A Global Start

My journey began in Simferopol, Ukraine, on the Crimean Peninsula. Adopted at age one by American parents with roots in the same region, my life started with a profound shift in perspective—one that instilled an early appreciation for diverse backgrounds and the drive to make the most of every opportunity.

The 10-Year-Old Producer

Long before "influencer marketing" was a buzzword, I was obsessed with the mechanics of digital storytelling.

• 2010: Started my first YouTube channel at age 10, filming comedy skits with friends.
• The First Pivot: Transitioned into "trampoline trick" content, where I realized I could turn a hobby into a partnership.
• The "Hustle": At 12 years old, I began cold-outreaching to sunglass brands to pitch product placement in our videos. We landed our first sponsorship years before the creator economy went mainstream.

Strategy at Scale

By high school, my interest in digital "systems" moved into competitive gaming. I began building and managing Call of Duty clans, coordinating players nationwide to compete in high-stakes online events. This was my first exposure to community management and the "meta-strategy" of competitive ecosystems.

The Pursuit of Excellence: Athletics & Economics

While my digital life was about creation, my physical life was about discipline.

• The Grind: As a high-level track and field athlete, I learned the value of incremental gains. I eventually served as Team Captain, leading a 50+ member team and balancing hours of weekly training.
• The Spark: Senior year, AP Macroeconomics clicked. I became fascinated by how systems, incentives, and data move the world. I knew then that I wanted to study the intersection of finance and human behavior.

The College Chapter: Building While Learning

I chose Connecticut College for its unique blend of liberal arts, a Finance minor, and a track program with a good culture.  My time there was defined by "doing":

• Leadership: Served as an elected Student Senator and Varsity Track Captain.
• Entrepreneurship in Action: For an independent study, I teamed up with three friends to launch a gaming YouTube channel. We treated it like a startup—analyzing engagement and iterating on content. Today, that channel has grown to 23K+ subscribers and 100K+ daily views.
• Academic Rigor: I graduated Magna Cum Laude with distinction in Economics, having mastered the analytical frameworks I now use to build products.

The Corporate Foundation

After graduating Magna Cum Laude, I joined Schroders Investment Management in their elite Investment Graduate Trainee Program. It was a masterclass in high-stakes precision. I was responsible for engineering a custom analytics framework for a $10B+ global client portfolio, where I successfully automated sustainability research—reducing reporting turnaround by 98% (from 2.5 hours to 3 minutes).

While I loved the complexity of finance, I realized I didn’t just want to analyze markets; I wanted to build the products that move them.

The "Aha" Moment

During college, I had seen an early alpha build of an economics simulation game called Beat the Fed. I knew how "dry" economics could feel to most students—many saw it as a perfect time for a nap. But I saw something else: the potential to make abstract theories tangible.

Driven by an "itch" to build and make a direct impact, I made a bold choice: I left my career in finance to become the lead Product Manager at TideMill Group. While I knew moving from a global firm to a five-person startup would be a massive shift, I was hungry for the challenge of building something from the ground up.

Scaling a Vision: 28x Growth

I was given the "keys" to the product, operating at the intersection of engineering, design, and strategy. My mission was to take a single-school pilot and turn it into a global educational standard. Currently, Beat the Fed has reached 400+ schools globally and 46 states.

• The Build: I worked daily with engineers to slash bug resolution time by 70% and collaborated with designers to implement self-service onboarding that tripled our conversion rate.
• The Launch: I executed our end-to-end Steam launch, coordinating everything from PR to community management to ensure we captured the "voice of the player".
• The Strategy: Beyond the game, I wore every hat imaginable—building financial models for pricing, drafting investor pitch decks, and even contributing to AI patent development and economic history research.

The Next Chapter

I thrive in the "middle" of it all—where engineering, marketing, and customer feedback collide. I am a Product Manager who uses AI to accelerate workflows and data to shape direction, but I never lose sight of the human on the other side of the screen.

I am currently looking for my next challenge: a chance to join a fast-paced team where I can apply my "builder" mindset to grow a product that solves real-world problems.