Patrick Sweeney (entrepreneur)

Patrick J. Sweeney, II[3](born November 9, 1970) is a US adventurer and tech company entrepreneur. He is the author of Fear is Fuel - The Surprising Power to Find Purpose, Passion and Performance,[4] which rose to #5 on the Wall Street Journal Bestseller List for week ending March 14th 2020.[5] He is also the author of two books on RFID technology. He was the first person to attempt cycling the Seven Summits, and holds a world record for being the first person to officially cycle to Everest Base Camp[6] and the first person to cycle Mount Elbrus.[7]

For other people named Patrick Sweeney, see Patrick Sweeney.
Patrick Sweeney
Born (1970-11-09) November 9, 1970[1]
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
NationalityIrish
Alma materUniversity of New Hampshire, University of Virginia
OccupationEntrepreneur, investor
Years active1998-present
Spouse(s)Christen Sweeney[2]
Children3
Websitewww.pjsweeney.com

Early life and education

Patrick J. Sweeney II was born in November 9, 1970 in Boston to first-generation Irish immigrants.[8] His father worked three jobs while his mother took care of the children.[8] In 1982 they settled in Keene. Sweeney enrolled in the University of New Hampshire[8] where he took up rowing and was crew captain.[8] He participated in two Olympic trials and finished 14th in 1992[8] and 2nd in 1996[8] in the single scull (one man rowing).[9] He retired in 1996 after winning the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta in the "Men's Elite Single" category.[10]

In 1998, Sweeney earned an MBA from Darden Graduate School of Business Administration.[11]

Career

Sweeney did an internship at Trammell Crow Company.[12][13] In October 1999, he started a company, ServerVault, with $750,000 from angel investors, including the Dave Matthews Band.[13] In 2000, the company opened data centers in the US and Ireland.[14] In 2002 it was sold to Western & Southern Capital[15] and later in 2009 to Carpathia Hosting.[16]

In 2002, Sweeney and the inventor of EPC protocol Daniel Engels started ODIN technologies.[17] It became dominant in RFID technology.[18] In January 2013 the company was acquired by Quake Global.[19]

Books

Sweeney has authored three books: Fear is Fuel - the Surprising Power to Find Purpose, Passion and Performance which was ranked #5 on the Wall Street Journal Best Seller list for e-books for one week, the week of March 20th, 2020.[20] He authored RFID for Dummies (2005) and CompTIA RFID+ Study Guide: Exam RF0-001 (2006).[21]

In 2012, Sweeney started DwinQ, a company that matched RFID technology with social media.[1][22] On April 22, 2017 Sweeney gave a TEDx talk at Eaglebrook School (Deerfield, Massachusetts)[23] named "The Surprising Power of Fear".

Adventuring

In November 2012, Sweeney and four other American tech entrepreneurs formed CoreCo/dwinQ team to compete in a three-day La Ruta de los Conquistadores race.[24] In September 2013, Sweeney participated in Haute Route Pyrenees.[25] DwinQ sponsored the event and provided RFID-based auto posting of racers' content to Facebook.[26]

In July 2014, Sweeney's nine-year-old son attempted to break the record for the youngest person to summit Mont Blanc. They hired British mountain guide Kenton Cool to lead the crew. On their trek toward the summit they were caught in a sliding snow avalanche and decided not to continue.[27][28] Sweeney filmed the attempt and the video was shown on Good Morning America, leading to criticism for taking children on dangerous trips.[3][29] Sweeney said he had no regrets and that the trip was "a heck of a lot better than having them sitting at home wasting their minds on Minecraft or TV or something like that".[27] Sweeney was widely criticized for endangering his children. Jean-Marc Peillex, mayor of the Saint-Gervais municipality in France that includes Mont Blanc, Europe’s highest mountain, was furious when climbing enthusiast Paul Sweeney went on US TV to talk about his exploits. “It’s a demonstration of vanity and conceit pushed absolutely to the limit,” Peillex told reporters after seeing the lurid ABC news clip featuring Sweeny and his children, Shannon and Paul Junior."[30] Sweeney published video of his children almost being swept away on a steep snow-covered slope, saved by being roped into him. They can be heard screaming in terror as this happens. [31]

In February 2014, Sweeney participated in 350 miles in the Iditarod Trail Invitational race in Alaska on his fatbike.[32]

