About the founder

Jay Van Ginneken

Founder & CEO

Jay Van Ginneken, the angel investor and founder of LifeCandy has generated more than $150M in direct revenue and sales during his career, without being jump-started by venture capital and without partners.

In the beginning, as an affiliate marketer over 20 years ago, he had to bootstrap because there was no access to capital. Today, through our self-made success we represent “smart money” who help to influence your success instead of just being a cash investor along for the ride.

LifeCandy was founded in 2012 as a strategy, marketing, and consulting firm, based on Jay’s long history in mergers and acquisitions (completed his first acquisition in 2001) and his marketing background as an affiliate marketer since 1996.

Since then, we have provided millions of dollars in privately-funded capital to a diverse (but strategically vertical) portfolio of startups. We collaborate with our portfolio to help fuel growth in these companies by providing strategy, marketing, resources, capital, and strategic partnerships.