
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 Tasia 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 70+ employees by leading our hiring, marketing, and international sales.
My mother was our CFO. It really was a family business! Then we sold it. My parents sold it, really. I wasn’t much involved in the sale. 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.
In middle school, I designed simple HTML 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 helped pay for my college.
I went to Wake Forest University in North Carolina. I was a member of the Lilting Banshees Comedy Troupe.
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.
Anyhow. I guess I spent my 20s largely alone and working on 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 pandemic is wild.
I moved to Texas and I run a small family office, as one does, I guess.
I wonder what I’ll do with my 40s. I have some ideas! But let’s see.
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 when I find something amazing.
Like a great business book, an amazing Netflix show, or a great 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 👩❤️👨
Find out why over 9,000 investors, CEOs, and museum curators love my non-traditional monthly newsletter.
Sign up for it here. It’s free.
I’VE BEEN FEATURED IN
You can click any of these logos to read more about things I’ve done:
(I don’t like unlinked sources.)
ARTICLES ABOUT ME
- Bloomberg Businessweek: Reaching Fresh Audiences
- New York Times: Get the Most Out of a Visit to the Museum
- National Trust for Historic Preservation: 40 Under 40: People Saving Places
- My TEDx: How I learned to stop hating and love museums, by Nick Gray
- Lifehacker: I’m Nick Gray, Founder of Museum Hack, and This Is How I Work
This is one of the best pieces of content that I’ve ever made:
RECENT PROJECTS
- MY BLOG – I write about business, investing, my hobbies, and travel
- MY TRAVEL VIDEOS – Watch some short fun videos that I make for my friends
- FRIENDS NEWSLETTER – Find out why CEOs, investors, and museum curators love my emails
- THE $10,000,000 QUESTION – If I had $10M, how would I live my life differently? How would you?
- INVESTOR RELATIONS FIRMS – I couldn’t find a good database or list of investor relations firms in NYC. So I made my own.
- NORMANDIE PANELS BY JEAN DUPAS – I maintain this de facto online resource as a hobby project
- MY BEST ARTICLES – Check out a few of my favorite business articles
- BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT COMPANIES – Investing for yield? I am curious about BDCs. Here’s where I share my notes on them.
A Brief History of Nick Gray (That’s Me)
- 2020 Writing about business development companies and investor relations firms.
- 2019 I sold Museum Hack. Read about how, and to whom.
- 2015 ELLE.COM’S 41 MOST ELIGIBLE BACHELORS I was ranked 40 out of 41, so I guess I’m not the absolute worst.
- 2013 Museum Hack gives museum tours for people who don’t like museums (Founder, Tour Guide)
- 2011 BollyBrook Brooklyn Meets Bollywood Music Video (Producer, Creator)
- 2009 New York magazine: Meet Nick Gray, Thrower of ‘Culturally Significant’ Williamsburg Parties
- 2004 Flight Display Systems (family business, sold 2014)
- 2003 BuddyGopher (founder) — full page articles in USA Today, Washington Post
- 2001 American Pie 2 (Eugene Levy junket interview!)
- 1997 vs3 Web Services (web hosting business I started in high school)
KEYWORDS TO ME
Texas, Georgia, New York City • Wake Forest University, Clark High School and Forsyth Central High School, Hendrick Middle, Matthews Elementary • BuddyGopher, vs3 Web Services, TechnoTeen, GIF Animation Station • Arden Lake, Hunter’s Glen and Grove Park subdivisions in Kennesaw and Cumming, Georgia; Plano, Texas; and Mission Viejo, California. • I was an actor in the movie American Pie 2; you can see my six word performance on the DVD in the deleted scenes section. • My interview with Eugene Levy and Williamsburg, Brooklyn tea parties (not the political kind).
Well, this is the end!
Thank you for reading this little About page. It was last updated on Nov 20, 2020 by me (Nick).
Shoot me an email or add me on Instagram here to see what I’m up to today.