Michael Barker Email and Phone Number

Everybody eventually quits their job to walk 2,652 miles from Mexico to Canada. At least I thought that. So in 2018, at 28, I hiked the entire Pacific Crest Trail over five months, one step at a time.I. Was. Wrong. Nobody really wants to go without a shower, eat ramen and mashed potatoes, or suffer from innumerable aches and pains for days, weeks, months on end. Except for me.I thought about quitting approximately 5,000 times (lowball estimate, actually!) But despite the mental and physical fatigue, and the ramen-mashed-potato-mix overdose, I kept going. I’m that person. Once I say I’ll do something, it will happen.That’s why I like sales and entrepreneurship. They both reflect the perfect elixir of hard work, grit, fear-of-failure, with the added potential risk of embarrassment, but the payoff can be like winning the lottery. Finishing the PCT was my lottery. Words fail to describe that sensation of crossing the Canadian border, but I could only guess it’s like medaling in the Olympics. Speaking of the Olympics and other things that make me proud: I coached two girls to be part of the USA National Climbing Team (girls that will likely qualify for the Olympics several years from now); tried to start my own company but ended up spending five years managing a startup climbing gym; and I now manage a sales team of young professionals, whose entire goal is to convince individuals with their MBAs from Stanford and Harvard who work in Venture, Private Equity and Investment Banking, that they could do their job better with a data-provider.At the end of the day, ultimately, who am I? Outdoor-endurance-adrenaline junkie probably describes me best. That or Clark Kent a.k.a. Superman: "mild-mannered" dress-shirt wearing office-employee with a secret alter-ego that nobody knows about (most people don’t know I hiked the PCT or that I'm outdoorsy). Mon-Fri, I wear a button down shirt; Sat-Sun, I ski, climb, hike, cycle, and live for the outdoors. Someday I hope to found, scale, and IPO my own company (hopefully in the outdoor industry!), but before I get that winning lottery ticket, I will continually hone my management, leadership and sales skills, or work at a VC or PE shop before I get there. But as mentioned above: Once I say I’ll do something, it will happen!!