I was born and raised in Germany. My family started a small insurance company in 1879, which over the past 130+ years has emerged as Germany's largest insurance brokerage firm. As the oldest son, my destiny to take over the family business was determined while I was still playing in the school yard as a little boy.Being a builder, passionate innovator and creative thinker at the core, I realized that the path of an insurance executive was not the life I had envisioned, regardless of the lifetime of financial freedom that would have come with it. At 18, I founded my first technology company while still attending high school, working nights to grow my startup. Just a year later, I left behind my family, friends and country, forfeited my inheritance, skipped college, and moved to Southern California to pursue entrepreneurship. Within five years of coming to the US, I was fortunate enough to have founded and sold three companies despite much hardship.Wanting to evolve in my passion for entrepreneurship, I took my strengths in innovation and startups to the next level by founding my own venture capital firm at the age of 24, becoming one of the youngest founding members of a VC firm in the country. I am not a hardcore capitalist. My philosophy is simple: Businesses can (and should) make significant contributions to people, society, the environment and the overall human experience.Since founding Funk Ventures, I have invested in and helped start almost 20 companies in the medical, health, wellness and clean technology sectors. I have sat on more than a dozen boards, many of which I led as Chairman. Sometimes, I crave starting another business, such as Pink Lotus, a multi-faceted women's health organization with a focus on breast cancer, which I founded with my wife Kristi, a phenomenal surgeon.Our 9-year old triplet boys keep us b-u-s-y. In my free time (...right) I am a competitive runner, cyclist, ultramarathoner and multiple Ironman finisher.