More Mike...

The Good, The Bad, and the Plain Old Ugly Mistakes ...


Recently I ...


In the fall of 2011, I have been working on a new project, producing holiday events. I'll post more later...

In the Spring of 2011, I spent 3 months traveling around South East Asia and China.

I am the founder and former CEO of SkiApps.com, which I started after LiftTickets.com was acquired in 2011. I started SkiApps.com to help ski resorts develop their own iPhone and Android apps. I figured there was an app for everything, but only a few ski resorts had their own apps. My idea was to build them an app, and they'd pay for it. I knew it would be a long and difficult sales cycle from the beginning, and after a while into it, I realized it would be an even longer one that I originally expected. I decided to shut it down and cut our losses in September 2011.

In March 2011, I setup a consulting arrangement with New York based startup Scanz, to provide programming services which helped them successfully launch their core product, the Skanzsite.


I developed NewRochelle.com and sold it in 2008 ...

NewRochelle.com had cashflow positive when I sold it in 2008. I developed the site, sold ads, and used Google Adwords to generate a monthly profit from it.


I developed Ossining.com and sold it in 2008 ...

In January 2004 I launched an online newspaper for my hometown of Ossining, New York, based on the Ossining.com domain name I purchased for $1,000. At the beginning content was added through crowdsourcing, because I launched it while overseas with the Air Force. We hid the content behind a wall that required the user to enter their email address, a tactic only the NY Times was using at the time. Within months we had over 8,000 subscribers to our newsletter. When I returned home, I ramped it up and started selling advertising. It was putting good money in my pocket at the beginning but gathering content was a lot of work. In 2006 I ended up leasing the domain to the Village of Ossining and then I ended up selling it to another developer.

Ossining.com had massive early traction, earning over 8,000 email newsletter subscribers within only a few months. I'm always looking to see how my next ventures can get early traction like this.

I purchased a rental property for $43,000 because I figured the best way to learn real estate is to learn by doing. It turned out to be in a bad area of an even worse city at the peak of the housing boom. I sold it for $11,000 a few years later for a net loss of $32,000. I used all of the gain from the Ossining.com sale to pay off the mortgage. It was the most expensive learning I've ever paid for....but well worth it.

I successfully used crowdsourcing back in 2003 to acquire content for Ossining.com while I was stationed in Germany with the Air Force.

After my success with Ossining.com, people hired me to help them with email marketing, SEO, and Internet video.

In 2003 I started buying city name geographical domain names (geo's). My plan was to build out local websites for each one and then sell advertising on each. After building out Ossining.com (above), I decided to pull out of the geo domain development business. Although I owned some good names, I wanted to do more than operate a network of local websites. I ended up selling most of my geo domain names luckily at good times in the market when prices were at least 10X what I paid for them.

In 2005 I was named one of Westchester County's Rising Stars 40 under 40 for my work with Ossining.com.

My photography was featured in the New York Times.

Ossining.com was featured in the New York Times.

I was in the Military ...

In early 2002, I joined the US Air Force. During my time in the Air Force I was stationed in Keflavik, Iceland and in Ramstein, Germany. In 2004 I was deployed to Al Uedid, Qatar.


Some Other Things I've Done ...

I have been to 43 States, all over Europe, Southeast Asia, and China.

I have read over 1,000 books, mostly relating to business and investing.

I've researched over 1,000 different businesses ideas that I've conceived or that have been put in front of me. Some ideas were good, some were bad, some were OK. Most are 'buried in my backyard' because of an imbalance in the risk-reward ratio. At any one time I have about 300 ideas that I could turn into businesses.

The Early Days in My Career ...

I was a Partner Relationship Manager at Register.com in New York City.

I like to work hard. For three years I worked full-time while going to school full-time. In the summer of 2004 I worked full time, did my final semester of college, ran my Ossining.com site, all while I was deployed to Qatar with the Air Force.

In 1997, BestWeb Internet didn't want to hire me for a tech support position because my technical knowledge was lacking. After the second time they told me NO, I read a bunch of technical books, including "How the Internet Works," which I still own. I begged for a third chance and they finally let me come back for another interview. I struggled again because they asked me things that I hadn't come across yet. I was told it wasn't going to work out, and then a miracle happened. During the interview, a technical glitch caused their dial-up customers to get busy signals (remember those days?). The phones were ringing off the hook and my interviewer got tied up on the phone during the interview. The other employees were struggling to keep up with the inbound calls. I wanted to help so I started answering phones. By the time my interviewer got off his call, I had gotten the job. I went on to run the customer service department, the billing department, and run product development for website hosting. During my time at BestWeb, I helped grow the company's monthly subscription revenue by 1000% .

In 1996, I started delivering pizza for my local Domino's. I helped close a deal with neighboring Pace University that allowed students to order Domino's and pay with their school meal card. Sales doubled the first week. Soon after, at the age of 21, I was managing the store and 55 employees.

I did a brief stint as a telemarketer.

I sold fish out of the back of a pickup truck.

I worked at a gas station as a cashier and I learned that it's possible to operate a business where customers buy something without any human interaction on the vendors part.

I once owned a 1-900 number that was supposed to tell callers their horoscope. That was a money loser. Go figure. Nobody called it!

In 1996 I leased an ice cream truck and began selling ice cream. It didn't last long. The freezer kept breaking and I kept losing my inventory.

It took me 5 years to get a 2 year college degree and 10.5 years to get a 4 year degree (both were in Marketing). It's not because I'm stupid, although I've done a lot of stupid things :). It just took me long because I got side tracked with starting businesses. I mean, how can an entrepreneur with opportunity on his mind possibly concentrate on uninteresting coursework?

I started a website called MLSTours.com that listed homes for sale. Then Realtor.com came along and I shut it down because there was obviously no way for me to compete.

I started a site called SeminarChannel.com to allow users to watch seminars. It didn't go anywhere.

I bought Bookkeepers.com to help jumpstart my girlfriends bookkeeping business.

I delivered pizza and chinese food.

In 1995, I delivered lawn sprinkler supplies for $7 an hour.

In 1994 I worked for the Westchester County Police at Playland Amusement Park as a park ranger.

At one point I had a mobile car washing business.

In the 8th Grade I started a business selling candy in school. I made about $30 a day. Not bad for a 13 year old at the time!

In the 7th Grade I started a magazine about baseball card collecting. It didn't work out too well :).

As a kid I made money stuffing envelopes.

I was born in Ossining, New York on April 26, 1976.