Life is too short so here is the short version:

I have tried to live life by having as many learning and growing experiences as possible.  Interesting challenges make life fun and meaningful.

I have two driving passions, investing and entrepreneurship. I am a better investor because I am a businessman and I am a better businessman because I am an investor.

I have had rewarding experiences so far in technology, entrepreneurship, venture capital, private equity, law, and a blast in college despite being a poor student in both monetary and academic terms. I grew up in the ghetto and came from nothing so everything that has happened to me has been more than I can ask for.

Life is still too short but if you have the inclination, here is the longer version:

Sendside Networks is developing a secure communications platform suitable for sending extremely confidential information. The solution competes directly against snail mail and email. As an Enterprise 2.0 platform, third party developers can leverage Sendside’s proprietary technology and network to provide value added applications for use by enterprises and institutions. I am consulting with Sendside Networks to develop components of their fundraising, marketing, SEO/SEM, and partnership strategies. My experience in the venture capital, private equity, and hedge fund worlds makes me naturally excited about this product’s great fit with these financial services entities.

I am a partner and chief strategist at industrial design firm, Design Engine Lab. Design Engine Lab develops products for different market segments such as the electronics, consumer, real estate construction, law enforcement, medical devices, software, outdoor sports, and music industries. It is more helpful to think of Design Engine Lab as a new kind of entity, something I call a design venture firm. Design Engine Lab is backed by institutional investors and wealthy angel investors. The company also has a Design Advisory Board that is composed of world class designers from the top of Corporate America.

I was part of the founding team at mediaFORGE. I helped to raise venture capital to start the company. I then moved into a business development and product development role. We created rich media widgets for use in websites and blogs. We also created a new type of advertising unit that combines banner ads with rich media widgets. I loved working with and managing the software developers on the team. Most importantly, I learned what not to do while running a startup, priceless lessons gleaned from all the mistakes I made.

Sorenson Capital is a private equity fund that performs buyouts of established companies. The senior partners there are some of the early pioneers in private equity and were instrumental in the formation of Bain Capital. I was an analyst there and learned about leveraged finance. I deepened my appreciation for great entrepreneurs who are able to overcome great obstacles to build valuable businesses. This compelled me to make the jump to the other side of the table to experience entrepreneurship firsthand.

The University Venture Fund is a student-run venture capital fund with about $20 million under management. This was my first exposure to the magnificent process of entrepreneurship, starting something from scratch and transforming it into a valuable enterprise. The entrepreneurs I met and interacted with were individuals with irresistible energy and intelligence. I was an associate there and helped to raise capital from institutions and make investments in technology startups. I was fortunate enough to have sourced and executed an investment in Omniture, the leading web analytics software company. Omniture subsequently went public and has been the fund’s most successful investment thus far. One of the best experiences was co-investing alongside some of the best venture capital firms in the world like Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, and RWI Ventures.

I am not a good student by any traditional standards, but I was lucky enough to have been accepted to serve as a fellow in the Civil Rights Project at Harvard Law School. While studying the law, I also had the privilege of working for the Citizens’ Commission on Civil Rights and various other advocacy groups. My work involved educational and constitutional law including the No Child Left Behind Act and cases involving school choice and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. I realized quickly that while I loved the spirit of the law, I would not enjoy the practice of law.

I studied Economics and Political Science at Brigham Young University. I found myself spending most of my time outside of class and involved with campus clubs and social events. I missed my San Francisco sorely as Provo, BYU’s location, is a small college town with a glaring lack of quality and diversity in dining. The mandatory religion classes, which count for less credits than ordinary academic subject classes were twice as difficult. I married my beautiful sweetheart there, not an unusual thing as many BYU students marry at an early age. It is definitely a peculiar place.

I was reluctant to attend college but I made the most of it at the College of San Mateo. I was elected president of the student body and honors fraternity and tried my best to cultivate leaders and teamwork in the student government. We spearheaded a coordinated effort of grassroots campaigning to pass a local bond measure that raised hundreds of millions for the renovation of the college campus. We also lobbied the state legislature and played a role in preserving the two-year associate degree program for nursing statewide. While working hard, we also played hard, throwing huge parties, the likes of which had never before been witnessed on campus.

The United States Marine Corps was a transformational experience for me. I was a top graduate in recruit training and got the privilege of leading my company and platoon in the graduation ceremony. I performed extremely well in training except for swimming. To this day, I am still not much more than a marginal floater. The experience instilled a great sense of discipline in my life that I draw upon everyday. However, I was not the stiff recruit who only did what he was told; I broke rules and took risks at opportune times. Ultimately, the Marine Corps impressed upon me the importance of men who step up to the challenge of leadership and I resolved to never shy away from the burden and privilege of leading by example.

I grew up in San Francisco’s Chinatown, a ghetto and fascinating place to experience the formative years of life. My early days in elementary school were spent cutting class to go to the Chinatown branch library to play with the one computer in the neighborhood. By befriending the librarian, I made sure I would not be kicked out and reported for truancy. I learned to program in BASIC and eagerly played games for hours. When I did attend school, I was more interested in girls and playing baseball than in studying. I dreamed of pitching for the Boston Red Sox while floating through the exceedingly ineffective San Francisco public school system. When my parents finally saved enough money to buy a house and move out of Chinatown, we moved into the black ghetto where the homes were most affordable. To welcome me to the neighborhood, I was jumped by a gang of thugs. This was no idyllic childhood; fortunately, my parents always showed me great love and I grew up with a sense of optimism that helped me through the tough times.

I don’t have any recollections of Vietnam. I was just a toddler when my parents immigrated to America. My father, a good man, took multiple jobs to support the family. My mother, a loving woman, also took a job as a seamstress to supplement the family income. I’ve never seen two people work harder to survive and stay independent. Not once did they take government welfare. They tell me stories of how I used to walk around town in Vietnam to get people to buy ice from our house, one of the few with an ice machine. If this is true, perhaps these stories hint at a future of entrepreneurship.