Sideline bench. Lab bench. Board table.

Same person at all three — connecting the athlete to the science, the science to the capital, and the capital back to the people who make it all move.

My path is kind of crazy, honestly. Started as a scientist, moved through biomedical research, fell in love with the entrepreneurial journey of helping founders go from zero to one — and just kept pulling on threads across industries that don’t normally talk to each other.

Early on it was government and nonprofit work — where there’s never enough budget to build anything new. You learn fast how to borrow ideas, remix what’s already working somewhere else, and build relationships because that’s literally the only currency you’ve got. That stuck with me more than anything.

From there I landed in biomedical research at UW School of Medicine & Public Health — running clinical trials, managing research programs, navigating all the FDA regulatory stuff. Fascinating science, but the thing that drove me nuts was how siloed everything was. Brilliant people building tools that could change entire industries, and nobody outside their lab even knew the work existed.

At Isomark, I was the primary researcher for athletic metabolism, performance optimization, and recovery studies with University of Wisconsin football and rowing teams. That was the moment it clicked — I was literally standing at the intersection of clinical science and competitive athletics, watching breath-based diagnostics designed for ICU patients reveal insights about how athletes metabolize and recover. Same technology. Completely different application. That’s the pattern I’ve been chasing ever since.

After Isomark I moved to Gregor Diagnostics as Director of Operations — cancer diagnostics, $20M+ regulatory strategies, the whole thing. Then Salmon Health, building a single source of truth for athlete supplement safety. I truly just loved solving problems and connecting people, so going to the startup world felt natural.

Then I wanted to see the flip side — what does deal flow look like from the investor’s chair? Joined Alumni Ventures as a Fellow across the Bascom, Towerview, and Sports funds. Watched hundreds of founders pitch, and kept seeing the same thing — people solving problems that had already been cracked in a completely different industry. Nobody was looking sideways. That’s kind of my whole thing. I look sideways.

Today I work directly with professional athletes, Olympians, NFL players, and collegiate competitors — not just as clients, but as partners and co-investors. Through Athletepreneur, I help athletes understand that the performance tech, recovery science, and IP they generate isn’t just their livelihood — it’s investable. The brands and ecosystems athletes build? That’s equity. And most of them don’t realize it until someone shows them the map.

But here’s what most people get wrong about NIL and athlete deals: it’s not just about social media posts and content. I connect athletes to Return on Influence opportunities — board seats, advisory roles, ambassador engagements, business operations exposure, and real equity positions. The kind of deals that teach an athlete how a company actually works, not just how to hold a product for a photo. The forward-facing stuff matters, but the real value is when an athlete sits in a boardroom and learns what it means to advise, govern, and build alongside a company. That’s what changes careers after the game ends.

I’ve built 150+ institutional partnerships by being the person who connects dots others don’t see. I’ve mentored numerous founders from 0→1 by helping them realize they don’t need to start from zero — they just haven’t found the right thing to adapt yet.

As a competitive volleyball player and longtime Wisconsin club volleyball coach, I bring athlete empathy to every room I walk into. As a scientist, rigor. As an operator — I get shit done. That about covers it.

Here’s the real talk though: I genuinely love this. Not in an “I’m passionate about synergy” corporate bullshit kinda way. In a “I will absolutely corner you at a conference and ask about your bottlenecks” way.

Virgo. Type A. The person who organizes the shared drive before anyone asks and builds the tracking system because chaos physically pains me. But that organizational obsession isn’t about control — it’s about creating space for the real work: people and problems.

When someone tells me what’s breaking in their business, I don’t hear complaints. I hear puzzle pieces. “Oh, you’re stuck on X? I talked to someone last month who solved that for a completely different reason. Let me connect you.” It happens so fast it feels like cheating — but it’s really just the product of a thousand conversations with people I was genuinely curious about.

Realistically, my superpower is my rolodex. I’ve built some fantastic relationships with people across multiple industries and just love operating in the space of solving problems, connecting dots, and using tech to help bring visions to life.

At 33 Strategies, the AI transformation firm I co-founded with Beemo, I took everything I’d learned about pulling solutions across industries and applied it to the thing every company is trying to figure out right now. We don’t do AI hype. We build products and systems designed to extend what one brilliant person can accomplish — exponentially. My role? Business development, client success, go-to-market, and the cross-industry pattern recognition that makes the whole thing work. My official title is Czar of GSD. It’s accurate.

I don’t withhold connections until you pay me. You’ll get an intro before you get an invoice. That’s not a strategy. That’s just how I’m wired.