Aloha to the platform for everything under the surface.

I learned to dive as a teenager, trading babysitting jobs for dives on a summer trip to the Florida Keys. Then life took me into advertising and diving fell away — until a group trip with friends to the Rosario Islands in Colombia pulled me right back in. That week I kept hitting the same friction: logging my dives, tipping the instructor, recommending the shop and guides to everyone back home. And it clicked — why doesn't diving have the same visibility every other sport and adventure takes for granted?

I'd just spent an entire decade creating ideas — pitching and building products and campaigns for some of the biggest companies in the world. So I could see both the problem and the opportunity: give divers an easy way to find shops and instructors and meet other divers, and give the business side — the professionals and the shops — real visibility, and a simpler way to manage and market their bookings.

So I moved to the water and started building Buddy with my co-founder Tamas. Today it's a launched platform three parts deep, real operators on board, and partnerships with names like GoPro. But the thesis hasn't changed since Colombia: the water world deserves infrastructure built with a diver's love and a designer's craft.