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Innovation in
Technology, Real estate, and media.
Groom Ventures has partnered with industry leaders from our very beginning, when from 1992 to 1994, Groom Properties, Inc. developed the Maple Valley subdivision and sold finished building lots to publicly traded national homebuilder NVR.
From 1999 to 2003, Attitude Media, Inc. was the exclusive provider of content for the AnnuityNet.com website. AnnuityNet was the first company to sell variable annuities online and was owned by a consortium of large US insurance companies before being sold to Ebix.
Some more recent examples:
- In a partnership with Greystar, the largest apartment developer in the United States, Rock Hill Development LLC achieved a precedent setting zoning approval for a 400 unit apartment building in Loudoun County, Virginia despite many obstacles, leading to a significant land sale in early 2023.
- In a partnership with the village of Batuan, one of the most culturally important areas of Indonesia, Indo Art House has supported a number of cultural initiatives, including major exhibitions for senior and junior painters, art scholarships, ongoing support of local art classes and more. In 2024 we’re working on programs to support traditional music and dance.
- In a partnership with the Seeds of Hope Orphanage in Bali, the Virginia Groom Foundation is changing the lives of young people with music, food, clothing, physical improvements, field trips, and more. A recent highlight was the distribution of Christmas presents in December, 2023.
Through for-profit and non-profit entities we’re active in real estate, digital technology, media, and philanthropy. With the right partners, a small company can have a big impact.
People
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John F. Groom
Founder
Language: English
John has been involved in digital technology since 1996 with the launch of the Positive Press website, which garnered wide publicity.
In 1998 he became the 4th full time employee of AnnuityNet, the first company in the world to sell variable annuities online.
John has 5 software patents:
- System and Method for Searching, Organizing, Exploring and Relating Online Content – issued in 2018
- Alternate Search Methodology – issued in 2021
- Multi-dimensional interaction with data stores related to tangible property - issued in 2022
- John Groom, Prudhvi Nag, and Bryan Matott filed a patent for the Everything Tag - Digital Tags to Facilitate Production, Collaboration, Transparency, Privacy, Authentication, History, Synchronization, Ownership, and Regulatory Compliance During the Creation and Use of a Product - issued in 2023
- Dynamically Generated Object-Responsive Interactive Action Display, filed February 27th 2023,status pending
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Bryan Matott
Design Lead
Language: English
Bryan has been with Groom Ventures since June 2020. During his time with Groom Ventures he has been working on design, research, and testing for development of Casa Command.
Previously, he held the role of Lead Designer for three years at Rome Technologies, a management software developer. He has a Bachelors Degree in Graphic Design.
USA -
Prudhvi Nag
Technical Lead
Languages: English, Telugu, and Hindi
Prudhvi has been with Groom Ventures since 2019. He has a Bachelors Degree in Computer Science & Applications and a Masters in Business.
Previously, he was a Software Engineer at Sigma Info Solutions, Bangalore.
India -
Ketut Adhi
Manager, Bali Team
Languages: English and Bahasa
Adhi has a masters degree in Art Research for Visual Communication. He joined Groom Venture in early 2022 after successfully organizing various charity VGF events and art production for IAH.
Previously he worked on a startup project and creative production as a freelancer.
Indonesia -
Sancita Resen
Public Affairs Manager, Bali Team
Languages: English, Bahasa, and Balinese
Sancita has a bachelor's degree in economics and a masters degree in tourism. He was previously head of public relations at a tech start-up. He has been involved in Virginia Groom Foundation programs since they began in mid-2021.
Indonesia -
Sean Suvanadesa
Project Manager
Languages: Thai and English
Sean leads our efforts in Thailand from Bangkok and is focused on building Global Fast Fit. Sean’s background is in media and event production. He studied communications and public relations at Bangkok University before starting his own company.
Thailand -
Made Kariasa
Logistics support, Bali Team
Languages: English, Bahasa, Balinese
Made provides logistics support for the Bali team. He formerly traveled around the world as a cruise ship employee.
Indonesia -
Dr. James Muchiri
Medical Consultant
Languages: English, Kiswahili and Kikuyu
James is a practicing physician at J.M. Kariuki Memorial County Referral hospital and in charge of Global Fast Fit’s public health initiative.
He graduated with a bachelor's degree in medicine and surgery from Moi University in 2018. Since then he has worked at Machakos Level 5 as a medical officer, Nyahururu County Referral Hospital as a medical officer and Kimanjo Sub County Hospital as the medical superintendent.
Kenya -
Abigael Cheruto Rotich
Coordinator, Kenya
Languages: English, Kiswahili
Abby is a registered nurse and was the valedictorian student at the Kabarak School of Health Science. She is involved with Global Fast Fit events and the related public health initiatives.
Kenya -
Shakayla Aretha Shaima
Associate, Bali Team
Languages: English, Javanese, Bahasa, Sudanese
Aretha joined the team in 2023 and works on Virginia Groom Foundation and the Global Fast Fit projects, as well as making contributions on the design team.
Indonesia
Technology
Groom Ventures is developing a universal benchmark for functional fitness, Global Fast Fit, that is being used to both measure and improve fitness.
Global Fast Fit requires no special equipment or clothing and can be done anywhere by anyone. It’s 3 simple exercises plus a short run, but measures, and improves, both strength, speed, and cardiovascular fitness.
We believe that short, intense periods of this exercise routine can have a major positive impact on lifestyle related diseases, such as Diabetes 2, that affect hundreds of millions of people around the world.
We have staged GFF events in Kenya, Thailand, India, and Indonesia, and have pending trademark applications covering most of the world’s population. The Global Fast Fit trademark is registered in the United States.
Real Estate
Our Projects
GV has been doing real estate ventures in Northern Virginia since 1989. It’s interesting to take our first real estate project and compare it to our latest one; both 10 acres, but quite different.
In the early 90s, Groom Properties, Inc. did the grading, built the road, and installed the street and utilities, then sold 22 finished single-family lots to NV Homes, a division of publicly-traded NVR, for the Maple Valley Project in the Franconia area of Fairfax, Virginia.
Now our Rock Hill Development LLC affiliate is taking the same amount of land, very close to the future Innovation Metro Station in Loudoun County, Virginia, and partnering with Greystar, the biggest apartment developer in the US, to build 415 apartments.
Media
Groom Ventures has a long history working with cutting-edge technology. In 1996 one of our ventures, Attitude Media, launched the Positive Press website, followed by The Outrage in 1997. These early web ventures garnered a lot of high-level publicity.
THE OUTRAGE REVIEWS
- Web Magazine: “a brilliant use of the Web”
- Netscape’s Netcenter: “Unbridled rants that can brighten even the dullest day”
- The Boston Globe: “John Groom also understands that man’s nature is contradictory”
- Playboy: “Entertaining rants on topics such as NBA labor negotiations and government waste.
Through various entities such as Groom Books and Attitude Media, Inc., Groom Ventures has published a wide array of books, websites, email lists and social media.
You can sign up for the Positive Quote of the Day by email, running since 1996, here, or get it via Twitter here.