About
The operator nobody knows
I co-founded and sold a $260M company, and most people have never heard of me. I'm fine with that. Build something real and let the scoreboard speak for itself.
How I got here
My journey
USC
The beginning
I was running party planning businesses and selling t-shirts on campus. I already knew I'd never work for someone else.
Mobile media
Running marketing
I joined a mobile media company as Chief Marketing Officer. We became the #1 fastest growing media company in America.
Los Angeles
My first consumer brand
My wife Lara and I opened an indoor cycling studio in Los Angeles. It grew into one of the leading fitness chains in Southern California and got its own TV show.
2016
The hard lesson
A premium California cannabis brand. We raised venture capital and felt pressure to grow at all costs. We hired too fast and spent on marketing too early. It broke me, and I stepped down as CEO. That's where my view on venture money comes from.
The bench · 2018
Hiya starts
I read the label on my sons' vitamins one morning and found two teaspoons of sugar per serving. A few days later my co-founder called with the same idea. We met on a bench in LA, drank coffee and decided to build Hiya.
March 11, 2020
Launch day
We launched the same day the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic. We thought it was over before it started. We kept going.
December 2024
The exit
USANA bought a majority stake in Hiya at a $260M valuation. I was alone in a hotel room in Park City when it closed. The first thing I did was go for a very long run. Then I got back to work.
What I believe
Lessons I learned the hard way
Start with a problem you hate
The best businesses come from personal frustration. Market research can't replicate that.
Price is a quality signal
Cheap signals cheap. Price for the value you deliver and never apologize for it.
Packaging is marketing
A bottle on a kitchen counter is a free ad that runs all day.
Educate before you sell
Trust converts better than any ad, at any spend.
Own your distribution
Own the customer relationship. Everything else depends on it.
Avoid venture capital if you can
The constraint forces real unit economics from day one.
One source of truth
The fix isn't a CFO. It's one source of truth, updated weekly, with margin after marketing on the first line.
Sell from strength
Build something that doesn't need to be sold. Then sell it on your terms.
Purpose beats passion. Passion gets you started. Purpose gets you through the hell.
I live in South Florida with Lara and our two sons. I try to teach them four things: be brave, be different, be strong and be kind.
The Consumer Engine
One part of the business, every week
Free. No spam ever.