At sixteen, me and my friends pooled our annual trip money together and I borrowed some from my father. We opened a video games parlour. It failed and yet started a gaming and hangout culture that thrives to this day in our small town of 100K people.

Later, I sold educational books, waited at Six Nations Rugby games, and answered customer queries at McDees and Waitrose. Then Police Scotland, running focus groups in schools and youth clubs across Edinburgh.

Looking back, none of those jobs were really different. People were always telling me what mattered. Sometimes with words. Usually without them. That's still how I work. And most importantly the role of end service providers in empbodying brand language and ethos.

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I've spent the years since inside rooms most people never think about. The ones where companies decide what they're really trying to say.

-Airports.

-Hearing technology.

-Currency exchange.

-Hospitality.

-Infrastructure, in the middle of a crisis & digital transformation.

-AI

-FMCG

-D2C.

Different industries but problem and the question remained same.
What does this audience believe today?
What should they believe when we leave the room?

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I grew up in Kashmir. A place where beauty and contradiction rarely arrive separately. Edinburgh taught me the opposite instinct. Say less. Mean more.

Somewhere between those places I developed the only skill that's consistently mattered in this work. It wasn't writing or branding or marketing but paying attention. Campaigns begin in dashboards. Brands begin in observation.

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Today, I divide my time between building brands and building ideas. I'm building EH5 not for founders and companies that have outgrown their first story and are searching for the next one but because I am curious if I can vibe code a tech-driven product on my own.
I'm also writing a novel.

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Beyond work...

I bake croissants and muffins on occasion. Ski when there's snow.