Never wanted to be a lawyer, but went to law school for a year. Seemed like a safe decision 20 years ago and the "internet" was niche, not a career-making industry, at least in my country.
Half a year into my studies, I saw a poster for an online marketing contest, applied, and created a winning campaign — got hired on the spot by the agency running it. Agency went bust in a year, but I ended up at an FWA-award winning design studio and from then on my 15-year tech startup career started.
Built great teams, ran campaigns that won awards or delivered incredible ROI, and worked across every channel, consumer and B2B. I like both.
Last year I took a sabbatical to figure out what's next. Started bikepacking around Europe with everything I needed in two panniers. Got a sense of what it means to live as a nomad. Our brains have designated areas for home and once you remove that, every place is home but nowhere is truly home. Feels vulnerable and safe at the same time.
Now I'm building again: launched a few ideas to test product-market fit and distribution. AI coding has given everyone the chance to play the startup lottery, so earning attention is now the bottleneck. Some projects got featured on ProductHunt, Hacker News, or major Japanese tech blogs. Others ended in a folder somewhere, never to be pushed to production.
I still help tech founders with marketing. Reach out if you need help with launches, positioning, or operations. Yes, I like ops. [email protected] .