Hi! I am David Engle and am based in Portland, Maine. Ever since I can remember, I have been building businesses (going from 0 to 1) and having as much fun as possible doing it! To build an effective business, one must have strong and deep relationships -- that is what I am constantly working on and building, day in and day out.
When not building a business or building a relationship, i'm running, rock climbing, cooking, or hiking. Feel free to reach out at on linkedin or @engledavid on twitter.
Focus
Build businesses that care deeply about its employees and customers, while focusing on generating profit from day 1.
Snapshot of Personal (Non Business) Goals
By 2030 run a sub 5 minute mile
By 2030 qualify for Boston Marathon
By 2075, preserve 10,000 acres of land
Businesses (most recent to oldest)
Upright Labs. E-commerce SaaS software powering 4,000+ secondhand retailers including Goodwill, Salvation Army, and Habitat for Humanity. Software powers over $250m in yearly revenue for our partners. The Upright team, comprised of 25+ members, has designed and implemented over 3 million square feet of warehouse space. Fully bootstrapped and lead the company from $0 in revenue to millions in yearly ARR. Exited to PE firm.
Masquerade. Buying and selling secondhand clothing from clothing recyclers. We bought 1000s of pounds of branded clothing each week from recyclers who bought from Goodwill. Every item we bought had a Goodwill sticker on it and we would then sell it for 6-8x the price that we paid recyclers for it. Average time to sell was under 7 days. Utilized knowledge to help build Upright Labs. Exited to VC backed high end fashion marketplace.
The Q Truck. Fun Quesadilla food truck near and around the University of Maryland campus. Had an idea, law didn't allow it. Lobbied local government to adjust laws to allow food trucks. Bought a run down truck, and re-furbished it from the ground up. Day 1 on truck, sold over 200 quesadillas. After working 9 months on truck and 18+ hr days, decided it was not as scalable as I had thought. Sold business for amount of money that we had invested into it.
College Park Ventures. To allow the Q Truck to operate, launched a real estate business focused on leasing parking lot space and sub-leasing to food truck operators. Was a lucrative business but passed on business once the Q Truck was sold.
Startup Village. Secured 2 housed on 4 acres of land near University of Maryland for 10 entrepreneurs to live and work together. Highly subsidized. In the first month in the house, the entrepreneurs as a group generated over $250k in revenue. Concept lasted for 3+ years until the houses were eventually torn down.
Demere. Computer vision startup to suggest which clothing in your closet to wear based on the event you were attending, with whom, and based on the weather outside. Built the needed tech and had capital secured, but ultimately decide to kill the business as there was not a clear way to find product market fit.
Carnivals for Children on Wheels. Love making people smile. Built a not for profit organization that brought free carnivals to children who were underprivileged, mentally and/or physically disabled in the NYC metro area. In less than 4 years, brought the carnivals to over 4000 children and had over 100 active volunteers. This was fully accomplished in high school.
Investments
Love investing in startups and businesses. Below is a list of criteria I look for. My hope is that each business fits at least 1 of the below criteria points. Even if you don't fit this list, feel free to connect and even if it is not the right fit, maybe I can intro you to someone who will be!
Working on products/solutions to make sure the Planet doesn't go to shit
B2B SaaS products growing at 50% YoY
EBITDA focused mindset. 20% of yearly revenue.