Michael Pizzo is the Managing Director of Agora Financial, a Baltimore based financial research publisher. In his previous role, as the company’s Director of Marketing, he leveraged the ideas of perpetual optimization and accelerated failure to fuel top line growth.  Focusing on customer acquisition and retention, today he uses the perpetual optimization methodology across operations, web development, customer service and sales functions. Prior to his 8+ years at Agora Financial he held positions at eBay, Johns Hopkins University, and consulted with several businesses in the Chesapeake Region. Michael holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Delaware and a Masters of Science in Marketing from Johns Hopkins University, where he was awarded the Edward J. Stegman CPA Memorial Award for graduating with 4.0 GPA. In his spare time he enjoys reading, spending time with his family, and eating crab cakes at The Narrows Restaurant.