Jeb Barnouski

Hi everyone.  I’m Jeb Barnouski.  I started egobacon, inc as a way to find and support talented people who are starting companies while traveling the world.

I am a former Actuarial Analyst turned digital nomad/entrepreneur.  My first e-commerce venture, worldclassrings.com, netted $400,000 in its first year and in it's first year and I have 5 other successful websites in my portfolio.  I am currently investing in real estate development in Medellin, Colombia, consulting on other e-commerce ventures, and helping people like you but providing financial backing and mentorship so we can both succeed together.

There were a bunch of factors that led to me leaving my analyst job in San Francisco.  The main factor was my need for adventure.  I’ve always loved traveling and started with a solo Euro trip when I was 19.   When I was 21, my best friend and I went on a 10 week trip around the US in a crappy van we bought and converted to a mobile bedroom and then an 8 week, 22 city tour around Europe when we were 24.  I’ve worked at start-ups in London and Austin, TX.  And did my grad school in Lisbon, Portugal.  I’m not sure why I thought that I could settle down after all of that… when you get a taste of travel, you need more.

 

I studied Actuarial Science at the University of Lisbon and got my dream job as an Actuarial Analyst soon after I graduated.  It turns out that what I always wanted and studied so hard for wasn’t as fulfilling as I expected it would be.  I was working at least 10 hours per day, stressed out of my mind by my projects, exams, and programming courses.  My girlfriend at the time was visiting me over Christmas and I ended up spending a lot more time in the office than with her.  The breaking point was when I was denied a much-needed vacation because of project deadlines.  Coincidently, at the beginning of that year my best friend of mine gave me to opportunity to travel almost anywhere in the world for next to nothing.  I booked my flight to go to Colombia and was fired on the spot.  That was one of the best things to ever happen to me.

I began traveling on my savings and saw more of the world in the next 7 than I had until that point.  During that time I took a job in Thailand that didn’t work out and eventually ended up nearly broke and back at my parents.  I knew I had to find a way to make money but still maintain this nomadic lifestyle.  I remembered a friend of mine had been drop shipping so I decided to give it a try.  I hunkered down at my parents’ house and built my first Shopify store in December.  I launched it on January 1^st and had my first order 8 days later.  I was addicted from that day and did almost $400,000 in sales that first year.  I bought and paid for a $200,000 house in Medellin, Colombia within 12 months.  Now I’m moving around the world managing several e-commerce stores, consulting on a few more, working on making a cohabitation Airbnb and putting most of my time, energy and financial resources into this incubator to help people like you.  Looking forward to working with you; let’s create something incredible!