New York City Metropolitan Area
There's a story is about venture capitalists Ben Horowitz and Marc Andreessen. Ben describes the process of considering an Internet pawnshop for investment: "People here said, 'It's immoral,' and Marc went bananas. He said, 'If you've got no fucking money, and you need to pawn your watch to pay for your kids to eat—you think that's morally fucking wrong because it offends your sensibilities, you rich motherfuckers?'" I used to be that “motherfucker” When I first got into the PI industry, I considered it repugnant and embarrassing, disguising what I did to friends, hoping I would not be doing it long enough for anyone to notice. Today, years later, I've never been prouder of anything I've ever done. I get out of bed in the morning knowing that there's a real opportunity to fix a systemic injustice for people who cannot afford to wait for actual justice. And I go to bed at night excited because I know the solution is Mighty. While there will be many obstacles to overcome, Marc's quote reminds me that changing people's deep-rooted perceptions about personal injury might be the most crucial challenge of them all. We have an obligation to help innocent people after an accident get justice. Seven years later, the game is back on. Source: mighty.com/blog/founder-essay
Mighty is the first free AI tool for injured consumers to value and settle their personal injury claim.
I was the Managing Partner of Summon Litigation Ventures, a fund that financed plaintiffs while they wait for a fair legal outcome. This fund is closed and is not making new investments.
Betterfly was one of two acquisitions by Takelessons prior to its sale to Microsoft. I started Betterfly in 2010 based on my frustrations finding good local service providers. We were an early competitor to Thumbtack and raised $3M in venture and after acquiring 100,000 service providers in 100s of categories. In 2013, we were acquired by Takelessons, which used Betterfly's network to seed its expansion beyond music.