In 2015, Sweeney started an attempt to become the first person to summit the highest mountain on each continent and then ride down. On February 24, 2015 after a 6-day ride starting from Lukla, he reached South Base Camp in Nepal by bike, setting a world record.[33] The record was questioned by other mountain bikers,[6] but Sweeney argues that he is the first mountain biker to reach base camp on the "more difficult" Nepali side.[6]

In 2016, Sweeney teamed up with endurance mountain biker and adventure racer Rebecca Rusch to summit Mount Kilimanjaro[34] and raise funds and awareness for World Bicycle Relief.[35] The journey started on February 21[34] and lasted for six days.[36] Sweeney and Rusch started their ascent at 6000 feet,[37] went to the top both by foot and on a bike and rode bikes down to the bottom.[36]

During summer 2016, Sweeney climbed Mount Elbrus with his 11-year-old son. His son was not able to make it to the top, but Sweeney reached the summit becoming the first to bring a mountain bike to the top and descended to the base camp on a fatbike.[7] Sweeney's son was overwhelmed with fatigue and Sweeney filmed him with frozen tears on is face. When observing his son's distress, Sweeney's reaction was to offer him more clothing and express concern at his body becoming cold. Sweeney then said it was up to his 11-year old son to decide whether or not to continue. Sweeney later said that his son's feet were becoming frostbitten. His son decided to go down. Sweeney's face conveyed extreme disappointment. Sweeney then abandoned his son with a guide and pushed on without him in order to achieve his personal goal of riding a bike down Mount Elbrus.[38]

In 2018 Sweeney won the Race Across America (RAAM) in the Mixed 4-Person under 50 Category riding a bicycle non-stop from Oceanside, Californian to Annapolis, Maryland.[39][40]

Books
  • RFID for Dummies (2005) ISBN 978-0-7645-7910-3
  • CompTIA RFID+ Study Guide: Exam RF0-001 (2006) ISBN 978-0470042328
  • Fear Is Fuel: The Surprising Power to Help You Find Purpose, Passion, and Performance (2020) ISBN 9781538134412

