Review About: Tyler Pitchford

Author

 Paul Williams (100%)
Rating:
*****

Relationship

 Associates
Friday, August 05, 2005
Review #73

In 1997 I was walking through the food court at the mall with my daughter and her friend. My daughters friend nodded toward a table full of kids and said, “Look at all those nerds”. My daughter replied, “Don’t show my dad or he’ll want to go sit with them”. When I looked over to see what they were talking about, I noticed two tables filled with kids who were reading some very sophisticated programming books and magazines.

My curiosity got the better of me, and much to my daughters embarrassment and her friends glee, I did actually go over and sit with them. They told me that they were starting an “internet company” and that they were having their first board meeting. They had been in one of the kids home, but there were too many of them so the mother kicked them out. The Florida sun being what it is they decided to have their meeting in the only place they knew with big tables and air conditioning. They went to the food court at the mall.

I asked the kids if they really knew how to program and design at the level of the books they were reading and they all pointed to one kid at the head of the table and said, “He does!”. That kid was Tyler Pitchford. Tyler had gone to several area schools and asked teachers for the names of their best and brightest and had assembled the small army of “nerds” at the table that day.

I was impressed. I gave Tyler my business card and told him to call me, and that I might be interested in making an investment. My title at the investment banking firm I worked for was “V.P. of Special Investments”. I learned later they were pretty happy about that. They told the mother that had kicked them out of the house that their company was going public, and that they, but not her, were all going to be filthy rich! LOL

The story of our “Investment meeting” is another story for another time, but in the 8 years since, all of the kids that day have gone on and done very well for themselves. Tyler introduced me to his brother Scott and together we went on to form Stock-Talk Partners LLC, and other ventures that I mention in Scott’s profile.

Tyler is one of the best and brightest young men you will ever meet. He is multi-talented and wickedly smart. Some of the programs we have Tyler working on are still in development, but I’m excited to say iKarma users will soon enjoy the results. While Tyler is a masterful programmer, programming is not his current passion. We were lucky to have caught Tyler between his studies at Stetson University Law School, and backpacking around the Europe. I have no doubt that someday people will actually stop and say, “Is that a Pitchford?, Yes!, that is a Pitchford”.