What do you do when someone asks you to pitch concepts for an <span class="rich-yellow">immersive theme park?</span> You say “yes”. 

I was approached by a team looking to convert an open convention center in Miami to an immersive experience, rivaling the <span class="rich-blue">Van Gogh Experience</span> and <span class="rich-blue">SuperBlue</span>. What I provided was an original concept that reimagined the holiday season with a vibrant and modern twist, and then developed this into a deck that managed to successfully close a seed round. 

At that stage, I was given the title of <span class="rich-pink">Head of Production</span> and asked to lead the development of this new intellectual property towards the execution of an immersive event. With previous working experience in <span class="rich-pink">design, gaming, technology and project management</span>, I felt right at home organizing and leading the charge, attracting some of the largest companies in the immersive space with this grand vision. 

Today, Embers Park is getting ready to break ground in Miami towards an opening in December of 2024 and are growing their team and resources for this objective.

The start-up world is an absolute roller coaster, and my experience with Kubbi was no exception. My business partner and I had been conducting UX interviews with tenants and landlords for a product in the PropTech space, and continued to hear the same issue - rents are up, income is not and no one can afford their <span class="rich-yellow">security deposits.</span>

Clear problem, clear solution: <span class="rich-blue">Move Now, Pay Later.</span> Riding on the BNPL tidal wave after Covid, I put together a simple prototype in Figma that allowed a user to apply for a short-term loan while applying for their apartment. Apartment applications require extensive credit checks, so why not leverage this for underwriting loans? 

Within months, we pitched the product to <span class="rich-pink">Compass Real Estate</span>, who then <span class="rich-pink">signed an LOI</span> to promote the product throughout its NYC offices, giving brokers a referral fee for successful applications.

What happens when you mix Tinder with Zillow? You get FlicFlat - an apartment hunting app that uses a familiar swipe left/right interface to quickly review available listings based on search criteria. The app then uses <span class="rich-yellow">machine learning</span> to analyze user behaviors (ie: nope/like, time to respond) to provide more efficient results over time, and allows users to provide feedback on listings for other users. A socially driven apartment hunter. 

With the support of one of <span class="rich-blue">Tinder’s Directors (Ekaterina Hadjipetkova)</span> as a consultant on the product, we launched a pilot in Los Angeles, along with a digital and print marketing campaign across the UCLA campus. 

FlicFlat was later <span class="rich-pink">acquired by a real estate mogul</span> in London, who fell in love with the interface and API behind the product and wanted to adapt it to the UK market. The product is currently in development towards re-release in 2024.

When I was asked to be the project manager for a digital rental car business in NYC that was meant to disrupt major players like ZipCar and Turo, I honestly thought the CEO was crazy at first, but when he showed me a lease for <span class="rich-yellow">5 parking garages in Manhattan,</span> I was knew it was the right amount of crazy. 

Over the span of 2 years, we managed to build a completely digital rental car flow, integrated into a fleet of 20 luxury cars, allowing users to register, receive ID verification, DMV approval, reserve and unlock their cars using the FaceID on their phones - all in <span class="rich-blue">under 3 minutes.</span> I won’t lie… it was a very cool experience. 

We launched a <span class="rich-pink">2-week pilot in 2020</span> and the entire fleet was booked out for the full 2 weeks. Unfortunately, the pandemic caused the product to take an unexpected pivot, and it was later adapted as an API for luxury hotels to allow guests to book rental cars on site (by the hour).

There’s really nothing quite like the NYC agency environment to toughen one up to the world of software development. Utility is a boutique agency that provides end-to-end development of digital products (websites and apps), often bespoke products for well-known brands. I was brought on to help manage the <span class="rich-yellow">largest clients</span> within the company. 

• <span class="rich-blue">AKQA / Coca Cola:</span> I worked alongside AKQA’s Senior Technologist (Wesley Donaldson) and Creative Director (Resh Sidhu) to build an Augmented Reality game, to be integrated into the existing Coca-Cola North America Android and iOS apps. Why Coke needs an AR game to sell soda… I’m really not sure they did, but the project was a blast. 
• <span class="rich-pink">Forbes:</span> Our team managed to build the first iteration of Forbes’ streaming video platform, for Web, Android and iOS. This is where I got to learn firsthand about the ups and downs of building a subscription platform for iOS, and tracking/managing those subscriptions externally. Forbes would later partner with international Telecom carriers to have the product installed on their phones at sale.