References
  1. CrunchBase Staff (2015-05-15). "Patrick J. Sweeney II". CrunchBase. Retrieved 2017-09-25.
  2. Debbie Schipp (2014-07-20). "Risk rocks, say the new breed of anti-helicopter parents". News.com.au. Archived from the original on 2017-09-10. Retrieved 2017-09-25.
  3. Lukas Eberle and Victoria Weidemann (2014-07-28). "'Snow! Snow! Get Moving!': The Lethal Lure of Mont Blanc". Spiegel Online. Archived from the original on 2014-10-01. Retrieved 2017-09-25.
  4. a href="https://fearisfuel.com"
  5. https://www.wfmj.com/story/41935335/amid-coronavirus-anxiety-recently-released-book-fear-is-fuel-hits-5-on-wall-street-journal-best-seller-list
  6. Phil Lindeman (2015-10-13). "Setting the record straight on Mount Everest mountain biking". Summit Daily. Archived from the original on 2017-09-13. Retrieved 2017-09-25.
  7. "Riding Mount Elbrus with an 11-Year-Old". Outside. 2017-07-10. Archived from the original on 2017-07-14. Retrieved 2017-09-25.
  8. "Adventure Entrepreneur Patrick Sweeney '89 Delivers Homecoming Keynote". University of New Hampshire. 2015-10-10. Archived from the original on 2015-10-19. Retrieved 2017-09-26.
  9. "Results". Rowing News, April 21 – May 4, 1996. The Independent Rowing News Inc. 21 April – 4 May 1996. Retrieved 2017-09-26. (Google Books)
  10. "The Royal Canadian Henley Regatta (August 7-11, 1996)". Rowing News, August 24 – September 7, 1996. The Independent Rowing News Inc. 25 August – 7 September 1996. Retrieved 2017-09-26. (Google Books)
  11. Robert F. Bruner (2008-06-29). "Olympian with a Story". University of Virginia Darden School of Business. Archived from the original on 2017-09-14. Retrieved 2017-09-26.
  12. Christopher Steiner (2016-08-11). "Living Adventure: Founder and FC Member Patrick Sweeney on biking to Everest, beating cancer, and the Olympic Trials". fundersclub.com. Archived from the original on 2016-12-24. Retrieved 2017-09-26.
  13. Amy Joyce (2001-06-21). "Amid Empty Space, a Secure Place". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2017-09-14. Retrieved 2017-09-14.
  14. Jamie Smyth (2000-10-05). "US firm to set up Dublin Net centre". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 2017-09-25. Retrieved 2017-09-25.
  15. "Fort Washington buys ServerVault". The Business Journals. 2002-04-18. Archived from the original on 2003-01-18. Retrieved 2017-09-25.
  16. Rich Miller (2009-08-02). "Carpathia Hosting Acquires ServerVault". datacenterknowledge.com. Archived from the original on 2009-10-15. Retrieved 2017-09-25.
  17. Patrick Sweeney (2009-12-15). "The Internet of Things is baaaack!". rfidconnect.com. Archived from the original on 2017-09-14. Retrieved 2017-09-26.
  18. Mitch Mac Donald (2007-09-01). "He's no dummy: interview with Patrick Sweeney". dcvelocity.com. Archived from the original on 2017-09-14. Retrieved 2017-09-26.
  19. "Quake Global Acquires RFID Solutions Designer ODIN Technologies". San Diego Business Journal. 2014-01-24. Archived from the original on 2016-12-05. Retrieved 2017-09-25.
  20. "WALL STREET JOURNAL-BEST SELLERS". AP NEWS. 2020-03-27. Retrieved 2020-07-13.
  21. II, Patrick J. Sweeney (2005-04-01). RFID For Dummies (1st ed.). Hoboken, NJ: For Dummies. ISBN 9780764579103.
  22. "Chris Versace's PowerTalk: dwinQ President and CEO Patrick Sweeney". humanevents.com. 2013-01-24. Archived from the original on 2015-03-25. Retrieved 2017-09-25.
  23. "TEDx at Eaglebrook School". Eaglebrook School. 2017-04-22. Archived from the original on 2017-09-10. Retrieved 2017-09-26.
  24. Sue George (2012-11-20). "La Ruta de los Conquistadores sticks with three-day format". Cyclingnews.com. Archived from the original on 2013-02-02. Retrieved 2017-09-25.
  25. Ciaran Lennon (2013-09-16). "On the high road to hell". Irish Independent. Archived from the original on 2017-09-13. Retrieved 2017-09-25.
  26. Andrew Bass (2013-09-10). "dwinQ Posts First Ever Live Facebook Photos During World's Toughest & Highest Cycling Race". PRWeb. Archived from the original on 2013-09-12. Retrieved 2017-09-25.
  27. Lizzie Dearden (2014-07-28). "American climber whose children almost died in Mont Blanc avalanche says he has 'no regrets' amid criticism". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2015-10-28. Retrieved 2017-09-25.
  28. Constance Jamet (2014-07-28). "La présence d'enfants alpinistes sur le Mont-Blanc scandalise". Le Figaro. Archived from the original on 2014-07-28. Retrieved 2017-09-25.(in French)
  29. Anne Penketh (2014-07-28). "US climber condemned for filming his children in Mont Blanc avalanche". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2014-08-20. Retrieved 2017-09-25.
  30. "French mayor files complaint against US dad who scaled Mont Blanc with kids". France 24. 2014-07-27. Retrieved 2020-07-13.
  31. Video: Riding Mount Elbrus with an 11-Year-Old, 2017-07-10, retrieved 2020-07-13
  32. "2014 Race Roster". IditarodTrailInvitational.com. Archived from the original on 2016-10-30. Retrieved 2017-09-25.
  33. "Alpina Watches Ambassador Patrick Sweeney Establishes World First on the Everest". EuropaStar.com. 2015-03-11. Archived from the original on 2017-05-05. Retrieved 2017-09-25.
  34. Chadd Cripe (2016-02-23). "Playing Outdoors: Idaho woman hikes, bikes Kilimanjaro for charity". Idaho Statesman. Archived from the original on 2017-09-13. Retrieved 2017-09-25.
  35. Andie Bridges (2016-07-05). "Climbing Kilimanjaro by Bike". Santa Barbara Independent. Archived from the original on 2016-07-06. Retrieved 2017-09-25.
  36. Scott Hart (2016-05-23). "Watch Rebecca Rusch conquer the 19341-foot ascent of Africa's tallest peak on a mountain bike". Red Bull. Retrieved 2017-09-25.
  37. Patrick Sweeney (2016-05-02). "Summiting Mount Kilimanjaro on a Bike Is as Hard as It Looks". Outside. Archived from the original on 2017-09-13. Retrieved 2017-09-25.
  38. Video: Riding Mount Elbrus with an 11-Year-Old, 2017-07-10, retrieved 2020-07-13
  39. https://www.mensjournal.com/adventure/this-man-won-race-across-america-with-the-keto-diet-and-power-naps/
  40. https://gearjunkie.com/life-lessons-race-across-america
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