My path to product design and entrepreneurship began in an unlikely place: as a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. I was actually a pretty good scientist but much more interested in how to visualize and present my findings so others could understand them easily.

Looking to focus on what I loved, I enrolled at the UC Berkeley School of Information, which offers a Master's program that combines design, computer science, business, sociology, and law: a beautiful and wise combination of disciplines that I've drawn from over the years.

After graduation, I got my dream job as an Experience Designer at Adaptive Path, the UX design consultancy of the time. Even as the youngest designer there, I got to work on multi-screen, concept, and mobile projects for financial services companies, startups, and even NASA.

Then, I got the startup itch and left to co-found Automatic with friends from grad school. At Automatic, I got to participate in nearly every part of running a tech business: from product strategy to launch marketing, from fundraising to managing engineers, and of course design leadership. In 2017, Automatic was acquired by SiriusXM for $100M+.

Buzzing from this experience, I left the US to share what I'd learned with others. I became an entrepreneur-in-residence for an economic development NGO working in Serbia, Bosnia, Albania, Macedonia, and Kosovo – the region my family is originally from. For five months I mentored startups, entrepreneurs, incubators, and VC's – sometimes in the language I grew up speaking at home.

After returning to California, I began my consulting practice: embedding with growing startups to help them achieve their company goals. And apart from a brief detour to co-found a second startup in the local news space (here's a case study if you're curious), I've been doing this work ever since.

I'm excited by opportunities across industries and product types. What matters most to me is working with great people, interesting problems, and having a positive impact.

I enjoy B2B and service design, which I’ve been focusing on for the past few years. I also love and have a lot of experience working in the consumer and mobile spaces.

I’d be happy at a larger company where my experience in team-building and lean product development could help ship more, better, faster. I'd also be interested in working with startups, either as a full-time member of the team or perhaps through a VC or other organization that advises and supports startups.

Location is also quite flexible and I'm excited to relocate for the right opportunity!