(Initially posted on my Facebook page). I really feel like I've (and my fellow Millennials) have had the privilege of growing up during the most important generation in culture. Maybe not in American history (yet) or anything like that, but in terms of shaping culture. That's not a positive or negative statement, per se, just something I feel. Consider the facts of my lifetime (since 1983): HIV/AIDs, the personal computer, Michael Jackson's Thriller (and death), Princess Diana, Michael Jordan, Tom Cruise and Angelina Jolie and modern Hollywood, steroids in baseball, the Internet and social networking, Rodney King and the LA... Continue reading

Just finished speaking to three 5th grade classes here in Aurora, CO and I am exhausted! Everytime I speak at public schools - and I've done so around 100 times over the last six years - my respect and admiration for teachers goes up another notch. They wake up early, take on other people's problems, teach curriculum that they have a declining say in, and are asked to do all this with very little pay. Meanwhile, I stroll in for a few hours and I'm held up as some model citizen / role model / mentor because I've done well... Continue reading

(first posted on Facebook) So I read about half of Sheryl Sandberg's book "Lean In" on my flight to Denver and my initial observations/thoughts are as follows: (not that I'm anything of an expert) 1) I am so thankful to have had wonderful female bosses throughout my career from Hannah Calvert Peters who I interned for at Public Strategies to Heather J. Brunner who I most recently worked for at Bazaarvoice and I can't even imagine how unique their careers have been compared to their male counterparts, 2) I've honestly found that women can relate to what it's like to... Continue reading

Maybe Fred Wilson's blog? AVC.com Continue reading

My brother Kahron is probably more capable of keeping me grounded than anyone on the planet. Whenever I start to feel myself too much, I know I can count on him to bring me down a notch. Not because he’s the most accomplished person in the world and makes me feel insignificant as some big brothers are prone to do (although he’s surely made more money, heard more music, bought more sneakers and traveled to more countries than me), but because a) he’s my big brother (literally and physically, he’s 6’3”, 250lbs), b) he’s lived in Kuwait for much of... Continue reading

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There’s a difference between thinking you have all the answers and wanting to find the answers. I can sometimes come across as someone with all the answers, but those who know me know that I’m more focused on lifelong learning than anything else. I’ve spent the first 30 years of my life feeling as if it’s my duty to find my own answers in life. Specifically, what does God want me to contribute. I lived in different places, worked different jobs, started different businesses, and served different purposes for different organizations over the years. What I’ve been trying to figure... Continue reading

This is going to sound really funny, but I’m pretty sure that I am one of the few people you’ll ever know to admit dreaming about being 30 years old as a kid. Probably as far back as third grade. I’m not sure if I had an accurate idea of what being 30 meant back then, but I knew that 30 seemed to be a critical time in the lives for the people I’ve grown to admire and learn about through books and personal experiences. MLK published “The Measure of a Man” at 30. In 1985, Steve Jobs was removed... Continue reading

I consider myself a very blessed and lucky man in part because I never learned how to follow; at least not in the traditional sense. One of the most annoying things about working within and around the fashion industry is how much follower’s mindset there is. So many of my conversations with bloggers, brands, designers, and marketers for fashion-related companies begin and end with questions about who else is doing something. I have trained myself to hide my disdain with these types of questions in person and over the phone, but it’s not easy. If technology and social media have... Continue reading

If you do it for money, you're a banker. If you do it for risk and opportunity, you're an investor. If you do it to help others, you're an advisor. If you do it to get ahead or learn from people with true responsibility, you're an employee. If you do it for respect, you're a hustler. If you do it to change the world, you're an entrepreneur and you're going to need a banker or some investors, a few advisors, lots of employees, a whole lot of hustle and, most likely, a psychologist. Continue reading

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(The views expressed here are my own.) “Today is not the day for a debate over gun control." You’ve probably read that on your Facebook or Twitter feed in the last 24 hours. The source likely a politically conservative friend or someone from TV you follow or both as were my case. You know what I have to say for the people saying that today isn’t the day for a debate or talk about gun control? Then stay quiet and let the grownups do the talking. Yeah, I said it. Grownups. I don’t mean grown ups in the sense of... Continue reading

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If there’s one thing I’d say is true for my 2012 it’s that I haven’t blogged as much as I’d have liked to. The main culprit? My entrepreneurial endeavors have taken up my time. Now that is not to say I’m the busiest man alive or anything close to, but simply to state why I haven’t had enough mental space to have the type of stream of consciousness blogging I prefer after long periods of internal dialogue and introspection. Regardless, I figured there’s no better way to improve my blogging plight than to start blogging about the very thing that... Continue reading

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I haven’t had so much time to write blogs lately because I’ve had a couple of major life events happen and happening. One is that I got married, which I wrote about here. The other is that I’ve been raising startup funds for AvecMode, the most significant professional undertaking I’ve ever taken. Not to take anything away from how special getting married has been, but the two events have been eerily similar for three reasons: 1. The dating process. Finding investors has been a very interesting process. People ask me how I started finding investors, and it’s actually very similar... Continue reading

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Best rap album of the year. Duh. Continue reading

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/UYrQwMx5AS8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Continue reading

I grew up with my single mom and two older brothers. My mom later re-married, but she’s single again, and neither of my brothers has married. My grandmother and grandfather didn’t marry, nor did my lone uncle. That said, marriage isn’t a tradition in my family. Neither was college. So growing up, I had a choice of sorts: focus on girls or focus on my education. I chose the latter, and became the first in my immediate family to graduate from college when I walked across the stage in the Frank Erwin Center in 2005. Since then, I’ve stacked up... Continue reading