Rick Winfield

Franchise Owner

2024 - Current

Passionate about music education and empowering young musicians. 🎸🎤 As the proud owner of School of Rock Reno, I'm dedicated to providing a fun and inspiring learning environment for kids and teens (we run an adult program too). We combine private music lessons with group band rehearsals to help students develop their skills, build confidence, and rock out on stage! Let's unleash the inner rock star in your child! 🤘

Angel Investor

2003 - 2023

***I am not currently making new Investments. Please don't send me investment inquiries via LinkedIn*** I invest in and advise startups and am an LP in several funds and syndicates. My favorite areas to invest in include: Online Marketplaces, Artificial Intelligence, Consumer Goods, HRTech, RestaurantTech, PropTech, and the occasional B2B SaaS company. I like companies that create efficiencies around major life decisions like education, real estate, employment, and food. My most successful investment to date was a chocolate bar company.

Investment Committee Member

2019 - 2021

Professor of Entrepreneurship

2014 - 2020

I was a member of the faculty at Sierra Nevada College, a private liberal arts college on the north shore of Lake Tahoe. I designed and taught classes about Entrepreneurship, Digital Marketing, Entrepreneurial Finance, Corporate Finance, and Leadership. I was the faculty advisor for team LIMIT, a student business plan competition team that won over $70k in prize money (see more under projects).

Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship

2014 - 2015

I taught Special Topics in Entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurial Marketing at UNR and Small Business Marketing at Truckee Meadows Community College.

Founder & Director of Technology

2003 - 2013

Veskritec was a lead generation directory website incubator that assisted in the creation of four lead generation businesses: www.BeautySchoolsDirectory.com (sold 2007) www.ElderLivingSource.com (sold 2008) www.AllPropertyManagement.com (sold 2010) www.ManufacturedHomeSource.com We identified and recruited business founders, provided a website technology platform and business development consulting, and assisted with the sale of three of the four websites. We invested in each website using a unique revenue-based finance model and realized a >6X return on our investment over 7 years.

Founder

2001 - 2011

Caution Media, Inc. was the business entity under which I explored entrepreneurial ventures for 10 years. Our biggest success was ComputerTrainingSchools.com (see below).

Founder

2001 - 2006

Founded ComputerTrainingSchools.com, a pioneer in online .edu lead generation. Built the website technology, hired a sales team, developed SEO/SEM/affiliate marketing campaigns, and oversaw day to day operations of the business. Grew the business for 5 years before successful sale to Quinstreet, Inc (NASDAQ: QNST) in December 2005.

CTO

1999 - 2000

Recruited by company founder to lead the technical team in building a content-focused online business. workz.com was a leading provider of online information for small businesses, rated as a top 10 small business site by Fortune, Forbes, and Inc. Magazines. I hired a team of seven and acted as the liaison between the technology team and the editorial and business development teams. We built in-house, highly scalable content management and email list management systems to host the content, control editorial workflow, support content syndication, and facilitate ad revenue schemas.

Web/Ecommerce Developer

1996 - 1999

Original employee hired to develop and maintain the website for a children's computer game company. I built interactive and social features as well as an online store that quickly made the web team "profitable." Developed online presence for Cavedog Entertainment, a new game studio started by Humongous. Recruited by Humongous' parent company to build a company-wide e-commerce system. Assisted in the recruiting and hiring of ten additional employees for the web and e-commerce teams.