As Founder and General Partner of Atento Capital, Michael leads the firm's vision and strategy for investments and programs. Michael spends his days sourcing deals, supporting portfolio companies, and developing programs. Michael started his entrepreneurial journey as a lemonade stand owner at age eight; by nine, he had monopolized the intersection by hiring four of his friends. Through undergrad and business school, he opened and operated 22 coffee shops and managed a $19M, 400-person coffee operation. Michael eventually partnered with close friends to grow a product manufacturing company to nearly $40M in revenue before selling it to a publicly traded company. During that time, Michael began investing in real estate as well as angel investing. This led him to join Spotad, one of his portfolio companies, as President, building the business from $0 to $16M in revenue in under two years.
In 2016, Michael felt much was at stake in the presidential election, and could not sit on the sidelines. He joined the Clinton campaign, organizing in Madison, Wisconsin. The huge disparity between what Michael experienced in Wisconsin vs. his past experiences in California and New York led him to realize the country had become bifurcated in its distribution of opportunity. This understanding eventually led him to move to Tulsa in early 2018, where he partnered with the George Kaiser Family Foundation to launch Atento Capital.
During his 7+ years in Tulsa, while leading Atento, Michael and his team deployed over half a billion dollars in venture capital through investments in 35 venture funds and venture studios and 66 companies. Atento led 18 of those investments and Michael sat on 8 boards and 4 LPACs. In parallel, the Atento team led the ideation, development, and startup of 9 ongoing organizations, largely in the talent attraction and development space, that facilitated the movement of over 5,000 people to Tulsa.
Michael received his BA and MBA from The University of Southern California and has lived in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, London, Tel Aviv, and Tulsa, Oklahoma. He has spent the last year in Cordoba, Argentina, and is headed to Boston in Summer 2025 to attend the Harvard Kennedy School’s Mid-Career Masters in Public Administration program. Michael is husband to Romi, and father to Leo, Olivia, Sofia, and his furry daughter, Osita.