Thanks for listening to the audiobook!

Because the original acknowledgements section in the book is six pages long, an edited version was recorded for the audio book. Here's the entire original list of key players, MVPs and VIPs as they appeared in the printed book. 

Since this is my first (but hopefully not my only) book, these acknowledgements may end up a bit longer and more inclusive but there have been a lot of people who have helped me get to this point and I don’t want to leave anyone out.

First, I’d like to thank you, my reader. When you spend a couple years pouring what you know into a manuscript, you wonder if anyone will care when it’s done. The fact that you’re here reading it will always be something that fills me with gratitude.

To my early readers Lise Keeney, Michael Hoeschele and Claire Cooper, who read some pretty rough drafts, saw chapters that were a mess and gave me quality feedback that made this a far better book. I thank you and the readers also thank you. 

To my allies Rick Morton, Anne Schoofs, and Vanessa Suwak, it’s been more than six years since we’ve officially worked together, and we still have recurring one-on-one meetings on our calendars. I think that says a lot. I’m glad to have you as part of my trusted inner circle and hope that we’ll have a great reason to work together again someday.

To Jessica Best (BetterAve), you patiently listened to all the stories as I was on this journey, shared great insights, gave me a great quote and provided endless support. I hope I can be there to do the same when you write the book that I know you have in you. Thanks for everything you do.

To Jason “Delk” Delker and Brian Smith. We’ve fought a lot of battles together and won more than our share. Thanks for always pushing me to do better. I hope I did justice to our stories. Delk, my first Kansas City friend and eventual best man, can you believe it’s been twenty-five years? Thanks for being there, brother.

To John-Paul “JP” Cargnelli and Asif Alamgir, this wasn’t the path we started on, but I’m glad we’re here. Proud of the work you’ve done with your EdTech product and hope to see it reach the scale it deserves. Looking forward to the path forward from here and thank you for all your support and encouragement along the way.

I talk to a lot of people over coffee as well as work with and coach a lot of people and start-ups. Time to out myself here. They’ve all been my test market for this book. Their questions and reactions helped refine the stories in this book. Nearly everything in this book was said to at least one of them before it showed up here. I’d like to thank them for their curiosity and enthusiasm. They give me energy. Thanks to Kaitlyn Brennan, Mike Gugliuzza, Karen Smecher, Kaius Vu, Rafael Cardenas, Asami Wright, Vanessa Saunders, Matt Lace, Ifeoluwa Damilola Ayeni, Anna Bradsher, Allison Daley, Pravin Kancherla, Sarah Schumacher, Carey Rich, Julie Hall, John Coler, Rachel Cohen, Tamantha Means, Ted Grothe, Kirk Lakebrink, Stephanie Shelton, Jay Austin, Jack Blake, Betty Jones, Brandon Fuhr, Cambrian (Joel Teply, Heather Spalding), Epigraph (Bruno Guerreiro, Caleb Dermyer, Jasper Mullarney), Stenovate (Lauren Lawrence, Lee Zuvanich), The Beacon (Kelsey Ryan), Boddle (Clarence Tan), Heavy Tech (Matt Atkins, Steve Condon), Taurio (Julie Jackson), Course Cubby (Laura Patten), QMocha (Arvind Baliga), Clara Biotech (Jim West III), EB Systems (Jonathan Ruiz, Brendan Waters), and Canine Solutions (Emily Coleman). 

To Malvina Velia, thanks for the QR codes idea. Looks pretty good, don’t you think? To Geoff Tolsdorf, thanks for sharing your insights about the publishing process and patiently answering my questions. It always helps to know someone. To Alana Muller, thanks for the coffee meetup. I tried to follow your advice, both for networking (Coffee Lunch Coffee) and book publishing (own your own ISBNs) and here we are. Thanks!

