How it started

I started MarkitAds at 16, in Bethesda, Maryland, because Boosted Notify had taught me something surprising: businesses will pay a teenager if the teenager solves a problem and answers email faster than the adults. I was not a prodigy. I was available, specific, and relentless about follow-up.

The early agency did whatever legitimate work was adjacent to attention: press outreach, social growth, lead generation. Some months were great; some clients taught me expensive lessons about scope creep and about promising outcomes I couldn’t control. The thing that compounded wasn’t a niche, it was documentation. Every engagement became a checklist; every checklist made the next engagement faster. Years later I’d learn Dennis Yu teaches exactly this as doctrine: repeatable excellence beats heroics.

Where it stands

Today MarkitAds is a team of roughly twelve running two lines: PR and lead generation (client placements have included USA Today, The Washington Post and Fox 5; live links pending), and the campus activation network, the business I believe is the company that matters. In between: Mission: Mentor, 10,000 students, an acquisition by Crimson (acquirer confirmation in progress), a degree path at UNC Chapel Hill and a semester in Tokyo.

The claims on this page are sourced on my LinkedIn profile, and I hold myself to the same standard: if I cannot source it, I do not say it. What I’ll say without a source, because it’s an opinion: starting at 16 wasn’t brave. Staying honest about what actually worked is the hard part.

Sources & mentions

• LinkedIn · MarkitAds case studies