Small Town, Big Dreams: Why This Newsletter Exists

The front porch is a special place. When I think back to my childhood in Indiana, many of my favorite memories took place there.

Watching fireflies light up the yard.
Listening to the Indy 500 on the radio each year.
Rushing outside with my dad every time a big storm rolled in.
Neighbors and friends dropping by just to chat.
Quiet time with my family, soaking up every nice day before winter hit.

Looking back, I realize that porch time is what made me an entrepreneur.
Hours of thinking, dreaming, and running wild ideas by my parents. No distractions or overstimulation. Just possibility.

I’ll always be a Midwest kid at heart, but I knew I’d eventually grow out of my 10,000-person hometown.

I started with the safe route: business school.

But during senior year, I hit a wall. Everyone around me was chasing Big 4, Big 3, Big Banks.

I wanted something different.

I had no interest in becoming a financial analyst in Chicago.
No offense to analysts or Chicago, I just couldn’t stand the idea of spending my life chasing someone else’s idea of success.
I wanted something that actually felt like me.

I didn’t have a job lined up when I graduated.
But I did have an aunt in California.

So when a professor caught me looking apathetic after a career fair, he said, “Why don’t you move to Silicon Valley and figure it out?”

That night, I called my aunt to ask to move in. She said yes.

A few months later, I was living in Santa Clara and working at a Venture Capital firm. I didn’t even know what VC was a year earlier!

Suddenly, I was talking to startup founders from all over the world, surrounded by people building the future.

But most people don’t get that kind of break.

No family in Silicon Valley.
No professor urging them to leap.
No map or safety net to move 2,000 miles away from home.

And honestly? It’s just not fair.

That’s why I started Front Porch Founder.

Because I remember what it felt like to have the drive and ideas, but feel like you were too far removed from the world where things actually get built.

This newsletter is for value-driven people who:

I’ve been interviewing founders, early-career professionals, and builders from around the world. Many of them also came from small towns or had to figure it out without clear guidance.

The goal is this:
To surface the lessons, tools, and mindsets we all wish we had earlier.

Each week, I’ll share those insights with you.
Sometimes through personal stories.
Sometimes through interviews.
Always with practical takeaways, frameworks, and questions worth asking.

I believe:

If that sounds like something you’d read on your front porch with a cup of coffee or a glass of whiskey…

Then welcome to the porch.

Let’s build something good.

👉 If this resonated, reply and tell me where your front porch is — literally or metaphorically.