Speaking Put Mike In Front Of Your Room
Twenty companies, ten board seats, and a million people who listen to him say the parts most founders leave out.
Check Availability →He's Not A Speaker Who Studied This
Most business speakers are describing a room they've never sat in.
They've read the case study. They haven't made payroll on a Friday with nothing in the account, or watched a term sheet turn into something they'd regret for six years.
Mike has done the thing he's talking about, twenty times over.
Founded, scaled, raised, exited. Sat on the investor side of the table and told founders no. Built companies that have generated $170 million in revenue, and taken three of them through exit.
He's also been on the losing end of it, and he'll say so on stage, which is the part audiences actually remember.
They need someone who's been wrong and will admit it.
What He Speaks On
Three talks, each built from work he actually does. Every one adapts to the room — founders, operators, or a mixed business audience.
Owning > Earning
Why a salary stopped being a plan. Capital has outrun labor for two hundred years, and AI just widened the gap. What that means for anyone whose expertise makes someone else rich.
Raise From Strength
What investors actually decide on. The meeting isn't where a raise is won. Mike has pitched for money and written the check — this is the version from both sides of the table.
Burn Rate + Bull$hit
The parts founders leave out. The near-misses, the bad terms, the hires that broke things. The conversation he has on the podcast, live, with the audience in it.
However Your Event Is Built
Keynote
30 to 60 minutes. One of the three talks, shaped to your audience and your theme.
Fireside
Moderated conversation. Works best when the host is willing to ask the uncomfortable question.
Panel
Founder, investor, or operator panels. He's useful on all three because he's been all three.
Workshop
Half or full day, hands-on. Attendees leave with work finished, not notes taken.
Where He's Spoken
Twin Cities Startup Week
The Rebel Alliance: From a Mayor's Perspective. A fireside with Hollies J. Winston, Mayor of Brooklyn Park, on how a city actually backs its founders — and where that partnership breaks down.
Allina Health Research Day
Innovation to Commercialization. Hosted by the Allina Health Research & Innovation Institute — moving an idea out of a clinical setting and into a market that will pay for it.
Augsburg University
Army of 1. The Innovator Series at the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship — six speakers a year, following Cargill's former CEO and the CEO of American Public Media Group.
Also on the Twin Cities Startup Week stage: the founder PR and media panel, moderated by Newsweek's Arick Wierson.
Other rooms: OrthoPreneur Symposium 2.0 (Owning > Earning), the Cambia Health Innovation Summit, Content Crib 2025, IPAWS 2024, and the monthly Impero Tribe pitch sessions.
Tell Us About Your Event
Date, audience, format, and what you want them walking out with. We'll come back with availability and a fit — or tell you honestly if he's the wrong speaker for your room.
Most inquiries answered within two business days.
What People Say After
He's part strategist, part realist, and part warrior — you want him in the room when decisions get tough.
His belief never comes quietly. It comes with questions, challenge, and fierce loyalty. He's not just a board member. He's a catalyst.
Owning > Earning
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