Work & Projects

I inspire PEOPLE to fall in love with Category-defining ideas, products, Brands & movements.

Over the past two decades, my passion has been crafting stories and building brands that inspire - and often challenge - people to see themselves and the world around them differently.

I’ve reported on, built, advised, and worked with early-stage, category-defining ventures across technology, media, hospitality, consumer goods, experiential travel, social innovation and more. This journey has taken me to over 80 countries and countless environments in search of greater perspectives on the human experience and narratives we share - and equally, the ones we don’t.

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Selected Works & Projects

Portfolio

Glidance

2023 - Present Brand & Marketing Director

Glidance is a category-defining assistive technology startup on mission to transform independent mobility for people who are blind or have low vision.

Our product, Glide, is the world’s first “intelligent guide” for the blind and low vision community. It is an AI-powered primary mobility aid designed to help people with vision impairments navigate more confidently, comfortably, and safely.

Powered by Glidance’s Sensible Wayfinding System - a high intensity computer vision and sense making AI system - Glide uses real-time data from an array of advanced sensors to understand complex spaces, map the best routes, identify targets of interest, and avoid obstacles to get you safely to your destination.

Highlights

Designed and implemented initial community marketing strategy, resulting in $500k+ in product presales over a year before actual product release.
Developed core brand vision, mission, messaging, marketing strategy and content.
Redesign website, communication systems, tech systems, and internal platforms,
Created deeply engaged beta community and designed highly effective feedback systems between 5,000 blind and low vision individuals and product development teams.

Awards & Recognition

Edison Award 2024
RBR50 Robotics Innovation Awards 2024,
CES 2024 CTA Foundation Award
Robo Business Pitchfire award 2023.
Design Awards Honoree “Best Artificial Intelligence Designs”
2nd Place at LG Innofest Pitch Competition

Bird Buddy

2022 - 2023 VP, Brand & Customer Experience

Developed global brand and customer experience strategy for Bird Buddy, a VC-backed startup leveraging AI technology to reconnect people with nature and give wildlife a chance to compete for our attention. Named Time Magazine's "Best Inventions of 2023", and crowdfunded via the most successful Kickstarter campaign in consumer gadget history (over $5M). Company reached $45M+ in sales in two years, creating the world’s largest network of connected wildlife cameras (150k+ devices)

Highlights

Led strategy for content marketing, customer support, customer experience & community management teams as we shipped 150k+ V1 products to backers in over 120 countries.
Launched successful $3M Kickstarter campaign for second consumer product.
Developed core brand vision, mission, messaging, marketing strategy and taglines to align product strategy and core company values.
Founded highly engaged 1,500 member beta-testing community and built feedback systems for rapid product iteration.
Redesigned customer journey and brand experience to achieve NPS score over 60.
Launched case study with 26 senior living communities to study the effects of Bird Buddy on residents with dementia and memory loss.

Awards & Recognition

Top 1% of all Kickstarter Campaigns
CES 2022 Innovation Award Nominees; “Digital Imaging & Photography”, “Smart Home”, “Software & Mobile App”
SXSW 2023 “Artificial Intelligence Innovation Award”
Idea 2022 Silver Award, Outdoor and Garden
Time Magazine “Top 100 Inventions 2023”
2023 World Bird Feeding Institute “Best Product of The Year”
Fast Company’s 2023 Innovation by Design Awards Honoree “Best Artificial Intelligence Designs”

Unsettled

2016 - 2021 Co-Founder and CEO
2021 - 2023 Chairman of the Board

Co-Founded and grew award-winning lifestyle & experiential travel brand to $5M+ in revenue in 4 years. Designed, marketed, programmed and operationalized transformational shared experiences for over 3,000+ professionals navigating the future of work in 30 global destinations. Becoming the largest travel community for flexible workers in the world. Developed highly successful B2C and B2B virtual experiences to help Fortune 50 organizations adapt to hybrid and remote work.

Key Results:

Built and scaled a lifestyle travel and experience brand at the intersection of work, travel, and community that developed an almost cult-like following.
3,000+ Alumni from 80+ countries. 50% of investors came from the alumni community.
Pioneered the 1-month coworking & coliving retreat model in over 20 destinations.
Unsettled’s tagline and core philosophy of “Embrace The Unknown” has been tattooed on no less than 8 people.
Partnered and designed experiences for some of the world’s most notable companies (Amazon, Johnson & Johnson, Accenture, Design Hotels, YPO).

Awards & Recognition

United Nations WTO Startup Competition Winner,
SKIFT Idea Award 2020 Winner: Virtual Retreats
Featured in NYT, Economist, FT, Forbes, WSJ, CNN, Inc., etc.
Selected for inaugural TED Residency class.

Timeline.com

2014 - 2016. Founding Editor-In-Chief

Designed and led Timeline.com’s groundbreaking editorial vision - providing deep historical context to breaking news by combining expert editorial experience with machine learning technology and a user-friendly iOS app. Built out award-winning editorial staff and operations to a team of 20, and grew the audience from zero to millions of monthly uniques. Oversaw product and technology (proprietary semantic context engine) development and growth, forging partnerships with several top tier media companies and brands.

Key Challenge:

The world is not lacking information. It is lacking context. Timeline set out to connect the dots between past and present, making historical context and the human story more relevant, accessible and useful to everyone.
Our goal was to develop a consumer news app that combined machine learning and editorial expertise to surface deep and relevant context to breaking news.

Key Results:

Built an award winning editorial team that pioneered a new format and approach to card-based news in an interchangeable timeline format, producing in-depth context in bite-size chunks.
Launched iOS app that received significant recognition and praise from major news outlets.
Grew our audience from inception to millions of monthly uniques.
Oversaw the development of a “Context Engine”, using semantic technology and machine learning to surface relevant archival context for news articles , leading to partnerships with several major news organizations.
Product and Engineering team went on to found Dapper Labs, launching the NFT movement

Awards:

Apple: Best App of the Month, Best New Apps of The Year
Best Mobile App Awards: Winner, Best designed user interface
Nominated for 2 Webby Awards

Independent Journalism & Consulting.

2010 - 2014

Based in East Africa, I worked as an independent journalist and photojournalist covering over a dozen countries. I specialized in social innovation, startups, technology, entrepreneurship, environmental and social issues, in addition to documentary and conflict reporting.

Contributed bylines to: The New York Times, Foreign Policy Magazine, NPR, The Sunday Times The Atlantic, Al Jazeera, The Boston Globe, The Guardian, Associated Press, Huffington Post, Financial Times, The LA Times, Sky News, CNN and more.

Consulted for: The World Bank, USAID, Honey Care Africa, Columbia University, Johnson & Johnson, IOM,

Highlights:

Founded a The (BoP) Project, reporting on the narrative of potential behind the veil of poverty in emerging economies through the lens of social innovation, entrepreneurship, and market-based approaches to poverty. Produced independent media and visual portfolios of Base of the Economic Pyramid (BoP)-centered organizations, initiatives, and solutions across East Africa and the Middle East.
Contributed bylines from over a dozen countries in Africa and the Middle East, on issues ranging from conflict and terrorism to human rights, conservation, sustainable development, entrepreneurship, innovation ecosystems, travel, and culture.

Awards & Recognition:

A1 photo in the New York Times
Finalist, Diageo Africa Business Reporting Awards
Interviewed by CNN, SKY News, NPR; Presented work at Yale, UC Santa Barbara, and Columbia University.
Led to TED Talk on “Power of Privilege” & global empathy