Rich Christiansen

Richard J. Christiansen is a thought leader, educator, mentor, parallel entrepreneur, and humanitarian. He has founded or co-founded 51 businesses, of which 16 have become multimillion-dollar successes. Each was capitalized with $10,000 or less. His businesses have ranged from technology, import/export, SEO, lead generation, online sales, innovative products, real estate, worm poop, and most recently a gift and grief registry.

Rich has authored a Wall Street Journal & USA today national best-selling book, The ZigZag Principle (McGraw Hill, 2011) and co-authored Bootstrap Business (Wizard Press, 2007), in which he outlined the lessons he learned while creating these businesses. He has lectured around the world, giving keynote presentations at universities, conferences, and corporate events. His work has been featured in numerous publications such as Forbes and USA Today, and he has been interviewed on countless radio, podcast, and television programs. He recently released a program on Building Family Legacies through Symbols, Traditions, Doctrine, Defining Events and the Supporting Structure. This is step-by-step instructions on how to better create unified values within your family. This program was as spawned from a book he and his son Tim co-authored the Amazon Best Seller, “Even If Your Toes Turn Purple – Raising Teenagers that are Confident, Happy, and Stand Out.”

Together with his family, Rich loves to explore and spelunk slot canyons and crest the summits of high mountain peaks. He has stared up the throat of Mt. Everest three times, summited Mt. Kilimanjaro with his wife and youngest 2 sons two summers ago and this summer trekked the Mount Blanc Route. Long boarding weekly with his youngest sons and zipping down the ski slopes like a teenager are among his hobbies. He is a passionate golfer and loves fast zippy cars that are technology loaded.

He and his wife are the parents of five amazing sons as well as a daughter who came from Nepal. Rich is passionate about educating youth in third world countries. He builds and lifts wherever he goes. One of Rich's significant talents is spotting and mentoring winners, having launched and trained hundreds of young women and men over the years. He is presently the Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Southern Utah University and a Founder at Brigham Young University.

Currently, he does business in 14 countries and is a principle founder of HooDoo Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm.