Who is Max Spiker?

Hi, I’m Max.

I’m the founder of DMAD and Photo Pin.

I spent the last 4 years traveling as a way of life, including two years (2010-2012) living without a permanent home. I travelled with my girlfriend (now my fiancee), eventually narrowing down all my belongings to a simple carryon + backpack as an experiment in minimal living.

We road tripped across America, visited Asia, Europe, Hawaii, Central America, the Caribbean, and spent a lot of time bouncing between LA, San Francisco, NYC, Las Vegas, Austin and Miami. We met a lot of digital nomads, entrepreneurs and bloggers and lived a whirlwind life before settling back down in Florida (for the time being).

For 2 years we lived entirely day to day, making no plans for longer than the next 24 hours. Often we would wake up in Las Vegas and decide whether we’d stay, drive to LA, or fly out of the country. We perfected the art of last minute travel.

Having flown the equivalent of something like 5-10 times around the world, we settled into Sarasota, FL for the rest of 2012.

Some History

I’ve been developing for the web since 1998. In 2001 I launched my first website at the University of Florida called Gatormenu. It was my first real business and soon became the first online ordering service for several local restaurants.

In 2002 I quit my first year of law school to form my first web development company where I partnered with a local magazine to create websites for small businesses.

In 2004 I moved to Sarasota, FL where I successfully pitched Sky Sotheby’s International Realty to develop their website for the next several years. I got to work with mapping API’s (Yahoo flash based at the time) and learned to outsource some of my development.

In 2006 I decided to form a company and pursue affiliate marketing full time in lieu of running a client-based business. That year I attended  FOWA & Pubcon and met a lot of internet entrepreneurs, SEO’s and developers. I started AU Interactive with my college buddy and at the beginning of 2007 – after months of experimentation – we hit our stride in the affiliate space.

Over the years we enjoyed great success and I started traveling extensively. At the end of 2010 I left the company and decided to pursue passion projects. DMAD is one such project.

In 2012 I got engaged to Ashley Spiker (she runs a popular designer shoe blog) and looking forward to spending the rest of my life with her still traveling and still playing with technology.

Stuff I’m Into

Hey, let’s bond over:

• Rationality
• WordPress
• Design
• HDR Photography
• Startups & Online Business
• Kanye & Lil’Weezy’s Albums
• Minimalism
• Scuba Diving
• Photography
• Rational Environmentalism
• Location Independence
• Luxury Travel
• Typography
• Photoshop
• Craft Beers & IPA’s

Find me

500px

Social Networks

• Twitter
• Google+
• Facebook
• Pinterest
• GoGoBot
• Delicious
• ASW
• Summit Series

Some of My Other Projects

• Photo Pin
• I Want to Travel
• Responsive Themes (under slow construction)

Feel free to contact me.