Hello Steemians - I thought it was about time I introduced myself!

Hello Steemians,

I am a 40-something, husband and father of 2 living in New Zealand. Originally from Ireland, married to a French woman (whom I met in China) with Children born in Hong Kong, I have a strong interest in travelling but more importantly, in open borders and an acceptance of people from other countries and cultures.

I’m also a foodie with a particular love for Asian cuisine and an avid sports fan. Football being my preferred sport. I’m particularly excited to be coaching my son’s 10th Grade football team this year (9-10 year olds).

I have an electrical engineering background but have spent the last 12 years building, failing and building again tech companies. I am currently founder and CEO of a health tech company with blue-chip shareholders and 20 employees in 2 countries. Therefore, I have a strong interest and experience in entrepreneurship, technology, business development, investing and raising capital in traditional financial markets.

For the last few years I’ve become disillusioned with government, financial and corporate institutions. Whilst I believe in capitalism I also believe in a free market or at least a fair playing filed. Back then, given my left leaning social views, I would have called myself centre-left. However, whilst I don’t like categorising myself or others, I would say now I subscribe more and more to libertarian, anarchist views.

A little over a year ago I got into investing in Bitcoin and other blockchain assets. As a tech geek I’m fascinated about the technology. As an entrepreneur, I’m excited about the possibilities this technology can bring. However, mostly, as someone who is sick of the institutional status quo, I’m hopeful that decentralised platforms and solutions might actually force some sort of reset and change from the destructive, globalist systems we have today.

I was aware of SteemIt about a year ago (and even bought some Steem) however I wasn’t an active user. Then I went to Anarchapulco this year and experienced a community of kindred souls. Since then I have started using SteemIt more to stay connected with this community and have (virtually) met other like-minded people as well. With everything that is happening in social media at the moment I’m also actively looking for other platforms that support privacy and the freedom of its users/customers. SteemIt is a big step forward in the right direction in my view.

I’m still trying to figure out how SteemIt works, such as how to get notifications from people I follow or topics I’m interested in for example. However, I’m slowly getting there and enjoying the journey.

I look forward to meeting and engaging with more of you. If you’re in New Zealand let me know and perhaps we can meet up. Otherwise perhaps I’ll see some of you at Anarchapulco 2019!

Cheers

Alan