David’s super power is finding product-market fit and scalable, repeatable business models (resume)

David is an experienced entrepreneur (He stopped counting after 7 startups) and intrapreneur (4x). He founded seven startups over the past 19 years. David bootstrapped his first five startups to profitability, a feat that had a one in 32 quadrillion probability of success (1/(2000^5) = 32x10^15). His startup projects created millions in value and generated a 1,460x cash-over-cash return and 50x more capital efficient than the average venture-backed exit.

David’s startups were in direct/performance marketing, online marketing, consumer data, analytics, artificial intelligence, e-commerce and in-real-life social media market segments. With all of these startups, David identified meaningful Customer problems, solved them with technology and built profitable businesses around them. Through the ups and downs of the startup lifecycle, he developed an intuitive ability to understand what Customers want and provide it in a compelling technology product or service that scales.

Before founding startups, David was a corporate innovator and intrapreneur working in new ventures, product, marketing and general management roles. He lead the creation and launch of a new business at Amazon as an entrepreneur-in-residence (EIR). David helped create a unicorn within AT&T Wireless by adding $1.5 billion in enterprise value and re-inventing wireless service in the U.S. He lead the turnaround for Yesmail, the first publicly-traded email marketing company, by developing breakthrough products, achieving profitability for the first time in company history and successfully selling the business creating $30 million in enterprise value in just 18 months. David designed a new information products which helped turnaround a $60 million division at Experian, turning negative into positive growth in less than 12 months. He started his career as an engineer in product development at Procter & Gamble where he developed a solid foundation of uncovering insights from customers and integrating them into product and business model design in a way that leads to higher growth.

David’s background is somewhat unique in that he combines deep startup experience together with a proven track record of growing business units within large companies. David’s obsession with Customers and products and his ability to develop innovative business models that scale helps make him an effective leader and innovator. David has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University.

STARTUPS DAVID FOUNDED:

Dealcoin (2022 to present) is a new kind of loyalty platform based on cryptocurrency technology.

ComeWith (2021 to present) is a IRL (In Real Life) network that helps expand your network of real friends.

InsightStudios (2021 to present) is a startup studio. We are building 150 startups using a proven method for finding product-market fit and scalable paths to Customers.

Datalove (2019 to present) is a life event data company. We use life event data to improve marketing performance.

Disruptive Innovation Services (2016 to 2017) was a product development consultancy that helped large enterprises learn how to innovate like a startup. David shuttered the business so he could focus on independent startups.

FounderDojo (2013 to 2015) is a new kind of school and startup accelerator. It was created in 2013 as FounderSensei in partnership with Techstars Chicago to create a farm team of entrepreneurs who weren’t quite ready for the Techstars accelerator. David continues to mentor entrepreneurs today while improving the Insight-Driven Iteration methodology to increase startup success rates.

LegitLead (2013 - 2015) was a lead scoring company focused on the for-profit education market. Successful exit in 2016.

Life Phase Media (2008 to 2011) was a technology consulting firm that helped established ad tech businesses create disruptive innovations and increased growth. Created successful ad tech business units for established corporations.

Maverick Direct Marketing (2003 - 2019) was a startup studio that created five successful startups and a 100% startup success rate. We focused on direct marketing and ad tech businesses.

BargainDepot (2003 - 2008) was a an e-commerce business in the fashion accessories market. David bootstrapped the business to profitability and successfully exited in 2008.

e360Insight (2001 - 2008) was an email marketing company focused on the affiliate marketing space. David bootstrapped the business to profitability. Successful exit in 2008.

e360Data (2002 to 2019) was a consumer data company. David bootstrapped the business to profitability. e360 was a cash cow for 17 years and helped fund eight additional startup projects. David shuttered the business in 2019 to focus on other opportunities.

Brandango (1998) was an enterprise data integration company founded within Divine Interventures. Divine was one of the first startup studios created and the first of its kind in Chicago. Divine failed during the dot com bust in 1999 and took Brandango with it.

CORPORATE INNOVATION PROJECTS:

Amazon Senior Leader & Entrepreneur-In-Residence - David’s primary responsibility was developing a new business strategy and launch plan for entering a $82 billion market segment by leveraging Amazon’s on-demand, apparel manufacturing capabilities.

Created an intensive, off-site training program for corporations that wanted to innovate at startup speed. Clients included P&G, John Deere, American Family Insurance, CUNA Mutual Company, SC Johnson and others.

Yesmail, General Manager & Senior Vice President of Data Services - David led the turnaround effort and achieved profitability for the first time in company history. Successfully sold the business to Infogroup in 18 months from start of project.

Experian, Vice President of Marketing & Strategy for TEC business unit - David led the turnaround and successfully turned around a shrinking business unit by listening to Customers, discovering meaningful problems to solve and solving them with new products.

AT&T Wireless, Director Marketing Consumer and Small Business - David led the product, pricing and go-to-market strategy that created a $1.5BN product in 90 days.