Hi. I’m Lawrence, and I guess you could say I’m addicted to start-up life. In 1996, I started my first company, and since then, I have started (and exited) four more. Maybe it’s the “anything is possible” mindset, or maybe I'm just a glutton for punishment. 🤷🏻 Want to know more about me and my start-up life? Keep reading.
I sold my last company in January of 2024, but more on that in a moment…
About the middle of this year, I embarked on my fifth start-up, Fanbravo. I thought about what was important to me (besides my health and family), what I liked, and what I knew about. I landed on sports, music, and technology. But how do I combine all three? I thought about some of the problems associated with sports and music besides losing the game or singing out of tune.
For over 15,000 years, people have been highly engaged in watching and supporting their favorite team or favorite wrestler, boxer, spear-thrower, gladiator, tennis star, or football player. People are intrigued by the element of skill, not knowing the outcome, and the excitement and communal environment to cheer for a winner. AI can start to make predictions, and technology can enhance the athlete or provide more data on performance and training, but any sporting event is still based on a competition between humans with an unknown outcome.
Although the thrill of sports has been around for millennia, the winners are typically highly skilled, enjoy celebrity, and are afforded more wealth. What's more, colleges, owners, and agents make the rules and control the flow of cash to the athletes. As they say, “to the victor go the spoils.” But what if the second-string player makes a winning interception and sends his team to the playoffs? What if a third-string alternate basketball player makes the winning shot? What if an unranked tennis player beats the favorite? These are all important plays, but in most cases, the athlete is not financially rewarded.
As I peeled back the idea, I realized that the same practice is true not only in sports but also in essentially any form of entertainment or performance involving a human being and a skill or talent. There is always a gatekeeper in control. This was my problem statement.
Most athletes, entertainers, and performers are grossly underpaid and controlled by others. Despite driving billions in revenue activation, their ability to personally monetize their talent and brand is stifled by two significant barriers: a lack of direct-to-fan revenue channels and gatekeepers controlling the flow of cash.
At Fanbravo, we see a massive opportunity to correct the imbalance. By enabling seamless, real-time payments from fans, we’re removing the middleman and unlocking a new fan-driven economy. Our platform ensures that talent is rewarded instantly, fairly, and directly - because when fans are given the power to pay for the moments that inspire them, everyone wins.
Our vision became clear: To revolutionize how fans support their passions by activating a more equitable and inclusive economy of reward and monetization.
Fanbravo is a payment marketplace that lets fans show financial support to their favorite athletes, teams, and entertainers.
Fanbravo is will be available Q2, 2025. If you want to learn more, please email us at info@fanbravo.com.
Start-up #4 Trivie
From 2011 to January 2024, I was the chief executive officer, chairman, and co-founder of Trivie®, an AI platform for workforce learning, upskilling, and memory retention. Great people and great customers such as Disney, General Motors, and McDonald's contributed to our success — and I am honored to have been a part of it.
In January 2024, Trivie was acquired by Quantum5 Technologies, a leading technology platform for the automotive industry.
In 2021, Trivie was named one of the Best Products of the Year and Best Advance in Learning Management Technology by eLearning Magazine. Trivie also received the Gold Award from The Brandon Hall Group for Best Use of Games for Learning in 2023. In 2022, Trivie won the Innovations in Talent and Workforce award by DCEO Magazine. Trivie’s consumer app, Battle of Wits, was one of the most popular apps in the world, ranking as the No. 1 game on the Apple App Store®.
Start-up #3 - Brainceuticals
In 2007, I had a traumatic brain injury, and during my recovery, I read and listened to everything I could get my hands on regarding the brain — how to heal it, how to strengthen it, how to grow it, and how to nourish it. As I wondered what I could do to heal myself, it occurred to me that, since the body needs nutrition to become healthier and stronger, the brain probably does, too.
So, I compiled and started taking a potent blend of vitamins and herbs that my research indicated would assist in the healing process and make my brain stronger. This turned out to be critical to my recovery — and the start of company #3, Brainceuticals.
In early 2011, Brainceuticals was acquired by Onnit Labs and was repurposed as Alpha Brain® - becoming the #1 brain supplement in the world.
Start-up #2 - Stampede Beer
Well, I used to really like beer (I also worked for Anheuser-Busch Corporate as my first job out of college). So, after start-up #1 was acquired, I started a micro-brewing company, Stampede. Stampede was the first and only alcoholic beverage to receive United States government approval for a vitamin formulation. No, really. Look it up - we even made Forbes Magazine on the subject.
After securing distribution in 17 states and hanging with celebrities and athletes, I decided to sell Stampede and move on to greener pastures. Oh, that's also about the time when the brain thing happened.
In 1996, I started my first company, a door-to-door computer repair company called Fixx My PC (think Geek Squad @Best Buy). I came up with the idea because my computer was constantly breaking, and I had difficulty finding someone to fix it. We quickly became very popular and started raising capital to fuel our growth.
After 18 months or so, we changed our name to Service 911.com and started providing on-site computer repair throughout Texas and telephone and desktop support nationally. Then things started to heat up!
In late 1998, we raised another $14 million and rebranded as Attenza - an enterprise software company for knowledge and service management. Our customer list also grew with companies like Dell, McKesson, American Express, and others. We also acquired a few companies; before you knew it, we had almost 300 employees.
In late 1999, we hired Chase Bank to take us public. We then did the Wall Street road show, completed our audits, and finalized our S-1. Our plan was to do our IPO in the Spring of 2000, but then the dot-com bubble popped.
At about the same time, Chase Bank had financial trouble and was acquired by JP Morgan. Obviously, we were not going to be a public company, and we had to tighten our belts, batten down the hatches, or whatever expression you want to use for a time in history when companies were being sucked into the black hole of insolvency.
Fortunately, after 12 months, we were able to make the appropriate personnel adjustments, get the company profitable, and partner with another company so we could continue as a going concern. Once again, we rebranded, this time as Skywire.
The closing credits read that it all worked out. Skywire was acquired in 2008 for over $200 million by Oracle®, and everyone rode off into the sunset with a smile.
Personally, I am happily married to an amazing woman, have three kick-ass kids, play a little guitar, and love Metallica and KISS.
In 1989, I received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Oklahoma at Norman. I was also a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity and an NCAA powerlifting champion. In 2018, I started powerlifting again and set a few state records. Most recently, in August of 2024.
On the cerebral side, I’ve authored two books: The Professional’s Guide to Fitness (Taylor Trade Publishing) and Fat Daddy/FitDaddy (Rowman Littlefield Publishing).
I have received several awards and all that jazz, but you have probably read enough about me by now…😉
Cheers!
