How it started

After University, I went back to Vancouver and ended up working for tech companies. I was hired as a young 25 yr old at ADP, youngest on the team and eager to learn. Just 2 years later I would win the national sales award for the top 10% of sales executives in North America. Afterwards I was recruited to SAP were I was the youngest and only female in the Enterprise software team. In 2012 I ended up working at various startups including co-founding an algorithm project. In 2013 I came across the Bitcoin whitepaper and everything changed.

Blockchain wasn't even a term that was used in 2013, it was Bitcoin and the 'distributed network'. With my experience and training from Fortune 500 companies I took that skill set to the emerging blockchain industry and helped companies with BD, Product/Market/Fit, Launch plans, and User growth strategies. This often was understood as Marketing and Coms. I was fortunate to work with some of the most exciting and early blockchain companies that are still around today. 

I ended up creating a company called Vanbex (Vancouver Bitcoin Exchange) because I had been getting paid in Bitcoin and thought why not set up some Bitcoin ATMs. Well I was 25 yrs old and had no idea that meant registering as an MSB. I didn't end up going that route because of the complexity, and because I had already been receiving referrals to companies to work with- I ended up throwing all those consulting agreements under the entity I already created, Vanbex Group.

In the beginning it was just me and 3 contractors who were in the US and UK, it was a scrappy little team made with people who I connected with in various crypto chat rooms. I loved our team and we worked well together.

We worked on some pretty big foundational projects at the time and I am grateful for the referrals that we received. I ended up speaking at a lot of conferences talking about my experience and was invited to Spain to speak in front of executives at Santander Bank. Later I was asked to be a speaker at KeyBank's events explaining blockchain.

This was around the time I was then asked to join the Ethereum Foundation as the COMS lead.

In 2017 I was nearing 30 yrs old and wanted to start settling down. I didn't have a lot of dating experience. What happened afterwards was a series of mistakes, I was very naiive and someone who I thought I could trust ended up taking advantage of me and took over the company I had started.

It was a tough lesson and I survived. Despite losing my company and everything I had, I learned who I was. I learned about people. And I learned about resilience.

I've never had any judgements or penalties against me. Despite what some news outlets sensationalize.

I'm grateful for where I am today and for the work that still presents itself as curious avenues where I can send my brain. I still have my mom, and my dog (who is now 16 years old).

I learned what a healthy relationship is. And even though 6 years of my life passed an extremely dark and stressful time, I feel more clear headed than ever before about my future and what I really want to experience in this life, while I still live it.