During the pandemic, I discovered LunchClub as an outlet to meet and network with people online. Those connections were a lifeline for my quarantined sanity and many of those relationships have extended well beyond our initial conversation. Again, they became the test market for the stories told here. I’d like to thank all of them but especially Brian Monthie, Troy Winfrey, Brandon Badgett, David Caha, LA Walker, Robb Cheeks, Svetlana Kurilova, Kellan Fluckiger, Mark Herre, Juliette Zhang, Ben Guttmann, Mike Verret, Isabel Restrepo and Sandy Liu for all your thoughtful insights, support and encouragement.

One of the LunchClub folks that deserves a special shout out is Eric Burgess. When I first talked to Eric, I was really struggling to get this book done. Eric told me about something called London Writers’ Salon and Writers’ Hour where I could show up in a Zoom room for an hour four times a day and write in silence with as many as a couple hundred fellow writers. I started showing up May 10th, 2022, and haven’t missed a weekday since. Thanks Eric more than you’ll ever know.

To Matt Trinetti and Parul Bavishi, the founders of The London Writers’ Salon, thanks for the community you’ve created. Thanks also to the members of that community. I’d estimate that I’ve spent more than 600 hours online with all of you. Over 600 daily words of wisdom later, I know this book wouldn’t be done without the support of this group. Thank you.

To my teams throughout my career: Sprint ION, Sprint ID, Sprint Navigation, Softbank, Pinsight, Cincinnati Bell, thanks for the collaboration and the lessons learned that turned into wisdom shared in this book. Thanks especially to the ID and Pinsight teams where I think we did some of the very best work I’ve seen during my career: Jeff Contino, Abhik Barua, Mike Gailloux, Tom Anderson, Samuel Golomeke, Sowmya Kamaraju, Richard Dysinger, Danny Cates, Kenn Raaf, Bonnie Shakib, Katie Monsees, Jay Indurkar, Anand Arivukkarasu, Dan Dryden and Jen Walsh.

Thanks to all the people who helped me, collaborated with me, corrected me, counseled me or inspired me while I was at Sprint or Pinsight Media and have stayed connected in the post-Sprint days: Gil Gilliam, Jeff Luther, Jenny Tarwater, Ben Jones, Rob Burcham, Gooch Denice, Ashley Ivkovic (Have A F*cking Point!) Jon Ochenas, Jenn Brockman, Serge Bushman, Bryan Gorman, Donnelle Weller, Harry Lai, Jennifer Schafer, John Swiecicki, Brooke Bobe, JP Brocket, Charnsin Tulyasathien, Kristen Miller, Beth Gorzney, Brian Burchfield, Clyde Heppner, Cindy Sullivan, Charles Stunson, Scott Gibson, Alison Hill, Kristin Simeroth, Bob Winebrenner, and Monique Faros. Let’s grab coffee or a drink sometime soon so I can thank you again personally.

At one company early in my career, I worked with eight different bosses over a two-year period. Then I came to Sprint and started to hit my stride working with a series of senior leaders including Jerry Adriano, Paul Sapenaro, Doug Dickerson, Evan Conway, Prag Shah, Ashwin Shashindranath, Joe Dudley, Mark Bolar and Nathan Stout. Thanks for your leadership and your example.

When I left Sprint/Pinsight and started up my product management consulting company Tyghtwyre, one of the first things I realized was that my network from Sprint was all over the globe and not really in Kansas City. I started to explore the KC start-up community and found it vibrant and welcoming. There are so many people to thank for making Kansas City a great business ecosystem. I’m sure I’m going to miss some key groups and leave out key people but they include Ewing Marion Kaufman Foundation, Kansas City Business Journal, Startland News, InnovateHER KC (Lauren Conaway), the Start-up Hustle podcast (the Matts - DeCoursey and Watson and Lauren), 1 Million Cups, KCRise Fund (Darcy Howe), UMKC Innovation Center/Technology Ventures Studio/SourceLink/Digital Sandbox KC (Maria Meyers, Jill Meyer, Chris Rehkamp, Charlotte Clark), Novel Capital (Carlos Antequera), Flyover Capital (Thad Langford), Keystone Innovation District (Kevin McGinnis), Pipeline Entrepreneurs  (Melissa Vincent), Mid-America Angels, Digital Health KC (Maria Flynn), Seck & Associates (Sheila Seck), Larissa Uredi, Donald Hawkins, Eze Redwood, Toby Rush, Lesa Mitchell, T-Mobile Accelerator (Ari DeGrote, Tina Peterson), Erik Wullschleger, Mike and Gale McRoberts, Full Scale (The Matts, Jessica Powell), PROOF (Grant Gooding, Courtney Chapman), Crema (George Brooks) and so many more. If I missed you, my only excuse is that I relied heavily on my LinkedIn connections as a prompt. Please send me a note so I can include you in future versions of the book.

