Howdy 🤠 and welcome to my corner of the Internet.

I wrote a book called The 2-Hour Cocktail Party. James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, said my book is “a must read for anyone who wants to host a great event. Practical, actionable, and useful.” See all the reviews on Amazon here.

Some things I’m working on now that I own: Mixily, Patron View, PersonalWebsites.org, and investing in public tech stocks (see my asset allocation here).

But back to my story.

A lot of people knew me as the Founder of Museum Hack. I used to hate museums. That’s why I started Museum Hack: to make museums more fun. My company was featured in a popular TEDx talk and written about in The New York Times. Then I grew it to a multi-million dollar business.

In 2019, I sold Museum Hack in an interesting way. It starts with a juicy takeover; read the story here.

I turned 44 last year. I got engaged, too.

A few years ago, I rented out an entire indoor water park for my 40th birthday. That was fun. But please don’t tell Lauren that I’m comparing her to an indoor water park.

Six of my most popular articles on this website are:

• Tokyo Blind Date: a wild story that got 25M+ impressions
• 39 Best Travel Items: Gear, Gadgets, Toiletries, and Tech
• Home Gear: The Best Stuff I Use Every Day
• What’s the best LLC for a small business?
• I Finally Bought a Tesla and These 8 Things Surprised Me
• 15 Small Trade Show Booth Ideas

Anyhow. About me: Back in my 20s, I helped build and grow our family business.

My father started Flight Display Systems in the basement of our house. The company made avionics equipment for private jets and military aircraft.

I joined right after college. I helped him hire his first employees, then we grew it to 75 people. My father had all the ideas and industry experience. But I lead our hiring, marketing, and international sales.

My mother was our CFO. It really was a family business! Then we sold it. During the last year, I had moved on to start my company Museum Hack.

Please note: I have spent the last 28 years habitually over-sharing my life on the internet. As such, you will find hundreds of unflattering photographs and video clips of me. I make no apologies for this. But trust that I will be extremely charming, and perhaps even be slightly attractive, when we meet in real life.

I’ve been doing “business stuff” for a long time. In middle school, I designed simple websites for Texas companies. It felt neat to be 14 years old and making $70 per hour.

In high school, I started a web hosting company called vs3 Web Services.

I got really lucky: if you searched on Yahoo! for the phrase “cheap web hosting,” my page was the first one to show up. That success helped pay for my college.

I went to Wake Forest University in North Carolina. I was a Presidential Scholar in Entrepreneurship and member of the Lilting Banshees Comedy Troupe.

One project that I worked on in college got a lot of press: BuddyGopher was like a blog for away messages on AOL Instant Messenger. We had thousands of daily users and full-page features in USA Today, the Washington Post, and more.

I tried to build BuddyGopher into a big company- including moving to India after college- but that didn’t work out. I still learned a lot. I love India. In 2011, I produced a Bollywood music video.

So, I guess I spent my teens starting a web hosting company. Then my 20s working to build our family business.

Then I spent my 30s in the hustle and bustle of New York City, launching and growing Museum Hack.

Now I’m 44 and I live in Austin, Texas.

I left New York City in 2020.

I never thought I’d say that — “I left New York City” — because I considered myself a real New Yorker.

But now I love my new life.

In early 2021, I moved to Austin, Texas. I bought two paddle boards, I’ve started a new business, and I swim in Barton Springs Pool almost every week. I run a small family office, too. I hope to give more philanthropically. I want to make the world better in certain ways.

I wonder what I’ll do with the rest of my 40s. I have some ideas! Like working on this Patron View project to help museum fundraising stuff. And starting a family. But let’s see.

Thanks for reading all of this. My main purpose now is to convince you to sign up for my free Friends Newsletter.

It’s unlike any other newsletter: There aren’t any ads, and I only send it every month or two when I find something amazing.

Like a great business book, an amazing documentary, or a fascinating new tech gadget to share.

Find out why over 10,000 investors, CEOs, and museum curators love my non-traditional monthly newsletter.

