A different conversation about what comes next
For experienced professionals figuring out what comes next—and how to turn decades of expertise into greater freedom, purpose, and income.
Join the newsletterThoughtful ideas for your next chapter.
If this sounds familiar
Maybe a job ended before you were ready. Maybe the job is fine, but the life around it isn't. Or maybe you've achieved what you set out to achieve—and you're wondering why the next promotion doesn't sound particularly appealing.
You still want to earn, contribute, and do work that matters. You'd just like more say in what that looks like.
There isn't one answer. There are questions worth asking, options worth understanding, and experience you may not yet be giving yourself credit for.
The idea behind the name
Experience Capital is everything you've accumulated through decades of work: the expertise, judgment, relationships, reputation, skills, stories, and pattern recognition.
The hard conversations. The decisions you got right. The mistakes you won't make twice. That value doesn't disappear when a job title does.
How could you put it to work on your own terms?
What we'll explore
Ideas and practical possibilities for work that fits the life you want.
What feels worth doing now?
Who you are beyond your job title. How ambition changes. Where you want to contribute—and what success means when you get to define it.
What would more choice look like?
How much is enough? Explore control over your time, income outside employment, and ways to build a working life with room for the rest of it.
Where could your expertise take you?
Consulting, fractional work, advising, speaking, writing, teaching, or building something small. Different ways to use what you know—and get paid for it.
A note from Tom
Tom Schaeffer
Founder & writer, Experience Capital
I'm approaching 50. And I'm thinking a lot about what I want the next 20 or 30 years to look like.
I spent more than a decade building and running a software company. I sold it and eventually exited. Then I became a writer and built a successful independent ghostwriting business.
Along the way, I've found myself questioning some familiar ideas about growth, ambition, work, and success. I've changed how I work. I'm still figuring out what I want that work to make possible.
That's why I'm writing this publication. To examine the options, ask better questions, and think through what comes next alongside people doing the same.
I bring experience and curiosity. I don't have a finished formula to hand you.
Keep thinking with us
Join Tom for writing about purpose, freedom, and putting what you know to work. A place to consider your options—and decide what deserves your time next.
Essays, questions, and practical ideas for an independent next chapter.
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