From building the web’s first websites to launching today’s creator empires, here’s how I learned to create the platforms where digital culture gets made.

Today: Building Tomorrow’s Media Platforms

I’m currently part of the executive team at Wevr, where we’re building WVS—a cloud platform that streamlines game engine development with Git-based workflows. We’re creating a NoOps solution that lets game development teams focus on building great experiences instead of managing infrastructure. At Wevr, we’ve also created immersive Harry Potter experiences that transport fans directly into the wizarding world, proving that the future of media is participatory, not passive.

I’m also co-founder of the AI community CO/AI, where we’re exploring how artificial intelligence reshapes creative work and community building. Today, I invest in and advise early-stage founders building SaaS products in the creator economy.

The Atlassian Era: Scaling Global Teams

In 2021, I served as interim Chief Product Officer at Tempo, the leading SaaS company in the Atlassian ecosystem with $45M ARR. I led initiatives in AI/ML optimization, universal plugin embedding, internationalization, and transformed time tracking into enterprise capacity planning. The biggest challenge was orchestrating global product and development teams across multiple time zones during the COVID remote work transition—a masterclass in distributed team leadership.

The Kutcher Years: Social Strategy Mastery

Before that, I was Head of Digital for Ashton Kutcher at Katalyst, overseeing product development, social strategy, partnerships, and early-stage investments. Working with Ashton was transformative—his visionary approach to technology and culture shaped how I think about product strategy and market timing. He taught me how drama becomes the engine of engagement, and how authentic personalities cut through media noise.

The Creator Economy Foundation: Arming the Rebels

I founded Buzzmedia as CEO/CPO when the idea of “influencers” didn’t even exist. This was 2004—before YouTube monetization, before Instagram, before anyone understood that passionate fans could become media empires. While traditional media gatekeepers controlled distribution, I saw a different future: what if the most passionate voices became the media?

Backed by Redpoint Ventures, NEA, and SutterHill, we built the arsenal. We launched over 30 interconnected communities that became the Internet’s top-100 music and celebrity destinations. But we weren’t just building websites—we were creating launchpads for cultural movements.

The strategy was radical for its time: instead of hiring journalists, we armed the rebels. We gave platforms to sixteen-year-old bloggers obsessed with emo bands, celebrity superfans tracking every paparazzi photo, and music fanatics who could spot the next breakthrough before Rolling Stone even knew it existed. We didn’t cover culture; we empowered the people creating it.

The results were explosive. We discovered Kim Kardashian not through Hollywood connections, but through our community’s obsession with her photos. We didn’t just report on Fall Out Boy, Paramore, and Adele—we gave their most passionate fans the platforms to build those careers. Stereogum, PureVolume, JustJared, AbsolutePunk, and Celebuzz became the destinations where digital culture was made.

By our peak, we reached 110 million monthly users and dominated entertainment media with top-10 ComScore rankings. But the real victory was cultural: we proved that authentic voices from the edges of society could reshape mainstream media. We were the early architects of creator economies, growth hacking, and community-driven content strategies that now define how culture spreads.

While legacy media clung to their gatekeeping model, we built the infrastructure for a new world—one where the rebels had the best weapons.

Early Unicorn - The Enterprise Champions

At IronPort Systems, I helped build the C-series product line for global enterprise markets. The experience was like being on a championship team—the kind of high-performance culture that shapes how you approach product development and go-to-market strategy forever. Here I learned that great products require great teams, and great teams require shared obsession with excellence.

The Pivot Masters: Survival and Big Data

Earlier, I co-founded Metapa (later Greenplum) with Scott Yara, backed by Ed Sim of BoldStart Ventures. When the dot-com bubble burst, we pivoted from content distribution to big data—a survival story of relentless focus on product-market fit. Scott remains a close collaborator as an investor and board member at Wevr. This experience taught me that both great platforms and founders adapt or die.

The Beginning: Naming the Revolution

My earliest partner was Craig Newmark, with whom I co-founded DigitalThreads in San Francisco, building some of the web’s first websites. One project was Craigslist—Craig credits me with naming it and the initial setup. Remarkably, some of that original 90s markup is still running today.

This was where I learned the fundamental truth: simple software that empowers communities can reshape entire industries. We weren’t just building websites—we were creating platforms where ordinary people could bypass traditional gatekeepers and connect directly with their audiences.

Recognition and Collaboration

Throughout this journey, I’ve developed product strategies for Microsoft, Paul Allen, GE, Virgin, Absolut Vodka, Samsung, Universal, and Warner Bros., while collaborating with creators like Reggie Watts, Kevin Kelly, Zoe Saldaña, and David Choe.

My work has appeared in The New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, The Verge, Bloomberg, and The New York Times. I’ve won a Communication Arts award for interface design and was recognized by Fast Company as one of the Most Innovative Companies in AR/VR.

The pattern is clear: every platform I’ve built has armed rebels with the tools to create their own media empires. The future belongs to those who build the stages, not just perform on them.