CrunchGear (RIP)
My internship at CrunchGear sold me on pursuing digital media as a career. Though thinking about that site is a little bittersweet for me. It doesn’t exist anymore. It was an attempt by TechCrunch at spinning off a sister site focused on consumer electronics, and it didn’t last more than a few years. Still, I am so grateful for the opportunity.
And let me tell you — doing an internship and having the EiC take time out to edit you? That’s not common. But very young, very green me deeply appreciated it. The biggest thank you in the world goes out to John Biggs for that.
Abuzz
There was a time I was very into social media. Partly due to my own enjoyment; the thrill of watching this new medium take form, especially where networks like Twitter and FriendFeed were concerned.
But it was partly due to work, as well, and back then, I created something I’m still immensely proud of to this day: Abuzz — an iPhone app that tracked keyword mentions across Twitter, forums, RSS feeds and so forth. I designed it (notebooks full of sketches), funded it, worked closely with a developer to put it together, tested it, and used it myself for clients. It did fairly well in the store! Way better than I would have expected. It was a pretty niche product that I wanted for me, mostly. I wound up selling this to a software company because… life. I could not keep up with life and the responsibility of keeping the app up to date every time a new version of iOS released.
Few traces remain of it, but there are some. Older, wiser me would love to build something new someday.
BestTechie (RIP)
The supreme underdog tech site was also the one that pushed me even further down my path, and I’m thankful for it. To start: there are not enough words to express how driven, intelligent and plain cool Jeff Weisbein is. He gave me the opportunity to cover absolutely anything. I remember once that I wrote a seemingly innocuous story about Comcast killing its unencrypted QAM signals, letting people know it meant they’d be forced to rent digital set-top boxes instead of simply plugging into coax. It led to a VP of Marketing at Comcast calling me and screaming at me for a solid ten minutes before conceding that the story was accurate. How’d that guy get my number? No idea. But really cool memory.
That site also led me to meet more awesome folks who helped me tremendously down the line. I’m sad it changed course, but thrilled that Jeff got to jump into some new ventures. Seriously — solid dude.
SVG (Static Media)
Brian Rubin — another fantastic human — is someone I worked alongside at BestTechie. I owe him a great deal for getting me back into the digital media world again. After BestTechie ceased, I retreated back into consulting. Then, one day, Brian (who had since become a managing editor at Static) messaged me on Facebook and asked if I wanted to write about video games. Uh… yeah? So began my journey at SVG. I started out doing features. The site expanded into news and I became the first news writer. The site expanded even more, hired more news writers, and I became the first news editor. Then Nick Werner left the site and I became the lead of a truly amazing team (who worked so hard to do great stuff, even if we all didn’t particularly care for the approach). Nick, by the way, did a superb job prepping me for the news editor job and, eventually, his own job.
Straight up: if you ever get a chance to work with Brian, or with Nick, or with Dani Lee Collins, Nathan Simmons, Jess Reyes, Brittany Alva, Sam Zell-Breier, Christopher Gates, etc. etc… do it. If any of those names are on a resume in front of you, hire them. You will have zero regrets.
Gizjo
There are two things in life I feel like I must always have: a side project and an outlet. Gizjo was both at the same time. I wanted to write about tech and gaming in my own voice. I also wanted to test SEO theories and take some risks and gambles in content strategy — without taking anyone else down with me if they didn’t pan out.
This was fun. Some highlights: I pretty closely predicted the specs for the Switch. I wrote some very comprehensive Destiny 2 guides. I angrily kept track of how many weeks it had been since Bobby Kotick was allowed to keep his job. And I appeared on ABC 27 a few times to talk about tech stuff (in clips that I still refuse to watch).
Though, looking at this, it seems that I’ve slimmed down a bit. That’s something!
I again felt the call of marketing, though, and had less and less time for Gizjo. So it was sold to another company and off I went.
HexaGroup
I did not arrive in Houston with the intent of staying very long. Maybe a year at the most! Just until COVID faded out. I wounded up staying for three, and part of that was because I I took a gig with a marketing agency in the city; an agency full of some of the coolest, smartest, most fun people I’ve ever met.
I came into HexaGroup as a marketing consultant and copywriter, working out ideas, strategy and the words for companies that MOSTLY existed in the energy space (there was a wicked good Greek restaurant chain in the mix). I left as its Digital Content Manager, able to configure all the bits of a marketing automation solution — landing pages, forms, emails, list rules, social media, etc. — while also taking care of the content within. I also got to work on behalf of a few publicly traded energy companies (a first), write some fun gag emails, ride on an autonomous boat and bake some pastries along the way.
Marketing Consulting
My life and career post-college has been very Bo-Katan Kryze. Journies between, and a deep appreciation for, both media and marketing. I feel comfortable in either realm and in saying I am knowledgable and tested in both. Basically:
So much of my time that I can’t attribute to a single “place” is time I spent working with companies that run the gamut of industries and offerings: from small tech startups to local mom-and-pop shops to mid-sized fashion brands to large online retailers.
The specific work has been varied (which I love). Writing product copy for every single pair of sunglasses (while being encouraged to do it with some flair, which also, I LOVE). Strategizing on the go-to-market for a neat gadget wishlist website. Mapping out the onboarding flow for an app analytics SaaS product. Contributing to pieces about technology and how it will shape the future of retail. Taking on the role of “PR” for the company behind an internal communications tool. Writing all of the campaign copy for a retailer’s fall sales event. The list goes on.
The more “new” there is in something, the more likely it is I’ll want to take it on. I crave that variety. So anytime I can contribute in this way, it doesn’t even need to be asked. I’m in.