introducing myself

Hi Everyone!

I was born and raised in Lattakia, Syria, a gorgeous city on the Mediterranean until 1994, when I moved to good ol' Portland, Oregon. I remember the greatest shock in the states as a young kid was that cold ocean water existed; the Pacfic is not like the Mediterranean - shocking I know!

After graduating Univ. of Oregon in Business/Finance in 2008 (not a great time to graduate), I began my professional journey at a gaming startup - it was great, learned quite a bit and loved the team and our community. After that, I joined a mid-stage manufacturing startup where I co-led in agriculture division. Did well in sales and was blown away by the level of technology in agriculture - specifically, farmers were using an iPad to review satellite infer-red imaging on their crops and tapping away water flow over 2 miles of water pipe. It was incredible!

Shortly following that company's acquisition, I joined a fin-tech startup and learned the roller coasters of startups first hand. We were a small team, but after that acquisition, I left. In between all those times, I was dabbling with side projects to hone my entrepreneurial skills because it's where the root of my passion is - fundamentally understanding the power of imagining an idea and having the skillset to convert that into a tangible product/service is absolutely incredible. Plus, seeing the impact that it could have the developing world by providing jobs, education, stable incomes is truly incredible.

I've heard two camps of thoughts when it comes to developing countries and that there shouldn't be pure handouts. It's flawed reasoning, and I'm working to change that by providing the tools (education and knowledge) of what I continue to learn every day with gifted founders.

I think entrepreneurial opportunties need to flourish everywhere. Anyway, that's a bit of background on me and a bit of my future goals.

Looking forward to exploring and contributing to Steemit!

Onwards & Upwards