I bought an one-way ticket out of college to Tehran and worked at an Iranian hedge fund, then had a stint as a foreign correspondent covering international security (50ish countries in a year), before coming back to New York to start a tech company tackling the problem of how to meet interesting people in a city. The last couple years I've spent in Beijing, where I decided it would be a smart business move to start a restaurant named 3sums (it was not haha).

Outside of work, I love to bring interesting people together. This past summer I bought 10,000kg of bruised tomatos and organized a food fight in Beijing (that ended up clogging a part of the city sewage system ... whoops). Last year, a friend and I threw a techno party in a Cold War nuclear bunker we found while exploring the city.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Couchsurfed a lot in Iran and loved it. Wrote a short piece about the experience but the editors in trying to be hip confused the term and referred to it as couchcrashing: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/10/21/couch_crashing_in_tehran

Interests

Motorcycling, kitesurfing, big mountain skiing, camping, hiking, wildlife conservation, international security, pranks, weird foods, naps, dogs

• dogs
• wildlife
• dining
• partying
• technology
• hiking
• camping
• skiing
• business

Music, Movies, and Books

Love techno (have a small business in Beijing throwing mostly-illegal techno parties). Really into dystopic literature--1984, Brave New World, Hunger Games, etc. Nature documentaries. And Jazz!

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

arrested in Iran for looking like an Afghan refugee, no joke.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I used to have a restaurant that specialized in miniburgers, so I can make you tiny delicious burgers (actually 16 varieties, including 3 veggie burgers :-D).

Countries I’ve Visited

Bhutan, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, North Korea, Sierra Leone, Turkmenistan, Zimbabwe

Countries I’ve Lived In

China, Iran, Nigeria, United Kingdom, United States

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