022Internet Game 1.0WhatAn online game show in the spirit of Squid Game: five games over five days, eliminations after every round, and millions of dollars in prizes. We ran it three times, culminating in a Halloween show with Lionsgate's Saw franchise.WhyZero Space taught me to go digital. This was the same immersive experience thesis, but online: global, live, and playable from your couch.LessonYou have to build something repeatable. Every show had to be rebuilt from scratch, and that doesn't scale. I love making surprises for people at scale, but the way to do that is a real product, not a crazy one-off event.Evolved into the platform
• 2020ZeroSpaceWhatA 25,000 sqft immersive experience in New York City that combined bleeding-edge technological art with immersive theatre.WhyA more visceral Futurism. From Instagram it looked like a selfie museum, but that was the Trojan horse for a deep, immersive experience designed to open your mind about the world. Way more powerful than any blog post.LessonBuilding IRL is brutal: rent, insurance, inspections, and every change costs a fortune. Digital lets you iterate instantly for the whole world. Only go physical when you're a master of your craft or have time and money to burn.Closed during COVID
• 2017Gravity BlanketWhatThe weighted blanket for sleep, stress and anxiety. Launched as an internal project at Futurism and raised $4.7M on Kickstarter, the 20th largest crowdfunding project of all time.WhyFuturism needed to make money, and we found a product that actually mattered. Weighted blankets were already helping people with autism and PTSD sleep, and everyone deals with stress and anxiety. So we built the mainstream version.LessonBuilding something that satisfies a core human need is profoundly more powerful than selling people something they just want.Acquired 2021
• 2015FuturismWhatOne of the world's largest online science publications, covering the technologies shaping humanity's future.WhyIn 2015, most people feared the future. The thesis: if you show someone what's coming (AI, self-driving cars, all of it), they stop being afraid, adapt sooner, and don't get left behind.LessonMedia is incredibly powerful, but I was done building media companies. I'd rather create experiences than write about them.Acquired 2019
• 2013RaveNectarWhatA visionary art clothing company that gave artists 20% of every sale. Ran two successful Kickstarters in 2013 and 2016.WhyNo grand thesis, this was my first experiment in running a real company. I wore a mask my girlfriend made to raves, it got a ton of attention, so I built a business around visionary art.LessonNever build a physical product company again. The waste and friction of IRL products versus digital is enormous. Also, I really hate the fashion industry.Shut down
• 2009HighExistenceWhatA blog and community centered around thinking differently about life: meditation, psychedelics, lifestyle design, productivity, consciousness and happiness.WhyTo get more people to question everything. Try psychedelics, quit your soul-crushing job, chase your passions, think differently about life.LessonThe people who most needed these ideas were never going to read a blog about psychedelics. Reaching them would take something way more mainstream and palatable.Online but inactive