Hey, future friend!
Thanks for swinging by the ole site of web. There’s a little about me below.
The short version.
At my last startup, our Head of Growth said something to me that stuck: “Tristan, you have a truly rare ability to connect with anyone. That’s your superpower.”
To nurture that power, I’ve spent the last 17 years as a mission-driven founder and “all things growth” leader with a track record of scaling startups with high-impact teams and securing multimillion-dollar investments and contracts in both Web2 and Web3.
A few fun facts for you:
☞ Built and sold 2 startups as an 'all things growth' founder.
☞ Grew last startup's top-line revenue to $20M by building a nationwide movement.
☞ Scaled a crypto community to over 1 million holders, $10M in BD pipeline, and $6M in donations.
☞ Invested $65M into startups as a Silicon Valley VC and another $2.1M into ClimateTech companies as Founding Partner of Cool Climate Collective.
☞ Ran, built, and coached at over 70 startup accelerator programs supporting the dreams of 10K+ entrepreneurs with the likes of 500 Global, Google, and Techstars.
☞ Named Forbes 30 Under 30 for helping Kanye West, Nike, and Google open stores.
☞ Terra & OnDeck ClimateTech Fellow.
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The whole story.
👁 Gemini Twin
You could call me an entrepreneur or founder, VC or angel investor, startup ecosystem driver and accelerator advocate, leader and movement builder, or author and blogger. Any way you put it, I’m a builder at heart.
If you like personality assessments, I’m an ENFP, a Collaborator in The Predictive Index and my DiSC is iS, which generally means I’m inclusive, humble, affirming, and like to generate enthusiasm.
🏋️♀️ Movement Builder
I lead projects and teams with a community-first approach using all the growth tricks in the book.
My latest success story was with the one world’s top DAOs where I scaled a crypto project to over 1.1M holders, built a BD pipeline of over $10M, and facilitated over $6M dollars to nonprofits, including the largest crypto gift ever to Save The Children.
Before that, I was Head of Community for CTO.ai, a Tiger Global and Slack Fund-backed AI startup.
🦄 Unicorn Hunter
In a past life, I was a VC for 500 Global where I’ve led accelerator programs in San Francisco, Moscow, and Riyadh and supported the dreams of over 400 startups with $65M in venture capital and another $2.1M into ClimateTech companies as Founding Partner of Cool Climate Collective.
I’ve had multiple multi-million dollar exits and companies that have reached unicorn status. One of my favorite companies I’ve worked with, Backlot Cars, exited in 2020 for $425M.
You can see my startup investing on Crunchbase and join my syndicate on AngelList.
😻 Top ProductHunter
I’m one of the top ProductHunt hunters of all time.
I will hunt your product and give you the optimal strategy to reach 1000s of new customers.
🚀 Rocketship Builder
In total, I’ve built, run, and supported dozens of startup accelerator programs for the likes of Google for Startups, 500 Startups, Techstars, Startup Chile, Collider Creative Startups Incubator, and Katapult Impact Accelerator helping thousands of founders on their entrepreneurial journeys.
👐 Changemaker
Before my VC work, I built and sold two startups. The first, SocialEarth, was the leading source for social entrepreneurship news and won multiple awards for impact journalism before being acquired by 3BL Media in 2012.
I still keep a close eye on the intersection of impact and technology. Most recently: #ClimateTech.
🏬 Kanye West Sidekick
My second startup, Storefront, focused on urban innovation and is a marketplace for retail space that has helped the likes of Nike and Kanye West open pop-up shops.
Hailed as 'Airbnb for Retail' by The New York Times, Storefront is backed by over $10M in venture capital from leading Silicon Valley investors, hip-hop artist Nas, author Gary Vaynerchuk, and former Lady Gaga manager Troy Carter.
Storefront merged with Oui Open in 2016 to continue expansion internationally.
🏆 Top-Rated Event Speaker
My work on Storefront landed me on the Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2015 and led me to give a TEDx talk on creative cities featuring a street art mural I painted. I gave another TEDx talk more recently on [REDACTED].
I’ve also spoken at SXSW, San Francisco Chronicle: Changemakers Under 30, The Atlantic: New York Ideas, Lisbon Investment Summit, National Retail Federation: The Big Show, and scores of other events with audiences in the thousands.
✍️ Award-Winning Writer
I currently publish a business column for Entrepreneur.com and, earlier in my career, crafted the most-read BestBuy.com email of all time reaching over 23 million customers.
I’ve been published in The Guardian, VentureBeat, and the largest publication on Medium (The Startup with +756K subscribers).
I also finally started a Substack. I tweet a bit, too. Sometimes it goes viral.
🐶 Co-Author with Mom
While quarantining during COVID, I created a children’s book with my mom, dad, and my partner Dany called Stay at Home, Dog! in order to help families better cope with pandemics.
📺 Future TV Star?
I tried to make a foray into TV and cameo-ed in NBC Universal's Bazillion Dollar Club (which only aired 1 episode 😅). That didn’t stop Dany and me from applying to The Amazing Race.
I’ve also been interviewed and featured on CNBC, FOX, Bloomberg, and NBC.
🗿 International Symbol of Mystery
I want to stay evermore curious, so I designed a MysteryBot called Shisharka Land whose true origins remain unknown.
I was also one of the first humans to IPO.
🌍 Fan of Life
Between 2018-2020 my soul partner in life, Dany, and I traveled to 60 different countries on a sabbatimoon around the world supporting entrepreneurs and startup ecosystems everywhere we went.
One of the most exciting parts was launching the first American accelerator in both Russia and Saudi Arabia.
Our adventures are chronicled at @WeDidThat.
🔮 Future Curious
I love to stare at the stars, tell stories by the fire, think philosophically and contemplate how the world works.
If you do too, say hello and sign up for the occasional update from me.
