A squirrel monkey at the Monkey Island Foundation in Bocas del Toro Panama questions my intentions.

A squirrel monkey at the Monkey Island Foundation in Bocas del Toro Panama questions my intentions.

My co-pilot is skeptical of my pre-flight checklist protocol.

My co-pilot is skeptical of my pre-flight checklist protocol.

What’s this Kismet you speak of?

Depending on who you ask, the word ‘kismet’ has any number of meanings. It was a favorite word of my mother, who was fond of using it to express the notion of ‘divine fate’ — more serendipity than coincidence, in her purview. For others, kismet is used as stand-in for dumb luck, being at the right place at the right time.

For me, it’s a little of both. I was lucky to have moved to Seattle at the dawn of the Dot Com era where I fell into my first PR job and caught the technology bug. What started as a means to save some money for grad school slowly gave way to the realization that this Super Information Highway might actually transform our daily lives. Most of all, I was fascinated by how it all worked, especially by the technology hidden behind the curtain - how servers were bootstrapped and managed, how software was designed and deployed, how to keep it all locked down and secured from hackers. Not exactly sexy but for me, it continues to hold an alluring mystique.

Since this time, I’ve had the opportunity to manage PR and communications for some of the industry’s most disruptive B2B start-ups. From working with legendary technologists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz after they launched Opsware or Steve Singh who founded Concur, one of the first and most successful commercial B2B SaaS applications to the dozens of enterprise software, cloud, and cybersecurity companies looking to make their own mark.

My passion is working with promising technology start-ups and helping them find creative ways to reach their audience. Interested in learning more? Drop me a line or let me buy you a cup of coffee if you’re in Portland.