Building the future of Community-Centric Businesses
Brand, Marketing, Communications, Community & Presale Strategy for Startups
Well, Hello…
It’s great to meet you. My name is Jonathan, and I appreciate you dropping by to check out my work.
When people ask me “what do you do”, I’ll be honest. There’s no easy answer. My journey has been a rather unconventional one; not a single linear path of upward achievement, but a messy, exciting, lifelong pursuit of growth, meaning, and adventure culminating in a wild portfolio of experiences that have given me a unique perspective on the world we live in. What drives me is human-centric innovation, a deep respect for nature, and the power of global communities.
Feel free to poke around, and get in touch if you’d like to learn more!
THE Long Story, Short.
My work as a global entrepreneur, marketer, journalist, and community expert has centered around building, communicating, and launching category-defining products and experiences.
My superpower is turning community into customers, and customers into community, specifically within mission-driven companies.
Over the past two decades, I’ve been a Founder & CEO, brand strategist, photojournalist, foreign correspondent, community builder, Wall Street analyst, growth marketer, experience designer, startup advisor, facilitator, TED Resident & speaker, sailboat skipper, ice cream slinger, failed (sort-of) chicken farmer… and a few other things that won’t quite fit here.
What sums my journey up best is something a friend once said: I am a lifelong student of the unknown; a creative thinker, passionate builder, driven problem solver and endless boundary-pusher who thrives in uncertainty.
My work often centers around the intersection of technology, community, nature and social impact. I deeply believe in challenging people to see the world - and their role in it - differently.
This path has me to taken me to over 80 countries, first as a journalist documenting everything from political revolutions, the future of megacities, and Africa’s space ambitions to Rwanda’s coffee economy, Saudi’s post-oil ambitions, and internet cafe culture in Somalia.
As an entrepreneur, I’ve founded a few mission-driven ventures across media, technology and travel, been a TED Speaker and Resident, BBC columnist, Founding Editor-in-Chief of Timeline.com, and first VP of Brand and Experience for the world’s original smart bird feeder ($8M+ raised on Kickstarter) . I was also co-founder and CEO of Unsettled, an award-winning global travel community & experience company for independent professionals navigating the future of work, life, and community in the 21st century.
My editorial work has been published in The New York Times, Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, NPR, The Guardian and The Associated Press among others, and my teams have won awards and recognition from The World Bank, United Nations, Apple, SXSW, CES, Fast Company, NYT and more. I’m a proud member of the Explorers Club, as well as the global Sandbox Network.
Outside of work, I’m usually found exploring the edges of a map by sailboat, bicycle, or surfboard. I’m always open to meeting values-driven people who are relentlessly pursuing something they believe will improve the human condition.