EVAN M REAS

When I was 18, I had my first "wilderness period" where I traveled alone to Africa and lived with the Samburu tribe for four months. I was honored to be given the title of Honorary tribesman in a ceremony before I left. There, I helped with HIV research in villages with HIV rates as high as 90%, did wildlife conservation studies and immersed myself in the Samburu culture.  While in Africa, I placed 2nd in the Marala International Camel Derby, and participated a number of traditional Samburu ceremonies. I also taught them to play Ultimate frisbee and left them with a few frisbees. I like to imagine that they started their own frisbee league when I left :).  They are some of the most amazing people I've met in my life. 

I was born and raised in a small farming community called Ashton, Wisconsin surrounded by cows, corn fields, and farms.  Ashton had one church (St Peters), two bars (Connies and Rockies Tap) and was about 30 minutes away from the nearest grocery store. Strangers would wave to each other as they drove past each other. It was an amazing place to grow up and I'm proud to call myself a Wisconsinite.

I was a co-captain of the Ohio Wesleyan University Firedogs Ultimate Frisbee Team.  We practiced at 6am, running up and down the stairs, played in the heart of the Ohio Winter, and never, ever gave up, coming back from a 9-1 deficit, 5-0 deficit and many more.  We were always the most intense team on the field and I learned as much about life on the Ultimate field as I did anywhere else. I still play 3 times a week and am constantly trying to improve my teammates and my game.

I started investing in the stock market when I was 12 years old, playing with a few hundred dollars of my own money and some fantasy stock market dollars.  By the age of 16, I convinced my parents to let me manage $10,000 of their retirement money.  A week after I had it, 9/11 struck, the market crashed and I was down to $2,000.  I never told my father what happened until 13 months later when I was back up to $10,100 through discipline and research.  Over the next few years, I turned that $10,100 into $250,000 with my innovative investment concepts.

I also worked in Venture Capital in South Africa where sourced technology investments, worked with portfolio companies across Africa and learned the capital side of entrepreneurship.  

"Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming." - Coach John Wooden

I am the co-founder of a company to help people reach their career potential through mentorship and constant learning. I believe the biggest opportunity in the world is underutilized human potential and I have a company to try and close that gap. I'm lucky to have some amazing investors who believe in me including Marc. Andreessen, Kay Luo, Scott Cook, Ashton Kutcher, Keith Rabois, David Sacks and others. 

I attended undergrad at Ohio Wesleyan University, was a Visiting Student at the New College of St. Mary's At Oxford and am a graduate of the business school at Stanford.  While at Business School, I led a 2 week research trip to India and met some incredible people. I also took numerous design school (dSchool) courses including "Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability" where my team invented, manufactured and sold tens of thousands of manual "corn shuckers" to farmers in Ethiopia.