Asa Firestone is an avid rock climber and entrepreneur based in Boulder, Colorado. He often describes himself as a washed up explorer turned hotelier. He is the co-founder of the Boulder Adventure Lodge (A-Lodge). He also co-founded several successful non-profit organizations focused on introducing the outdoors to at-risk youth; Climb for Colorado, Adventure Forward, and the Centro de Escalada Urbana. He also founded BeyondGear, a social enterprise selling lifestyle gear to the outdoor community, as well as BeyondTalks, an adventure speaker series and production company. Asa received his MBA at USC Marshall in 2012 as a Society and Business Lab Fellow and earned his undergraduate degree in engineering physics from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2005. He was a National Geographic Young Explorer for his first ascent big wall expedition in the Venezuelan Amazon in 2008.