I'm extremely grateful for the wonderful career I've had so far. As I reflect I recognize how many aspects around building the plumbing that lets people spend more time watching, sharing, and creating, and (hopefully) less time frustrated by the technology.
I've straddled about as much time as a founder as I have an employee. After graduating from Carnegie Mellon I spent a few years running Focus Consulting, building websites for companies in the earliest days of the consumer Internet. Its also when my tinkering began, Palmtastik was an early dabbling into side projects, the first of several with cofounder Adam Burg.
In 1998 I moved to San Francisco, and cofounded Mediabolic, an operating system for the connected home. We built the first ever Internet set top box, the HP Digital Media Receiver and won the Best In Show award at CES 2004.
Mediabolic was acquired by Rovi, and I was recruited to join Sling Media, where I was the first VP of Product Management and helped take the Slingbox from a concept to a real shipped product. Sling was one of the greatest teams I've ever had the chance to be a part of. DISH acquired Sling for close to $400M in 2007.
Post-Sling I started Stage Two (named after the South Park Underpants Gnomes bit), where I built out a product/social media/GTM consultancy and worked with a fantastic roster of clients. Adam joined me, and we also began spinning out new projects. Legacy Locker, an early online will (sold to PasswordBox / Intel in 2013). Nudgemail, an email based reminder tool (still alive today!). And we learned the sad lesson of CultureGraph.
From Stage Two, Adam and I moved on to "re-found" Dijit, where we launched NextGuide, the first hyperpersonalized smart TV guide app. We acquired social TV startup Miso, and then a year later were acquired by Viggle.
My journey then took me to CBS Interactive, where I ran product, social, and audience engagement across CNET and Roadshow. My time at CBSi was another highlight, in particular the team I had the privilege to manage for several years.
In 2017 I moved to the New York City area, and took on a fractional Chief Product Officer role at Joyn, Germany's answer to Hulu. I was brought on to help launch their streaming service, build out a product team, and find a full-time CPO. We accomplished all the above goals, and launched to over 5% of the German market in the first 90 days.
Back in NY I was presented an amazing opportunity, to lead product for WarnerMedia's Innovation Lab. We had a small team whose job was to sketch out prototype products of what might be next for venerable brands such as HBO, CNN, TNT, and others. I led a dozen unique product initiatives in my time there, and left the company in late 2021. It was time to get back up to bat.
I started Aug X Labs a few months later with JT White, an industry colleague (who became one of my closest friends during the pandemic, we hosted the LofiTop5 podcast). We built Augie Studio, an AI assisted video production platform. Our four year run included raising over $5M from venture capitalists, accumulating over 200K users, and even building & selling a side project, Moviedle, along the way. In December 2025, Aug X Labs was acquired by JWX, Inc, makers of JW Player. Today I lead efforts for JWX Studio as SVP AI & Innovation.
Outside of work, I write and host Founder@50, a podcast and newsletter about the unique journeys we all spend building careers and lives. I also advise a small number of early stage founders when I think I can be genuinely useful, and I speak at events when the topic and audience are a good fit.
And I am still tinkering.
For the record: father of three, a bachelor's degree from Carnegie Mellon, board/card/social game nerd, massive movie fan, fitness and hiking enthusiast, and, as always, Go Habs Go!