With the rise of casual gaming, some of my former colleagues from Nickelodeon decided to form a small studio, with me as their lead developer. Within weeks, we were producing games for some very well known entities: 

• <span class="rich-yellow">The Legend of Fat Ninja:</span> Our initial project was our own intellectual property, Fat Ninja, who was an oversized ramen chef who gets tossed around a series of maps, smashing anything he collides with while gathering the sacred ingredients. Over 60k downloads on its opening weekend. 
• <span class="rich-blue">Cartoon Network:</span> Primarily focused on brands like Adventure Time and Teen Titans Go, our team developed 6 games for CN’s website, which all received on-air promotions and heavy launch traffic. Our Teen Titans’s game, Drillonaire, ended up being the most popular launch in 2016 of any branded game. 
• <span class="rich-pink">A$AP Ferg:</span> Our team designed and developed a Cooking Fever clone called Harlem Hustle for hip-hop mogul ASAP Ferg. Tragically, the game was shelved after 9 months of development - a fully functional and completed product. It happens.  
• <span class="rich-pink">Lil Wayne:</span> I was tasked with developing a skateboarding game for Lil Wayne that was intended to be a clone of Jetpack Joyride, however, after many pivots, we had the artist hanging from a drone while “sippin’ sizzurp”. The game was launched on iOS and Android and received over 10k 5-star reviews.

There’s nothing quite as frightening as stepping off of an elevator to see a giant, oversized poster from the TV series Dexter, with Michael C. Hall coldly staring you right in the face, <span class="rich-yellow">blood spatters and all.</span> 

At a time when cable television was raising the bar on its content production, Showtime managed to flourish with a sequence of very successful shows. I was brought onboard to work directly with the creative department to help build and maintain the “show pages” for series such as <span class="rich-blue">The Tudors, Nurse Jackie and Dexter.</span>

During my time there, I was also given the task of adding social media integration to an array of online games on the site, allowing users to track high scores and challenge their friends. It was through this endeavor that I began to realize I had an unrealized <span class="rich-pink">passion for game development.</span>

In 2012, AVON was celebrating its 125th Anniversary and decided to create a stand-alone website to showcase the history and growth of the company over the years. Once I was given access to their marketing archives, and had an opportunity to sift through decades of <span class="rich-yellow">high-quality original print ads</span> (a la MadMen), I decided to make something else. 

I pitched the team on creating an interactive timeline, allowing anyone to access this treasure trove of visual information in a fun and intuitive way. The end result was then showcased as an oversized kiosk at the 125th Anniversary party and later displayed in <span class="rich-blue">all AVON corporate office locations.</span>

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of stepping into the perfect pair of jeans. That’s exactly what Bloomingdales was hoping to capture with their <span class="rich-yellow">“Denim Picker”</span>, a tentpole feature on their website in 2011. 

Female employees from within the company were selected and interviewed: What is your favorite pair of jeans, and <span class="rich-blue">how does it make you feel</span> The answers were as varied and unique as the women themselves, giving personal testimonials that shoppers could connect to emotionally. 

I was brought on to work with their art director to build a bespoke, interactive piece that could be featured on the site and accessible from store kiosks. The final product was launched in over 1000 stores and eventually featured in <span class="rich-pink">People Magazine.</span>

No spin around the NYC agency circuit is complete without a stop at Razorfish. I was brought on to provide After Effects and Flash animations for one of their largest accounts at the time: <span class="rich-yellow">AXE Body Spray.</span>

Remember those ad campaigns where a guy has sweat spewing out of his armpits at an alarming rate, while a scantily clad woman applies deodorant to him? Well, I can tell you that simulating <span class="rich-blue">fluid dynamics inside of a 40k banner</span> ad definitely comes with its challenges. 

During my time in their offices, I produced <span class="rich-pink">100s of advertisements</span> for the campaign, and learned the ins and outs of digital marketing in a very fast paced environment.

At a time when soft drinks were raising health concerns in the US, Pepsi Co. decided to double down one of their products that was actually gaining market share: <span class="rich-yellow">Mountain Dew.</span> Utilizing the new “interactive” branch of the company, the team at Ruder Finn devised an online promotion to showcase the long history of the product, while allowing users to engage with the brand in a new way. 

