Want to connect? This is how I operate.

High-level principals:

• Asynchronous when at all possible. You're busy, I'm busy. I’ll try to respond. But if i don’t, assume it got lost, and try again.
• Twitter first. If you want to engage, the best way is publicly, on Twitter. By “publicly” I mean you should “@” me in a public tweet. Don’t send me a DM. I rarely respond to them.
• If you want to talk 1:1, find a mutual connection to broker the introduction.
• I'm primarily interested in three types of engagements:
  • mentoring of early-stage professionals, especially GWOT veterans who want to work at, and found, technology companies
  • collaborating with other founder-CEO's who are focused on bringing critical manufacturing back to the United States
  • working to build new ideas of how we can adapt the new and amazing tools of technology to promote human freedom and prosperity
  • If you send me a DM, I very likely won’t respond, or will respond publicly by tweeting at you, and answering your question in public.
• If you want to hire me to do an hour of consulting, you must find someone I trust to make the introduction. Unfortunately, as a startup founder and new parent, I have to guard my time. If you are unwilling to engage with me publicly via twitter but simply must have a conversation, then I am happy to have a paid conversation, which you can schedule if you are able to get ahold of me. Be forewarned: I charge an unreasonable amount of money (five figures) for this, precisely because I don’t want to do it.
• Bias for action. Cut straight to the point. “I need help with X, because Y; and you should care because Z” is the easiest thing for me to act on. My preference is to interact with people who are planning to take, or actively taking, action to achieve positive outcomes. If you're not doing this, our conversation will probably quickly move from "so, you think X is a problem?" to "what are you doing to fix X?" If you don't have an answer to the second question, our conversation will be brief.
• I am an active blocker. I don't give warnings. If you repeatedly interact with negative "doomerposting" or "reply-guy" energy, I'll just block you and I won't even say anything about it. Life is too short and the stakes are too high to give platforms to folks who aren't actively focused on genuinely adding value.
• Abuse. Please don’t DM me hundreds of times, unanswered.
• USPER caveat. Due to my past work, there are certain folks I can’t have commercial relationships with. It’s just a fact of life.

Notes for Aspiring Entrepreneurs:

• First and foremost: any advice you seek from me is worth exactly what you are paying for it. And that is likely to be ZERO. At the end of the day you have to live by your own judgement, so PLEASE do not take anything that I, or any other entrepreneur/investor/operator/etc say as GOSPEL. Always be skeptical.
• Second: TAKING PITCHES IS NOT MY JOB. My job is running Galvanick. And I have a family. This means I don’t have much time to give you for free. It’s just a fact of life. If I take a cold inbound message from you, I’m going to ask you to be VERY succinct with me. Here’s what that means:
  • Don’t cold send me a deck. I have insane security precautions around my devices and probably can’t click links you’re sending.
  • Instead, I’m probably going to ask you for your elevator pitch. YOU SHOULD HAVE THIS AT THE READY ANYWAY, and you should have it as a “hot-key” on your phone or laptop. Here’s mine, for Galvanick. And the following text appears when I type “*pitch”:
    • Galvanick is securing the internet of atoms, continuously monitoring cyber threats to industrial systems and networks. The Galvanick platform aggregates telemetry from across industrial environments, then contextualizes and surfaces critical malicious behavior to operations and security teams, enabling you to identify threats sooner and respond faster.
• Third: I’m giving you my time if we interact this way. It’s priceless to me. Every second I spend is a second I am NOT spending with my family, or my company. So please be respectful of that. If you aren’t — if you complain, if you don’t like the above requirements for brevity, etc. — then find someone else to give you their time for free.

"Do you really help people?" A few success cases.

• Introduced multiple first-time founders to top tier investors who have gone on finance their initial fundraising round.
• Introduced multiple engineers looking to break into "hard tech" to founders who are currently hiring.
• Multiple “matchmaking” introductions for folks wanting to transition into technology startups.
• Blunt conversations that led to successful pivots, or radical re-envisioning (usually “go big” as the prompt), or new clarity brought to the idea/company/deck.