Two high performers. Two different industries. One shared realization that changed everything.
Between us, we have played Division I hockey, figure skated professionally, and spent years climbing corporate ladders in industrial, sports and tech, delivering results, leading teams, and doing exactly what we were told success looked like.
The moment it clicked was not gradual. It was specific.
We had just closed out a strong year. Beat our numbers, led our team well, did everything right. Then came the order to let someone go anyway. Not because of performance. Because leadership above had not delivered what the business wanted, and someone had to absorb it.
Shortly after, my wife — one of the top performers at her company and a long-tenured contributor — was laid off. Not because of her work. Because her salary was too high. She was paid well for what she delivered, and that made her a target when cuts came to clean up the balance sheet.
We are numbers on a spreadsheet. So is everyone around us.
With a new baby on the way and two corporate incomes suddenly feeling fragile, we stopped waiting and started building something different.
The Deal Bench is our answer.
We are not financial advisors. We are not gurus. We are a family based in Colorado, building toward FIRE and a life in San Diego, who got serious about creating income, tools, and opportunities that do not depend on anyone else's org chart.
Every tool on this site is one we built or use ourselves. Every strategy is one we are actually running. Nothing here is theoretical.
This is built for high-performing corporate individuals and families who are done being someone else's asset and ready to build their own.