Stephan Aarstol is an American

internet entrepreneur An Internet entrepreneur is an owner, founder or manager of an Internet-based business. This list includes Internet company founders and people brought on to companies for their general business or accounting acumen, as is the case with some CEOs ...

and author of the book ''The Five Hour Workday''.

Life and early career

Aarstol grew up in

Bellingham, Washington Bellingham ( ) is the county seat of Whatcom County, Washington, Whatcom County in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. It lies south of the Canada–United States border, U.S.–Canada border, between Vancouver, British Columbia, ...

. In September 1999, Aarstol developed a web portal for the medical imaging community. In 2003, he launched a venture producing and selling high-end poker chips. Aarstol quit his day job the following year, by which time his venture was generating $50,000 per month.

Tower Paddle Boards

Aarstol founded Tower Paddle Boards in 2010. Aarstol pitched his business on ''

Shark Tank ''Shark Tank'' is an American business Reality television#Investments, reality television series that premiered on August 9, 2009, on American Broadcasting Company, ABC.Hibberd, James (May 10, 2012)Dancing,' 'Bachelor,' and a bigger 'Shark Tank ...

'' in 2011.

Mark Cuban Mark Cuban (born July 31, 1958) is an American businessman and television personality. He is the former principal owner and current minority owner of the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and co-owner of 2929 Entertain ...

made an offer and invested $150,000 for a 30% stake in Aarstol's company. In 2013 and 2018, Aarstol was featured as one of ''Shark Tank's'' biggest winners by ''

People Magazine ''People'' is an American weekly magazine that specializes in celebrity news and human-interest stories. It is published by Dotdash Meredith, a subsidiary of IAC (company), IAC. With a readership of 46.6 million adults in 2009, ''Peopl ...

''. In addition to selling beach products, Aarstol is also the Editor-in-Chief of ''Tower Life Magazine'', a biweekly publication that discusses beach lifestyle. His company, was ranked San Diego's number one fastest growing private company in 2014.

Jeff Bezos Jeffrey Preston Bezos ( ;; and Robinson (2010), p. 7. ; born January 12, 1964) is an American businessman best known as the founder, executive chairman, and former president and CEO of Amazon, the world's largest e-commerce and clou ...

' 2015 annual letter to stockholders singles out Aarstol and his company. Aarstol was featured on ABC's '' Beyond the Tank'' in January 2016. In November 2016,

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...

professor Thales S. Teixeira published a case study on Aarstol and Tower Paddle Boards titled "Selling on Amazon at Tower Paddle Boards".

''The Five Hour Workday''

In June 2016, Aarstol published ''The Five Hour Workday'', a book about switching his company to a five-hour workday and the benefits this change yielded in productivity.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aarstol, Stephan 21st-century American businesspeople University of San Diego alumni 21st-century American male writers Western Washington University alumni Living people Participants in American reality television series 20th-century births