The result was the Mountain Dew <span class="rich-blue">Throwback Shack,</span> an online portal where users could navigate through a cabin in the woods, owned by the Mountain Dew mascot: Hillbilly Willy. Within each room of the experience, users could interact with various MD merchandise, available for sale of course. WIth the support of an ongoing marketing campaign from Pepsi, the site managed to stay active for over 4 years, with various expansions added to the experience over time. 

Due to the work I had done on the MD project, the Ruder Finn team ended up keeping me on-staff for the development of their new <span class="rich-pink">company homepage.</span>

After returning from The Netherlands, I found myself sharing a beach house in Venice with some of my close friends from high school. It was during this time that I was contracted by a Chicago based agency, Kerosene Creative, that had been developing digital content for numerous <span class="rich-yellow">LA-based movie studios.</span> 

During my time with the company, I worked as a lead Flash developer, primarily on sites for “blockbuster” movies such as <span class="rich-blue">Sex & The City, Body Of Lies and The Taking of Pelham 123.</span> Now, I definitely saw a correlation between the quality of these films and the need to pump money into digital advertising for them, but needless to say, we ended up building some of the <span class="rich-pink">best browser based experiences</span> available at that time.

Coming off of a medical leave from cancer, I decided I wanted to shift focus for the next few years and go back to school to complete my degree. However, having spent most of my early 20s working, I had developed an <span class="rich-yellow">insatiable need to see the world.</span> Combining these, I decided to apply to International Universities offering US accredited programs, and I found my perfect home at Webster University of Leiden, in The Netherlands. 

At Webster, I was able to take what I had learned from working at Nickelodeon and expand upon it, in an environment that encouraged experimentation for the sake of education. This allowed me to explore new avenues for my creativity, and eventually lead to my <span class="rich-blue">passion for coding.</span> Eventually, I had found the need to push past the limitations of animation software to discover the raw computing power of code.  

During my time in Leiden, I was able to develop the technical skills that would lay the foundation for the next 10 years of my career. I was also able to completely <span class="rich-pink">fill my passport</span> before completing my Bachelor’s degree in Multimedia Production.

You might be asking yourself: Why in the world would he include this? Well, the decision to leave a full-time position at Viacom after 5 years needs a bit of an explanation. I unfortunately was diagnosed with <span class="rich-yellow">cancer</span> when I was 25 years old, which left me re-evaluating how I had been spending my life. I decided it was time to reinvest in myself, so I opted to leave my job so that I could finish my degree and explore my full potential in an academic environment.

Towards the end of my freshman year at NYU, I decided I would apply for an internship with MTV Networks. This seemed to be a very common tactic for Tisch film students to get exposure in an actual production environment, often working as assistants: logging footage, running errands, etc. However, due to an abundance of multimedia experience on my resume, I was sent over to Nickelodeon to interview for an internship in their new Online department. That day <span class="rich-yellow">changed my life forever.</span> 

Having grown up on Nickelodeon content, this was not only my first big break, but it was a dream job scenario. I did everything I could to make myself indispensable to the company, eventually taking on the entire <span class="rich-blue">“Game & Sports (GAS)”</span> section of the site, and playing a key role in it’s conversion to Flash (which was a good idea back then). 

After a year in this position, the company made me a full-time job offer, which forced me to make the difficult decision to leave NYU before completing my degree. In exchange, I was given years of hands-on experience at a time when Nickelodeon was the <span class="rich-pink">highest rated channel</span> on television and the <span class="rich-pink">highest trafficked site for children.</span> In hindsight, I’m very pleased with the decision.

Having grown up 30 miles from Manhattan, I had always longed to build a life in the city. I became very comfortable taking the train in/out of the city by myself before I was in high school, and it eventually grew into a weekend habit. Naturally, once it came time to apply for schools, I decided to pursue my passion for <span class="rich-yellow">video production</span> while satisfying my thirst for an urban environment. 

When I entered NYU, digital video production was just starting to become accessible, and DVD players had yet to become commonplace in homes. As much as I enjoyed the craft of shooting on celluloid film and editing with <span class="rich-blue">razor blades and tape,</span> it was apparent to me that I wasn’t necessarily being prepared for the future ahead of me. 

As a result, I would spend much of my studies in the computer labs, watching as digital editing software was just taking off, and words like “multimedia” were becoming the norm. This combination of creativity and technology, and the beautiful overlaps between these realms, would ultimately draw me in and <span class="rich-pink">define the rest of my career.</span>