The Eberg Capital experiment — 9 months in

Since I picked up my head in early February to announce our little family project, life has been a whirlwind. Figuring out my journey in the post-IA era has not been a straight line. In March I lost my father, my second parent to die in the past 18 months. This has been very hard and even writing these words causes me to tear up. In May my younger son Ethan graduated from the University of Michigan, rendering my wife Carin and me true empty nesters. More damp eyes at the recognition that we’ve entered an entirely new phase of life. During 2022 Carin and I have increasingly focused our efforts on the state of Michigan, politically, with the University, and in downtown Detroit. We’ve come to believe that Michigan is a bellwether for our country in virtually every aspect, and that spending our time helping to prepare the state and its rich, diverse communities for a better future is a good expenditure of our time and effort. And then there is Eberg Capital, my work with my sons and our shared passions. We’ve had our own journey this year with more learnings than I care to write about today, but suffice it to say that navigating family dynamics, which includes four smart, thoughtful, wildly busy and (at times) emotional people has been a process. But the good news is that we continue to live, love and work together, and do so with great intentionality and awareness. It has been and continues to be a learning experience for all of us.

We’ve finally arrived at the point when we felt like publicly sharing our work, and this has resulted in our first website. What I can say is that it is “authentically us”, whatever that means. When I look at it, read the text and think about the founders we’ve chosen to work with (and who have chosen to work with us), it feels right. While it’s still early days, I do feel that it is broadly representative of our interests, passions and curiosities. But we, as individuals and as a team, are learning and changing, so I expect our site and its elements to evolve over time. But for now, I’m very excited to have planted this stake in the ground and to be a bit more public about our efforts. For Andrew and Ethan this is a side-hustle: Andrew is neck deep in helping “Multichain Mike” Fraietta build EmpireDAO by expanding their array of strategic partnerships, while Ethan is plying his trade as a sport betting product and marketing guru with Alex and Mike at Betr. For me Eberg is the connective tissue that links my business passions with those of my sons, and gets them to teach me and each other while benefiting from my more than three decades as a business builder and investor. It feels different than my days at IA because I’m doing this with my boys. While the content of the work is largely similar, the feelings I have are distinctly different. And this, for me, is an exciting change at this point in my life.

Onward towards and new and exciting future. And I can’t feel any luckier to be doing this with my family — including my wife. Carin may be the silent partner here but her love, support, tolerance and perspective has been and continues to be an essential element to helping us progress in a healthy way. It hasn’t always been easy, and she’s been an important source of input to help us stay on the rails — her Ph.D in Clinical Psychology has come in handy! Sometimes it’s constructive criticism from the outside that ensures things stay functional on the inside. We’re grateful for the role she has played thus far and know we’ll need her insights and support going forward. It is truly a family affair. ❤️