Builder. Pilot. Angler.

I've been on the right side of technology transitions for 25 years. Not by luck. By watching how transitions actually work — the window where early movers build durable advantages before the mainstream catches up — and building into that window before it closes.

In 2010, when most businesses still thought cloud computing was a buzzword, I founded Accent Plus as one of the first Google Cloud and Microsoft reseller partners in the country. We built real customers, real revenue, and a real exit. I spun out NeoCloud, scaled it, and sold that too — to AppDirect, where I co-founded AppSmart as Founder and Co-CEO. Eleven M&A deals across the arc. Multiple exits. Each one taught me something the previous one couldn't.

Now I'm watching the same pattern unfold — except the stakes are higher and the window is shorter. AI isn't a feature you bolt onto a business. It's a new way of operating one. The companies that figure this out in the next three years will be structurally different from the ones still managing fragmented vendors and running coordination meetings. I'm building Mahiri — an autonomous business operating system — to prove it.

The Mahiri thesis isn't really about AI. It's about leverage. For twenty years, only large enterprises could afford a full marketing team, a pipeline function, a content operation, an intelligence layer. Small businesses outsourced what they could and went without the rest. Mahiri closes that gap. Instead of ten vendors and a coordinator, you get an always-on operating team. That's what I'm building.

I split my time between Raleigh and a fish camp on Harkers Island — not a vacation spot, a second base. Where the boat lives. Where the thinking happens. Some of the clearest thinking I've done about Mahiri happened twelve miles offshore. There's something about being out there that resets your priorities fast. I'm a tournament angler, not a hobbyist. This is a pursuit, not a pastime. The cobia run in June and I'm there for it.

I got my private pilot certificate in 2007 and have logged 300+ hours PIC across a Cessna 172, a 182, a Diamond DA40, and a Cirrus SR22. Complex and high performance endorsed. I fly for fun now. The Icon A5 on the water is on the list for when Mahiri is at scale — not a vague aspiration, but a specific goal with a specific trigger. I like goals that work that way.

I hold a BS in Electrical Engineering from NC State. I still think like an engineer: start with the system, understand the constraints, build the simplest thing that solves the real problem. For ten years I've served as President of Clean Jordan Lake — a conservation nonprofit I helped build from scratch: zero to 250+ tons of trash removed from Jordan Lake, a $75K operating fund, a five-year strategic plan, and a leadership transition now underway. I take the community seriously. It's where I work, where I live, where I fish.

What drives me isn't legacy. It's not an IPO or an exit number. It's the craft of building things that actually work — systems, teams, companies. I have two kids, 14 and 16, and how I think about the long game has everything to do with them. Ten years of anything tells you something real about a person: companies, lakes, children, fish. Getting the architecture right. Watching the machine run. That's the part I keep coming back to, every time.

I'm based in Raleigh. If you're building something — or if you want to talk about speaking or working together — the easiest path is a 30-minute conversation. The link is on the contact page.