Sign up for it here. It’s free.

I’VE BEEN FEATURED IN

You can click any of these logos to read more about things I’ve done:

(I don’t like unlinked sources.)

ARTICLES ABOUT ME

• Bloomberg Businessweek: Reaching Fresh Audiences
• New York Times: Get the Most Out of a Visit to the Museum
• National Trust for Historic Preservation: 40 Under 40: People Saving Places
• My TEDx: How I learned to stop hating and love museums, by Nick Gray
• Lifehacker: I’m Nick Gray, Founder of Museum Hack, and This Is How I Work

This is one of the best pieces of content that I’ve ever made:

RECENT PROJECTS

• MIXILY – it is better than Evite and Paperless Post. Create a free page to collect RSVPs.
• PATRON VIEW – I’m creating a huge database of philanthropic arts giving. Museums and cultural organizations.
• THE 2-HOUR COCKTAIL PARTY – I wrote a step-by-step guide to teach you how to build big relationships by hosting small parties. I think it is the best thing I’ve made in 10+ years.
• MY BLOG – I write about business, investing, my hobbies, and travel
• INTERESTING PEOPLE PROFILES – I write about the interviews with people I meet from all around the world
• TRI PEAK HOLDINGS – This is my little family office
• MY TRAVEL VIDEOS – Watch some short fun videos that I make for my friends
• FRIENDS NEWSLETTER – Find out why CEOs, investors, and museum curators love my emails
• THE $10,000,000 QUESTION – If I had $10M, how would I live my life differently? How would you?
• INVESTOR RELATIONS FIRMS – I couldn’t find a good database or list of investor relations firms in NYC. So I made my own.
• NORMANDIE PANELS BY JEAN DUPAS – I maintain this de facto online resource as a hobby project
• MY BEST ARTICLES – Check out a few of my favorite business articles
• BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT COMPANIES – Investing for yield? I am curious about BDCs. Here’s where I share my notes on them.

A Brief History of Nick Gray (That’s Me)

• 2024 I went on a super viral Tokyo Blind Date
• 2022 Finally released my magnum opus, The 2-Hour Cocktail Party.
• 2021 Settled in Austin, Texas. I love it here.
• 2020 Left New York City after 13 years. Wow.
• 2019 I sold Museum Hack. Read about how, and to whom.
• 2015 ELLE.COM’S 41 MOST ELIGIBLE BACHELORS I was ranked 40 out of 41, so I guess I’m not the absolute worst.
• 2013 Museum Hack gives museum tours for people who don’t like museums (Founder, Tour Guide)
• 2011 BollyBrook Brooklyn Meets Bollywood Music Video (Producer, Creator)
• 2009 New York magazine: Meet Nick Gray, Thrower of ‘Culturally Significant’ Williamsburg Parties
• 2004 Flight Display Systems (family business, sold 2014)
• 2003 BuddyGopher (founder) — full page articles in USA Today, Washington Post
• 2001 American Pie 2 (Eugene Levy junket interview!)
• 1997 vs3 Web Services (web hosting business I started in high school)

KEYWORDS TO ME

The 2-Hour Cocktail Party • name tags • icebreakers • Texas, Georgia, New York City • Wake Forest University, Clark High School and Forsyth Central High School, Hendrick Middle, Matthews Elementary • BuddyGopher, vs3 Web Services, TechnoTeen, GIF Animation Station • Arden Lake, Hunter’s Glen and Grove Park subdivisions in Kennesaw and Cumming, Georgia; Plano, Texas; and Mission Viejo, California. • I was an actor in the movie American Pie 2; you can see my six word performance on the DVD in the deleted scenes section. • My interview with Eugene Levy and Williamsburg, Brooklyn tea parties (not the political kind) • Tokyo Blind Date

Well, this is the end!

Thank you for reading this little About page. It was last updated on October 20, 2024 by me (Nick).

Shoot me an email or add me on Instagram here to see what I’m up to today.