Eric was born in Lake Forest, Illinois, but was raised in Bristol, Wisconsin. He grew up having to make extremely tough decisions, such as deciding to root for the Bears or Packers… just kidding. But cheering on the Cubs… not so much (also, now you know he's not a bandwagon fan).
In all reality, growing up on the state line and playing sports in Illinois while going to school in rural Wisconsin taught him a lot at an early age about the different walks of life.
Eric was always an extremely outgoing, emotional, and friendly kid — these characteristics really were the basis of learning to connect with people from different backgrounds, and encouraged me to get out of my comfort zone to create shared experiences and extend new bridges to curate new friendships.
He was also a strong student, took several AP classes, but also managed to procure two underage drinking tickets at the age of 15. It’s not fun having an even earlier curfew your senior year than your freshman, but that’s what happens when you break trust.
Eric went to school at UW-Madison, and graduated from the Wisconsin School of Business. Good ol’ Madison, where he tailgated too much, studied too little, but made the right amount of friends and had the perfect amount of cheese curds. This landed me a nifty, high-paying job at Epic Systems as a project manager for Radiology implementation for EMRs into large hospitals.
This is the same place he lasted a mere 11 months before beginning his entrepreneurial journey, and failing very hard for the next 7 to 8 years until present day.
He has co-founded (or been a partner in) three companies that have eclipsed seven figures (the fourth will happen this year), invested in two startups, built a solid personal cryptocurrency portfolio (hedge fund coming soon), and helped contribute to a 21.4M raise for a venture-backed men’s apparel company.
Website: http://ericallred.com/
