CEO, ViSalus

I do entrepreneurship, then talk/write about it. I’ve led a startup to over a billion dollars in sales. I’ve scaled businesses and expanded internationally. I’ve written a #1 New York Times bestselling book. Today, I invest and advise tech startups through my VC fund, but the success I have now is just a part of my story. My entrepreneurial journey started on the streets. I was poor, caught up in a gang and headed down a destructive path; but it all changed when I realized that I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. I turned my life around, applied my street smarts to business and became a multi-millionaire, serial entrepreneur. My book Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain chronicles my journey and the principles I learned along the way. At 21 I founded my first company, 24/7 Tech. Since then, I have founded and sold numerous businesses for hundreds of millions of dollars and serve as an investor and advisor to multiple tech companies and startups. In September 2014 I led the go private transaction buying back my company, ViSalus, in a 143M transaction, which has recently expanded into 9 countries. The economic struggle over the past few years has made top innovators and aspiring entrepreneurs hesitant to develop their businesses, but I’m a firm believer in calculated risk taking, which is why I started my VC fund. My (20M) VC fund called Hashtagone invests in companies in emerging cities, and I’ve recently invested in Elite Daily, Fragmob, and Mytime. I’ve also acquired two companies at ViSalus and am aggressively expanding our M&A strategy. I was named E&Y Entrepreneur of the year in 2012 in consumer products for the midwest area.