I’m Sean. I’ve spent the last decade and a half building and investing in companies, from inception through growth.
Work & background
- Merit Holdings — Long-term ownership, durable growth & applied AI.
- Racepace — Coaching and community for endurance athletes.
- Pathlight Ventures — Inception and pre-seed through early Series A.
- OpenView — Growth investing. Series A, Series B, and beyond.
- Dispatch — Company building in field services software.
Talk to me about
- You have early customers getting value, but haven’t found a repeatable way to reach more.
- You’re assessing a business’s capacity for durable growth and where applied AI can strengthen it.
- You’re exploring an unusual ownership or capital structure, particularly where data, software, and operating businesses meet.
Questions I keep coming back to
- Data as float. Can a data business fund a permanent capital vehicle whose ambitions outlast the original business?Working note ↗
- Learning from real-world work. How do recorded workflows, verifiable outcomes, and proprietary data become training grounds for AI and robotics?
- Who captures AI’s value? Does AI strengthen existing software businesses—or route around them? Where do customer value and durable profits accumulate?Working note ↗
- Distribution when agents do the buying. What happens to discovery, advertising, and competition when businesses sell to a customer’s agent?
- Capital allocation & ownership. How do cash flow, control, incentives, and capital structure give companies room to make ambitious bets?
Selected writing
Capital Markets Roundup ↗My archive of writing on markets and companies.My Leadville 100 Training ↗Structure, consistency, and the preparation behind a long day on the bike.My Leadville 100 Fueling Strategy ↗The plan, the constraints, and what actually happened on race day.Outside work
- Cycling, training, and racing. Leadville 100 finisher.
- Former president and captain, Boston College men’s rowing.