One of my greatest discoveries in the last six years working in the KC startup community has been finding and participating in mentoring teams through the Enterprise Center in Johnson County. The team mentoring approach is not only great for the startups but gives me a chance to learn from other wiser souls who are giving back to their community. Thanks to all of them but especially to the recent teams that had to listen to me talk about this project for so long and always asked for updates on my progress. Thanks to all the Growth Mentoring Service mentors including Gary Gilson, Bruce Reed, Adi Walavalkar, John Christy, Taylor Clark, Garet King, Dan O’Reilly, Mickey Parker, Shawn Kinkade, John Hanson, David Larrabee, Elizabeth Usovicz, Becky Johnston, Tracy Nice, Bill Johnston, Matthew Mellor, Kip Wiggins, Cheryl Wright, Ken Millman and Pat Keplinger. Your contributions and wisdom show up in these pages and your support helped keep me motivated to see this project completed. Thanks also to the ECJC team -- Jeff Shackelford, Rebecca Gubbels, and Jenn Hackett along with former teammates Melissa Roberts Chapman, Wayne Morgan and Kathryn Golden for all your energy to make the program happen day-to-day.

To the memory of a couple people who may be gone but who still have an impact on me today, Jack Diemer and Steve Weadock. Jack was one of the first people I ever chose to be on my team working on Sprint ION. He was a great product manager, a fantasy baseball buddy and a loyal friend. Steve was my high school civics teacher who became a trusted friend and always encouraged me to reach my potential. I know he would have been proud to see this book on one of his many bookshelves. Miss you Diemer and Wead.

To Mark Winegardner, my college roommate (also a fantasy baseball champion and very accomplished author) who encouraged me to write my first published pieces for The Miami Student back at Miami University. I think that was the first time that anyone besides a teacher ever read something I wrote, and it changed how I thought of myself. Thanks Mark.

To my brothers, Marc and Scott, two of the most innovative minds I've ever known, thank you for sharing your unique perspectives and imaginative ideas. Your ability to envision and create your art and music is a constant inspiration that drives me to push my boundaries and think outside the box. Thank you for this invaluable lesson.

To my Mom, a champion debater in high school, thanks for teaching me how to put together words in a persuasive way. I hope it showed up in these pages. You encouraged my academic pursuits and also let me make a mess in the kitchen trying to learn to cook. I think that helped start my love of making things. 

To my Dad, a coach and teacher, thanks for teaching me that how you win is just as important as winning itself. You showed me how to make hard choices that are aligned with values and integrity. Thanks for always believing in me and encouraging me to take risks. Your example of hard work and dedication has been an inspiration. Mom and Dad, I’ll always appreciate your unquestioned love and support.

Thanks to my boys, Reggie and Myles, along with the angels that came before them. I grew up a dog person, but now realize as I get older that cats are more my vibe. YMMV. But no matter what animals you decide to love, our pets love us back and remind us to stay in the moment. Their presence in our life is one of the greatest gifts we can experience. They deserve the best lives we can give to them. Always. 

And finally, thanks to my wife Laurie. There are no words sufficient, but I’ll try. When you came into my life, everything changed for the better. It hasn’t always been easy getting to this point, but I never felt your support waver. This is OUR book. You were the inspiration, the first reader, the trusted editor. Thank you for telling me I could do it on the days I had doubts and for showing up for me when it was hard and I needed a bit of a push. This book wouldn’t exist without you. Period. We did it. Together. I love you.