Howdy 👋🏼

I’m Nick Gray. Most people know me as the Founder of Museum Hack.

I hate museums. That’s why I started Museum Hack. It was featured in a popular TEDx talk. Then I grew it to a multi-million dollar business.

In 2018, I removed myself as CEO and put someone else in charge.

Then in 2019, I sold Museum Hack in an interesting way. It starts with a juicy takeover; read the story here.

In my 20s (I’m 39 now), I helped build and grow our family business.

My father started Flight Display Systems in the basement of our house. The company made avionics equipment for private jets and military aircraft.

I helped grow it to 75 employees. I lead our hiring, marketing, and international sales.

My mother was our CFO. It really was a family business! Then we sold it. During the last year, I had moved on to start Museum Hack.

Please note: I have spent the last 23 years habitually over-sharing my life on the internet. As such, you will find hundreds of unflattering photographs and video clips of me. I make no apologies for this. But trust that I will be ever as charming, and three times as attractive, when we meet in the flesh.

I’ve been doing “business stuff” for a long time. In middle school, I designed simple websites for Texas companies. It felt neat to be 14 years old and making $70 per hour.

In high school, I started a web hosting company called vs3 Web Services.

I got really lucky: if you searched on Yahoo! for the phrase “cheap web hosting,” my page was the first one to show up. That success helped pay for my college.

I went to Wake Forest University in North Carolina. I was a member of the Lilting Banshees Comedy Troupe and I was a Presidential Scholar in Entrepreneurship.

One project that I worked on in college got a lot of press: BuddyGopher was like a blog for away messages on AOL Instant Messenger. We had thousands of daily users and full-page features in USA Today, the Washington Post, and more.

I tried to build BuddyGopher into a big company- including moving to India after college- but that didn’t work out. I still learned a lot. I love India. In 2011, I produced a Bollywood music video.

Anyhow. I guess I spent my 20s largely alone and working to build our family business.

Then I spent my 30s in the hustle and bustle of New York City, launching and growing Museum Hack.

Now I’m 39, like I said, and I recently left New York City.

I never thought I’d say that — “I left New York City” — but this COVID-19 pandemic is wild.

I moved to Texas. I run a small family office. I hope to give more philanthropically. I want to make the world better in certain ways.

I wonder what I’ll do with my 40s. I have some ideas! But let’s see.

Thanks for reading all of this. My main purpose now is to convince you to sign up for my Friends Newsletter.

It’s unlike any other newsletter: There aren’t any ads, and I only send it every month or two when I find something amazing.

Like a great business book, an amazing Netflix show, or a fascinating new tech gadget to share.

If you’re curious, you can see the archives here and browse a recent issue.

This one is good – Friends news: Couples therapy 👩‍❤️‍👨

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