About Neal
What I Do
I’m currently spending most of my efforts to grow VidAngel, pretty much one of my favorite projects ever, because my family uses it so much. But I also started and helped various other companies like Orabrush (co-founder), Poo~Pourri (top 5 marketing campaign of 2013), and many more. I really enjoy what I do and especially love the people I work with in each business.
Growing Up
I grew up farming, even milking cows by hand, in southern Idaho (yes we are as backward as Napoleon Dynamite (2004) portrays). I learned to work hard and to love to get up at 4:00am.
I left public school after loosing a bout with the seventh grade. For the next two years, I ran and played, built tree houses and rafts, and started my own minature farm in the backyard. The government would have taken me away from my parents and forced me back into school had they known what I was doing (or wasn’t doing). I had such a bad taste in my mouth for “school” that for those two years, I avoided all formal school, like books.
One day, my Mother encouraged me to pick up a book again (either the Bronze bow or The Lion, Witch and The Wardrobe). After I picked it up, I didn’t put it down until I was finished. The next day, I read another. Then another. When a week of books had flown by, I startled myself, realizing, “I love this!” Though behind my public school peers in math and other subjects at the time, during those two years “playing” and that week of reading, I learned one of the most important lessons of my life–I love to learn.
I think life would be most fulfilling if I could pass on that same spark to someone else before I go. Because my kids came with that fire burning brightly, my goal with them is to help it grow rather than stomp it out.
My Faith
I’m a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I’m also known as a Mormon. I served a mission in Mexico for a two years (no, not as a job…as a volunteer…I saved half the money myself and my grandfather helped pay the other half). The Mexican people took such great care of me. Prayer and the scriptures provide the greatest source guidance in all of my life.