What this is all about

What will I be talking about on my blog? I cannot say I am the most interesting man in the world, but surely I am interesting enough:

• I come from a place that is full of exotic idiosyncrasies and live in the best place on Earth (Brooklyn);

• I have an awesome, interesting, and diverse group of friends;

• I speak four languages, have traveled to and lived in many places, and have a badass family history of immigrant go-getters who will never take “no” for an answer or take shit from anyone or anything;

• I went to one of the best law schools in the U.S., had a fast, wild and comfortable yuppie life in NY, and left everything behind to start a tech company (and boy it is tough);

• I married a smart, beautiful, and interesting woman (and my ex-roommate moved to Japan not to bear the sight of his former NY war comrade together with his little sister);

• I am constantly learning new things (SEO, analytics, html/CSS, and online marketing are some of my latest);

• I have as many hobbies and interests as you can count: opera, theater, film, modern and contemporary art, design, and architecture, ballet, literature (fiction only, and always in the original language), coffee (I can put any barista to shame, except perhaps around Naples, where my family originally stems from), chocolate (dark, every night), running, yoga (started this year), swimming (badly), lifting weights (Arnold is one of my all-time idols), cigars, whiskey, brandy, wine, cocktail-mixing (yes, I drink a lot), cooking (drop me a line if you want to come try it, seriously), technology, and clothes (I always get complements and stares from men and women alike).

By now, you probably got the idea of what this is about. And one more thing, I am not particularly humble.

Why Am I Doing This?

In 2012, more content was created than in the entire history of humanity combined. (Query: how much of that content would have never been created but for marketers trying to game Google’s SEO algorithm? Please reply back with the answer.) That’s a hard fact. So, why am I choosing to become another needle in the haystack?

I love writing. I started writing weekly columns for a newspaper in my native Guayaquil (that’s in Ecuador, for the geographically and culturally challenged) when I was 18, did it for almost three years and then I stopped. Back then there was no Google Analytics. It was a big national newspaper (El Telegrafo), so presumably someone must have read me or at least come across my face, still with pubertal pimples. I enjoyed every bit of it, but the newspaper went through some difficult times and I had to stop. After that, school, then work, then travel, etc., all gave me perfect excuses to be lazy and I never picked up on it again.

But now I am back. Since I joined a team of friends to co-found GroundBreaker (please join and be part of something awesome!), I have felt more alive, challenged, and motivated than since my first year of law school. So, back in August, I started writing for GroundBreaker’s site and blog and realized how much I missed doing this.

I get a decent click rate on my GroundBreaker posts and I would be happy if my wife and perhaps a freak or two read this every now and then. I could care less, honestly. In fact, thanks to analytics, I know that most of you have given up on this post by now. I do it for me.

It's always so hard to choose a picture;
I look so good in all of them!