WHAT AM I DOING NOW?
After doing two more startups in the 2000s I decided it was time to try some different things. I continue to look at business opportunities, but much of it outside of the enterprise and infrastructure technology areas which have defined my career so far. I want to see if there is a way I can apply my skills to "green" technologies. I am also interested in mobile and other consumer oriented technologies. Though I have resisted it, I am also starting to see if I can get into the whole blogging and social networking thing....hence this website. Better late than never I say :) To keep in touch with my technology roots, I spend some time as an advisor to Divergent Ventures, a local infrastructure venture capital firm in which we are also investors. My interest in politics and the stock market comes about while managing our family investments and portfolios through the challenges of two major recessions in the past 10 years.
AEON LIVING
My newest venture and 2nd simultaneous project over 2010-2011 is AEON LIVING. Launched on July 6, 2011, AEON LIVING is a senior housing solutions company assisting families with the complex and emotially gut-wrenching challenges of changing their senior loved one's housing situation. We are the only company of its kind built around a team of medical experts who, as an integral component of our services, review the quality and levels of provided care of senior housing facilities from a medical perspective. Who better than to help a client determine the fitness of care in a senior housing location than a medical professional. Not only are these reviews done when our clients are seeking their loved one's initial placement, but also as part of our industry-first care monitoring service. In addition to placement, our clients also contract with us to regularly return to their loved one's housing facility to re-evaluate and confirm that the facility is maintaining the level and standards of care expected of them and that the senior loved one is happy and healthy in their living environment.
Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwiches
Yes, I am a Jimmy John's franchisee (check out their facebook page here). Well, me and my sister. Well, mostly my sister. I am helping her get started and am focused on the business/back office stuff. She is the operational brains. I've already told her I am not getting a health card :) If you've never been there, you should go. There are quite a few in Seattle. Their schtick is quality sandwiches, "freaky fast". If you go in, most likely your sandwich will be in your hands before the credit card has finished processing. And they deliver. Sandwich in your hands 15 minutes after you call. Who else besides pizza and chinese deliver and neither of those can get you food that quickly. We have the Kent franchises. We are still looking for our first location. Hopefully we will have our first location up by Winter 2011.
Personal Stuff
In addition to business oriented things, I also want to take time to focus on things I found difficult while I was spending all my time running companies. I am currently singing with my dear friend Mark Adrian's choral group Cantare Vocal Ensemble. And while I have been singing since high school, playing piano since I was 10 and at one point thought I might be a musician, I have never taken a professional voice lesson. I am doing that now regularly with Mark. He says there could be a CD in my future. Keeping with the music theme, I am also exploring the creation of a production company focused on staging vocal-only Broadway musicals in local markets, similar to this production of Les Miserables, that shares it's profits with local arts organizations.
For the family, I am currently working on a remodel/refresh of our place here in Seattle, as well looking for property in Las Vegas and Whistler. Las Vegas because Michael's parents winter there and there are still quite a few opportunities to acquire foreclosures. Whistler because we also want a mountain home.
Finally, for the foundation, I spend time evaluating organization's grant requests for fit with our gift criteria.
Click here to see my career accomplishments.
