37th & Moss

Nick grew up on a small farm in rural southern Michigan. A legacy of family military service and a year as a page in the US House of Representatives inspired Nick to attend the United States Naval Academy and eventually serve over 11 years as an F-18 pilot. In the Navy, Nick launched off of aircraft carriers to fly combat missions over Afghanistan and Iraq, and flew as an F-18 test pilot for projects like the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System.

Nick’s career in the service exposed him to a wide variety of teams and experiences. Flying aircraft into combat and flight test events required deep coordination and trust in a diverse set of teammates. Working with engineers, mechanics, and fellow aviators to successfully test new equipment was Nick’s favorite part of his time in the Navy and pushed him down the entrepreneurial path. After departing the service in December 2020, Nick spent a year at Live Oak Bank in the Search Fund Lending department to learn more about how successful small businesses were run, then joined a VC-backed Series A SaaS startup in an operations, business analytics, and strategy role before launching the search.

Nick and his wife Maria live in Wilmington, NC with their three children (six and four-year-old girls, and a one-year-old boy). He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering, an MS in Systems Engineering from Johns Hopkins University, an MBA from Duke, and is a graduate of the United States Naval Test Pilot School. Nick is a member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots and enjoys flying low-risk general aviation flights over the beach in his spare time.