Co-Founder

As part of a team of founders, I helped bring a shared vision of a community brewery with multiple satellite taprooms to life in Ventura, CA. During the time I was with the company (2014 through 2020), we expanded to 5 locations and built a 55k sf production facility. My focus was on forecasting, accounting, and supply chain management. My favorite parts of the Topa Topa experience were the friendships with coworkers and customers, our 1% For The Planet partnerships and learning to love Excel.

Co-Founder

This was a homebrewing cooperative in Encinitas, CA. Started by 15 or so friends, we pooled our resources, bought a microbrew system that no hobbyist could ever personally justify, and started brewing 30 gallon batches out of BrewOp member Charles’ garage. I pitched the idea for the BrewOp to our initial members and was inspired by the Co-Op that my mom belonged to most of her professional life - the San Diego Potters Guild. We split up the labor for brewing, cleaning and packaging, as well as each getting an equal share of each monthly batch. It was a great time. The first business planning around Topa Topa was done during this time and Topa Topa Co-Founder Jack was one of the first folks to join.

Co-Founder

IA was a music production partnership between myself and mastering engineer Paul Abbott. With the home recording revolution of the early 2000s (read: cheap, decent quality gear), musicians now had the ability to capture high quality audio and the time to focus on performance. All the greatest records up to the 90s were made in the same way - with technical specialists in the right seats. Our model was created to give home recordists an affordable way to access the specialized talents of Mixing and Mastering via the internet.

Studio Manager

I was hired at Hay House to revamp their audio division and formalize audio product production. Hay House was a cool company with a 4 day workweek and lots of rascally characters and rock and roll musicians at the helm (I worked alongside members of Unwritten Law and No Knife). We produced hundreds (thousands?) of radio shows, podcasts, audiobooks and commercials for our authors. 

Founder

Ampersand was the name of my recording studio in San Diego, CA. Ampersand was open from 2002 to 2007. The first location was on El Cajon Blvd in a former church building, near the old Guitar Center where condos now stand. After that lease ran out, I moved to an industrial complex in Santee by the drive in. Not only did I record many records and demos (bands such as Spacehorse, UV Tigers, The Modlins), I collected just as many lifelong friends. 

Linguistics

I attended SDSU from 1997 to 2001, initially on track for Elementary Education and eventually switching to Linguistics. I graduated Cum Laude and was a Phi Beta Kappa member. While I was mostly just having fun learning things, I also wrote a thesis titled “Absolutes & Second Amendment Interpretation” that was selected for presentation (abstract here) at the Linguistics Society of America. Professor Kaplan incorporated my undergraduate research into a larger work of his titled “Unfaithful to Textualism”, which can be read here. Ultimately, the underlying argument (that the ‘absolute’ construction of the 2nd is an aid to its interpretation) was used in an Amicus brief to the supreme court, in District of Columbia v. Heller.