Work

Making and Marketing things since the 1990s.

I’ve worked for several companies, and even started a few. These days I invest my time, energy, and resources building, growing, and selling companies and websites. Here’s a list of the different projects and businesses I’ve worked on over the years, along with their current status. Lots of failures and a few successes.

Paris Vega Media (Hyper Tribal)

Paris Vega Media (now Hyper Tribal) is the first company I started back in 2006 to offer graphic design services to bands, and local businesses. I designed several CD Album Covers and logos at first. Then as my skills grew the company evolved. I learned web design & development while working on the job for an internet marketing company, so I started offering those services as a freelancer. Now all my projects start here before being sold or spinning off into their own business. Hyper Tribal, is the public name of Paris Vega Media moving forward. It better captures what the company will be doing in the future, which is focusing on niche content & audience building experiments. I don’t provide direct consulting services through PVM anymore, but you can still work with me if you become client of The Nine: Contact me.

Projects started at Paris Vega Media / Hyper Tribal:

  • [FAILED] Politifragilistic (2008) was a blog about politics written by myself and a few other friends. The idea was to talk about all the wildness of the political world as our young minds were coming online and realizing how the works, in hopes of making money from ads a long the way. It didn’t work. Nobody published content consistently and we didn’t have a clear vision or motivation to move forward.
  • [FAILED] Coffee Mug Love (2008) was a blog and a flickr photo sharing group about random coffee mugs that myself and others thought looked cool. The idea was to build an audience and community of people who liked unique coffee mugs, and make money from Google Adsense. It didn’t work out. I didn’t spend much consistent time on it, so it fizzled out even though some initial interest was shown by some light traffic and engagement at first.
  • [FAILED] Nerd Rating (2011-2014) was a news, opinion, and reviews website about media, entertainment, gaming, and tech. I wrote a little and handled the web design, development, and admin side of things. My partners on the project Scott Simmons and Trey Sterling wrote 99% of the content. They were workhorses. But we weren’t able to get enough traffic to make it work with the type of ads we had on the site at the time.
  • [ENDED] The Web Craftsmen (2012-2014) started as the web design & development services I offered through Paris Vega Media. After needing to hire friends to help on several projects, I realized it needed to be its own company. So in 2012 I partnered with Gary Hussey and we launched The Web Craftsmen as a separate business. We focused on Mobile-First Responsive Website Design & Development, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and  Software UX/UI Design. Our partnership lasted from 2012-2014. We successfully built many projects together, but it was hard learning experience since it was my first partnership and first attempt to build a real business outside of my freelance services and side projects. I didn’t know how to run a company properly at that time, but it gave me much needed painful experience. Then the company kinda got absorbed into one of our main client’s projects, The American Driver Network. I left the partnership at the end of 2014 and Gary ran the company for a few years after.
  • [FAILED] Enok Shop was a drop-shipping ecommerce store that sold survival gear and every day carry products. I started it n 2018 and only had it up for a few months. I sold a few things, but didn’t have the time, resources, or systems in place to run it as a business.
  • [FAILED] Myth Watches (2019) was a watch brand I tried to start in 2019. It never sold a watch. This project died before launch.
  • [ACTIVE] The First Customers Podcast was started in 2019 and focuses how business owners, entrepreneurs, sales people, and marketers get their first customers. The question “How do businesses get their first customers” is something I asked my self after trying to start several projects over the years. Especially in 2019 when I started several new projects and realized that having an idea and building software or a website is only a small part of what it means to build a business. Getting customers is massively important, maybe even the most important aspect of running a business. You can pre-sell to customers before having a business, product, or service in place. But you won’t be in business long without sales. So during the First Customers interviews I go deep with people with real world experience in going from zero customers to those important first customers.
  • [ACQUIRED] Truck Driving Jobs Canada was started in 2019 at Hyper Tribal as a recruiting lead gen website for truck drivers to get jobs with trucking companies in Canada. In 2021 it was acquired/merged with Trucking Labs LLC, a separate company that I started with Sean Lee, Robby White, and Hunter Davis.
  • [ACQUIRED] Local Vibes was started in 2019 at Hyper Tribal as a business directory with a focus on local lead gen and local SEO for local businesses around the world. This project was acquired by The Nine in 2020. This project became the seed that grew into The Nine’s marketing department and the services that now get results for clients around the world with Lead Gen, SEO, and Content Marketing.
  • [ACTIVE] The Real Gun Guys is a blog about guns, gear, and gun culture for gun enthusiasts, hunters, survivalists, and others. The site covers optics, scope leveling kits, holsters, and other gear related using firearms to safely protect and provide. The content is written by myself, and other gun experts who specialize in different areas. I bought this website in April of 2022 and plan on growing the brand while documenting my own journey with guns, hunting, and shooting sports. Might sell it eventually.
  • [ACTIVE] Hyper Tribal Records started in 2019 to distribute music from different bands I’ve been in over the years, and to help other artists that I promote their music by forming a partnership, I help with marketing and distribution for a small share of the royalties.
    • [BROKE UP] Blindman’s Caravan
    • [BROKE UP] Church Bus Seven
  • [ACTIVE] The Vega Family Store is an Etsy store where we sell stuff designed, built, found, or grown by my family.
  • Sometimes I post design work or experiments on Dribbble

Other Companies, Partnerships, Projects, and Investments

These projects were started outside of my company.

[FAILED] Limelight Performance (2013-2017): Healthcare patient feedback app (co-founder, design, & sales).

[ACQUIRED] American Driver Network (2013-2019): ADN is a truck driver recruiting service that was acquired in 2019 by TransForce. I joined in 2013 as a contractor for New Vision Innovative Marketing where I helped grow the service to millions in value while serving hundreds of trucking companies. We helped connect them with thousands of truck drivers every month. I was the Digital Marketing Director and a Product Manager.

[ACTIVE] myCast.io is a Fan Casting website for movies, tv shows, books, and other types of stories. I’m joined as an investing partner and advisor in 2019.

[ACTIVE] The Nine is a Web Design, Website Development, and Digital Marketing company. I joined as a partner in 2020. Now I’m the Growth Director.

[ACTIVE] Trucking Labs offers Trucking Industry Software, Services, and Supplies. I co-founded this company in 2021. I lead product management for the software we offer, and help design our services, and help out with marketing.

[ACTIVE] Vox Verba creates powerful copywriting guides built with AI, the voices of your best people, and your customers. I’m an investing partner and advisor here.

[ACTIVE] Biospherian is a regenerative real estate company with the mission of creating profitable real estate holdings that also improve the land and local environment of the properties over time. I’m the founder of this company and my wife and I run it together. We have big plans but we’re very early.