



MY STORY


Entering the political theatre



I BROKE AWAY FROM POLITICS
I felt the lure of the entrepreneur
Co-Founder: The Lavu Breakout Story

Conceived, built, grown in New Mexico
Business tech sucked in 2010. Worse than boring, it punished entrepreneurs. We knew this from the restaurants that came to us for websites. Our first, failed startup. Restaurateurs needed a better, affordable way to run their business, send orders, take payments.
The iPad was just about to come out. We were first in the app store, and made enough with each sale to scale up our service and software without investors. We grew 4,000 % those first few years, and hired a local team.
We found a need and built something from nothing to meet it. I had found something I was good at.
We took off
Gordon Ramsey loved us
Through creative connections, I put our system in front of the producer of Kitchen Nightmares. She showed it to Gordon Ramsey, who gave us huge airtime in exchange for helping save the businesses he was turning around on the show with our system. Taking orders at the table with iPhones and iPads makes for good tv. Our name and sales popped.


We went international and so did I
As we grew interest from abroad poured into our inboxes. We were in 82 countries and 4,000 locations by 2014. Our resellers translated and programmed menus and portals for our software to be understood in their countries.
On my traveIs, I discovered Asia. I was overwhelmed by the potential, the adventure.
“I became a serial entrepreneur and white-boy ronin– aka unemployable”
Prepare, pitch, switch, repeat
It’s hard to say no when you can see the possibilities in each new technology and team. I wanted to help everyone, everywhere. Make shit happen. "Move fast and never break anything or hurt anyone" The Impossible.
Too many timezones, too many startups
The frantic sprint, proving I could do it all, build it all, keep all these teams and visions together. All those demands, in opposite timezones, the stress was building. Then, black mold exposure took me down. I hit true burnout. Another health crisis forced me to reset.