What could you not live without?
Music. I love music. I used to play guitar in a band, and I DJ on the side for fun. Some of my best ideas come when I’m at my desk with my headphones on.
What made you choose this career path?
The draw to entrepreneurship is the ability to chart your own course. It’s been something I’ve wanted to do since I was a little kid. I had newspaper routes. Sold fancy knives. Even when I was 11 going door-to-door selling gardening services, I just loved doing my own thing.
What fuels innovation?
You have to have crazy ideas. Not just incrementalism. Not just the iteration. You’ve got to think much bigger. I ask my folks here to take an idea as far is it can go. Because, if you go big, you’ll automatically know the next logical step.
Where do you see payments heading?
The fact that everyone carries a microcomputer in their pocket, via a smartphone, has been an amazing platform. That combination of GPS and payment on the phone has created a ton of opportunity for the on demand community, allowing the physical world and the online world to meet and interact. Luxe is a perfect example of this. Customers can pay for the Luxe service in real-time and on location, without having to use cash or even be physically present.
How did you come up with Luxe?
The best problems to solve are the ones that affect you directly. I was living and working in the city. I noticed that I was modifying my own behavior, because I didn’t want to deal with parking. More people are moving to the cities. It used to be that buildings were coupled with parking lots. Now, parking lots are being removed. Now they’re getting decoupled. And that’s exactly the problem we solve with Luxe. We’ve decoupled supply from demand. Your car can be parked a little further away, you don’t modify your life based on parking and the city of tomorrow will look even better.
If you had an unexpected day off, how would you spend it?
I’d take my wife to Fort Funston and we’d watch our dog, Oliver, play in the sand. He loves that. Then I’d probably put together a mix or compose some music. The thing I love about music is that it’s very analytical and also creative. It’s always great to do something where the right side of the brain meets the left side of the brain.
What’s your favorite Luxe experience.
I valet all the time to stay close to our product and experience. Sometimes I tell people that I’m the CEO, and then the customers often want to take a selfie with me. That always cracks me up.
