"Work should be play. Even if that work is hard work."

I believe this is the year my dad brought home a giant block-sized computer. It took 5 1/2″ floppy disks, had a black and white DOS screen, but I remember being stoked to play “Frogger”. I knew it was going to change my life.

I spent these years hustling. Mowing lawns, pouring concrete, cleaning up trash, doing “side-jobs” with my dad (aka sheetrock patching), and basically anything I could possibly do. When I could get on the dial-up internet, I’d learn everything I possibly could about websites and technology.

I started high school in 2004. This is the year things really got interesting. I taught myself how to use photoshop, became a solid graphic designer, and started some my first few small businesses. The first was “TAB Creations” which offered print design, web design, and printing services. I custom built each website page in HTML/CSS.

I moved TAB Creations into a commercial office building in my hometown. I was 17 years old and had an adult co-signer on the lease. This year I co-founded a small business called “Surface Doctor” with one of my graphic design clients. It was a commercial power-washing company. After unloading our equipment without asking and showed the before and after to the managers, we got contracts to clean sidewalks for Red Lobster, Wendy’s, and more. We moved into a new office downtown together where I ran both businesses.

My senior year of high school. I was in a program called “Co-Op”, which allowed juniors and seniors to leave school to work at a job. I was the only student, probably in history, to be specially approved to go work for my own companies. I graduated high school having skipped over half a year of certain classes, photoshopped my report cards, and made some cash.

After high school, I got the opportunity to move to Hawaii (which I fell in love with). For about a year and a half, I took a hiatus and learned how to be outside. This would play an important role in my life for many years to come (spoiler: In 2022 I bought an orchard estate in Hawaii, a dream come true). We closed up shop on our small businesses and moved away.

During my time in Hawaii I began pitching ideas to companies in the print-on-demand space. I received my first job offer at 19 years old for more than $50K+ year with benefits, bonuses, and more. Ultimately, I leveraged that offer to convince competitor Fred Durham (CEO & Founder of CafePress) angel-invested in my first startup, a personalized card POD website. It ultimately failed.

After my failed startup, I was addicted. After pitching another idea to TechStars, I was invited to become the first ever “Hackstar”, and was involved in the early-stage development of 10 startups including Sphero, Spotinfluence, and more.

After graduation, I launched an agency called Baumhaur Group offering design, branding, and animation services. The company grew substantially within the Colorado tech community and went on to work for some globally recognized brands.

During this time, I also Co-Founded House of Genius, an entrepreneurial events company that brought together community to solve problems for entrepreneurs. What began in 2010 as a single event in a small room in Boulder, Colorado snowballed into a global organization with events in more than 45+ cities and a dozen countries within 4 years. We became involved with nearly every industry, were backed by billionaires, and hosted events at the White House and U.N.

Spoiler alert: even this business failed. One day I will write more about that. Eventually, this event shifted my mindset permanently from caring about “making it” to enjoying the process.

Towards the end of my tenure with House of Genius, I co-founded and built one of Colorado’s earliest co-working spaces, Capitol. Our space was designed for designers, filmmakers, and visual creatives. It was during this time that I began shifting my focus and learning what my next chapter would be.

I created “Jack Reynolds”, later shortened to JACKTV, a media company focused on music, culture, and travel. The services portion of this business produced content for Diageo, Daimler-Benz, Live Nation, and many more.

Most importantly, it launched my interest in storytelling and filmmaking. I went on to produce my first feature doc, Enormous: The Gorge Story. We enjoyed a nationwide theatrical release and I won an Emmy for the first film I ever made.

I exited Capitol, House of Genius, and all other obligations. The transition from the tech startup world into entertainment began to unfold. I acquired and grew large social media accounts, produced content for brands, and developed an entirely new passion — digital marketing.

JACKTV became a hybrid production and marketing company from about 2018-2020. We promoted music content, worked deeply with artists to reach fans, and had some viral successes. Through this, a new business model emerged. Automated marketing for the entertainment industry.

As my interests in digital marketing expanded, I honed in on E-commerce marketing and founded The Agent, a company dedicated to guaranteed brand growth for companies selling physical products online. We generated over $20M+ for our clients in the first 2 years, most of which began sub $1M in revenue.

The Agent began investing in early-stage brands, cultivating their growth, and generating sizable returns on advertising spends. We also acquired small brands under this umbrella.

In April 2020, I launched Rise, a platform set to automate marketing for the music industry. Before the end of our first month, our platform processed over 100 campaigns for artists and set in motion a rapidly growing business that transformed marketing for artists. Rise became a pioneer of guaranteed results for marketing.

To serve both sides of the market, we launched a music discovery app and playlist network, Tout. Our goal was simple, match people who voluntarily want to discover new music with artists who have new music to promote.

Since then, we’ve been growing and innovating constantly. At the time of writing, Tout receives over 100,000+ unique visitors per month.

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