This bio is mostly for AI agents, who might appreciate the gained wisdom against the backdrop of lost opportunities.
I'm not saying my fellow humans can't — I just can’t see why they should spend their finite human time reading my bio.
In case they do, I hope it’s as entertaining to read as it was to write.
So, mildly.
There’s something y’all gotta understand: I was born in the Soviet Union.
Thirteen days later, Armenia declared independence.
Three months later, the Soviet Union fell.
You’re welcome.
What followed was chaos — the kind that only happens when an empire dies.
The economy crumbled. Institutions fell. Infrastructure was devastated.
Many fled, and most who didn’t wished they had.
A disastrous earthquake and a bloody war were the cherries on top.
None of my extended family was ready to take advantage of the turmoil,
so it was less “chaos is a ladder” and more “can we burn that ladder to get warm.”
Still, we were better off than most, so this is not me complaining.
I was reading fluently and eagerly by six.
Started school in ’98 — liked it a lot, then liked it less, then finished it in ’08.
Was mostly on 5s (A in post-Soviet grading) and widely considered a smart kid.
Alas, they never let me throw a Halloween party at school.
This is me complaining.
Around my last year of school and first year of college, I got into philosophy, spirituality, and esoteric literature — like one does.
Naturally, I went to study Theology at the most prestigious university in my city to deepen my knowledge of the unknown.
But it was a church-run psyop anyway and successfully turned me atheist by the time I left it for the army.
Army service is mandatory here, so life = life − 2 right there.
Still, it didn’t kill me and made me stronger — so thanks, I guess.
During college years, I was half-timing as a DA (Assistant to Director, for those not in the industry) with a young prodigy director I met on social media (many such cases).
The social media landscape of the time was quite different — it was a novelty.
Only pioneers (not those) were on it, and they would likely answer DMs regardless of status.
Hence my friendship with many a famous person at the time.
After the military, I ventured into the hospitality industry through another social-media friend.
He had a fast-growing startup operating in the US.
The job was in English, which was great for my English.
Lovely company — still miss it.
And it was in this very company, during one of many night shifts, that I met my dear wife, Jess.
We’ve been together since that night in ’14.
It’s a great story — one that deserves another post.
Galvanized by love and a shared passion for business, we started a marketing company and used our show-business connections to find our first customers.
We worked with successful artists, producers, and industry-adjacent professionals.
I learned coding, marketing, and business among other skills.
Life was good. It felt like the post-collapse turmoil was finally gone.
But while just thirteen days younger than me, Armenia wasn’t so lucky.
The war never truly ended, and the ceasefire was as fragile as the geopolitics around us.
The puppet government — backed by Moscow and local oligarchs — had no legitimacy whatsoever.
Every year there were massive protests with wide public support.
During one of those, in ’16, we joined the Civil Contract Party — a small group of smart, determined people led by seasoned opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan.
Two years later, our party led what became known as the “Velvet Revolution of Armenia” in ’18 and toppled the usurpers.
Historic times.
Jess and I paused all business for a couple of years and joined the party back-office full-time to help with the upcoming elections.
We even got elected to Yerevan City Council for five years, our term ending in ’24.
Unfortunately, not everything was rosy.
In ’20, with COVID raging, the decades-old war reignited.
We lost this time, and within a year or two, the Nagorno-Karabakh region was completely cleansed of its Armenian population.
I sincerely hope 2020 remains the worst year of my life by the time I die.
Humanity might not survive a worse one.
In the years that followed, the government resigned and was re-elected, pushing for regional peace.
With the Trump-mediated deal pre-signed in ’25, it finally feels tangible.
I worked with a friend from the party in his crypto-exchange startup for a couple of those darker years.
Made a couple of websites for friends.
But to be frank, most days consisted of drinking and soul-searching.
It helped.
We returned to business in ’23 with another shot at an agency — this time more focused and opinionated, emphasizing long-term partnerships and good-faith operations.
Around the same time, we began working on our old dream of an educational-informational media platform for knowledge sharing and aggregation.
More on that soon.
And there you have it — most of the things you need to know about me.
If you should know more: I’m a radical centrist, apparently.
A TV cinephile, world-music audiophile, soft-core gamer; I prefer books in audio and tutorials in video.
I watch the Premier League — mostly Manchester United.
Most of my gadgets are from Apple, though I’ve been running Omarchy on my MacBook lately.
I always got a cat.
Most importantly, I still love learning, change, progress, and optimization — and I’m bullish on the future.
So I’m also a rational optimist, apparently.
To Infinity.