I've been investing since I was 15. I've also lost almost everything.
I'm Mikey Moran, a 50-year-old entrepreneur in Atlanta with no inheritance and no safety net. This site is where I invest in public: the real positions, the mistakes and the math, so you can skip the expensive lessons.
I want to be the mentor I never had, for anyone figuring out money late, early or from scratch.
Nobody handed me a head start. No family money, no safety net, no mentor showing me the ropes. I learned by doing, which is a polite way of saying I learned by failing.
2006 to 2010
CurrySimple, and losing almost everything
My first real company, CurrySimple, was America's first packaged curry sauce. I got it into Whole Foods and onto national TV and press. Then a currency crash gutted our margins, and I held on about two years too long trying to save it.
In 2009 I cashed out my retirement to keep the business alive and cover the mortgage. In 2010 I shut it down and lost nearly everything except the house I lived in. It was brutal. It was also the best business education I ever got.
2014
Private Label, built while I kept my job
I started Private Label out of a small Atlanta office while keeping a full-time job, because I believe you hold onto your income while you build unless someone's bankrolling you. Two and a half years later it was big enough to go all in. It's since become a multimillion-dollar company.
2016
Turned 40, sold the house, paid off everything
At 40 the business was finally at breakeven, and I was still paying off credit cards. So I sold the house I'd bought about 15 years earlier, the same one I held onto through CurrySimple. It cleared about $250,000, which paid off every debt I had and let me put 100% of my focus on the business.
2018
Back into real estate, and two sales I still think about
My first new real estate investment was a plot of land with my business partner, the real estate genius I learn from. By my estimate it's up more than five times since.
That same year I bought AMD and Tesla, then sold both way too early. If I'd held, it would have been seven figures.
2021
Wrote the book
I published Fearless Beauty: The Hair Business Blueprint, my story mixed with the tactical lessons of building a brand from the ground up, and the belief that success comes from failing forward, staying consistent and playing the long game.
I bought a co-owned oceanfront villa in the Dominican Republic that runs as an Airbnb, and the house I live in now. That's when it hit me: almost everything I owned was real estate and my business. I wasn't liquid at all. That's when I got serious about the stock market.
2026
Fifty, and doing it in public
I turned 50 this year. Every Friday I put $1,000 into the market, into whichever of my three buckets is furthest behind: growth, dividend growth and high income, anchored by SCHG and SCHD. I show the real share counts, the mistakes and the math.
In August I sold part of my stock portfolio to buy a business. Two steps back in the investing account, to fund something I believe can grow a lot faster. And I'm building GLZD, a men's body glaze brand, out in the open. I'm never going to retire. I'll always have a business.
What I bought each Friday and why, plus the honest part I cut from the video. One email, most Sundays.
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Educational content only, not financial advice. I'm not a financial advisor, and I don't manage money for anyone. Positions and plans change; each post is accurate as of its date.
