Brandon White

Brandon Christian White (born December 22, 1972) is an entrepreneur who started a website in 1995 called www.ChesapeakeAngler.com that evolved into the recreational fishing site called WorldWideAngler.com. The site was a social media and fishing tackle e-commerce internet site that was known for changing the way fishermen shared information as well as for advanced website functionality. In 2001 the WorldWideAngler closed, and White started TidalFish.com.
Biography
White was born in Baltimore and grew up in White Hall, Maryland, was raised by his single-parent mother. He attended elementary school at St. James Academy in Monkton, Maryland. He attended Cockeysville Middle School and then went to high school at the Boys' Latin School of Maryland. White played soccer and lacrosse and was a four year varsity player. He was a member of the National Honor Society and graduated second in his class, receiving the Governor's award for that honor.
White went to Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland and received an undergraduate degree in Psychology with a minor in sociology. He was a sports writer for the college newspaper the Elm, co-founded the Lacrosse Club, coached the girls club soccer team and was President of the William James Forum. He was a member of the Psi Chi National Honor Society and served as President of the organization.
He also received his Masters in Psychology from Washington College. White founded WorldwideAngler.com during his Masters in Psychology Studies and took several years to finish the degree due to pursuing the start of that company.
After the decline of the Internet market and missing a potential company exit, White co-founded a philanthropic venture fund called Marine Ventures Foundation with former Board member and investor of WorldwideAngler.com, Tom McMurray (a former partner in Sequoia Capital in Silicon Valley). White then moved to the for-profit world working for venture capital firm GIV Venture Partners, America Online, and then another venture capital firm, Updata Partners.
In addition to his Psychology degrees, White has a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School. He studied internationally at Erasmus, Rotterdam School of Management in the Netherlands, Gdansk Foundation for Management Development in Poland, EGADE in Monterrey, Mexico, FGV-EAESP in São Paulo, Brazil and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) in Hong Kong, China.
White is the Chief Angler of Lateral Line , a technical outdoor apparel company that also runs and owns TidalFish.com. The company is located in Easton, Maryland.
White is an avid light tackle and fly fishing angler and has appeared on national fishing TV shows, magazines and authored articles on light tackle and fly fishing.
WorldwideAngler.com
In 1995 White founded WorldwideAngler.com. White bootstrapped WorldwideAngler.com for three years until raising capital and was the subject of a case study in Arnold Kling’s "Under the Radar" for his ability to bootstrap and fund his company without having to raise money from venture capital sources.
WorldwideAngler.com made headlines for its cutting edge technology in PC Magazine and other national publications. At the time WorldwideAngler.com was one of the first sites on the Internet to allow visitors to customize the website by putting in their zip code. Now considered the norm, this was revolutionary for the time.
WorldwideAngler.com was the target for an acquisition by many large companies, but never exited due to the crash that ensued in 2001. Worldwide Angler was forced to close its doors. White bought back some of the assets, re-branded the site, and launched TidalFish.com.
TidalFish.com
TidalFish is a social media website focusing on saltwater fishing in the eastern US. Originally a website about fishing in the Chesapeake Bay and nearby waters, TidalFish now has over 50,000 registered members with discussion boards covering in-shore, coastal and off-shore fishing from New England to Florida. TidalFish describes itself as "The site is designed to share fishing information, fishing reports, learn from one another, talk about fisheries conservation issues, sometimes just shoot the fishing bull, and meet fellow anglers in a safe, fun and friendly online environment and, in some cases, offline at Tidal Fish events."
Philanthropy
White co-founded Marine Ventures Foundation. The organization supports fisheries marine research and conservation initiatives. In another philanthropic endeavor, White founded the Lateral Line Foundation which is funded though private donations as well as from the 2% for the Fish program of Lateral Line, Inc. The foundation focuses exclusively on grass roots fisheries conservation initiatives. In addition, White served on the Board of Directors of the Maryland Coastal Conservation Association.

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