Blaine founded Student Brands as a college freshman in 1999 to help students share course notes and research online. He bootstrapped the company for nearly 18 years and Barnes and Noble Education (NYSE) acquired it for $58.5mm in August 2017. He also founded Solve in 2016, a service that helped people quickly get through immigration and customs when traveling overseas. Solve was in Y Combinator’s Summer 2017 batch and it was acquired by Blacklane later that year. Blaine is now focused on acquiring and building bootstrapped companies and investing in startups and funds in the US and Asia.

In the nonprofit world, Blaine is a member of the board of directors of Liberty in North Korea, the Wende Museum of the Cold War, and the Amani Project. He’s an active supporter of the Sundance Institute and invests in documentaries and scripted films.