Who is Connor?

My story starts as an only child with vast amounts of curiosity living in the suburbs of Chicago. I spent my formative years around adults, since my parents & family were inherently social people. I used to make everyone tell me stories about their life as a kid. I was enamored by life itself. I loved watching tv & listening to music for that very reason too. It wasn't to pass the time, it was to learn & get lost in stories about life. I also spent a lot of time daydreaming as a kid (as an only child you have to get really creative sometimes).

I think this is why I am the way I am today. Maybe I'm romanticizing things a bit but…. that really was how I spent a lot of time. I wasn't just isolated living in make believe as a kid though, I did have friends. I was pretty active with sports, basketball being the primary one that stuck throughout my life.

With my curiosity about life, no one thing ever really did it for me though. I would say I perfectly fit into that jack of all trades, master of none archetype & I wouldn't trade it for the world. It continues to hold true & keeps all my cups filled in life.

I was always a little bit of an outsider wherever I was. I had this nerdy side, this wild child side, this athletic side, this goofy side. It was complex to me & led to me feeling really lost at moments. Depending on the setting, no one could guess I had these other parts to me. I have learned to balance this out & try to just bring all pieces of me everywhere I go now.

I worked in hospitality for 6 years while in high school & college. This really continued to feed my need for meeting different people & hearing different stories. It also fed my itch for working in a fast paced environment.

I studied Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Iowa. You will notice a through-line in every project that interested me during that time… they were all social. It was always about connecting the people around me.

This all led up to me having a career path at startups in SF. Bartending or working a busy night really helped prepare my nervous system for what a startup would be like. I came equipped. I loved getting to be so close to the thing that was being built. I started out as a new grad software engineer at a startup & within 3.5 years was leading & managing the product engineering team. I then pivoted to being a founding engineer at another startup focused on software for commercial cleaning companies, where I got to talk to real people around the country & understand how they wanted to interact with technology in a way that was complementary to their day-to-day.

Outside of work, I like to travel & learn about other cultures & places. I enjoy being by water. I love music… experiencing it & learning about the history of it. Unfortunately I am not musically inclined myself. It feels very Rick Rubin-esque. No technical music skills but god damn I know how to listen. Although, I did have a quick stint playing the saxophone in middle school. I love the small moments in life. I am queer. I love an Aperol Spritz. I still love to play basketball. I love to spend time with my friends. You can catch me on aimless adventures through San Francisco. I like to ski. I have a Bernedoodle named Ferris.

That love for music & people's stories is actually what led me to build Pearl Music with my best friend since I was 7. It’s a social platform for music discovery through your community, not AI or algorithms. It started on a cross-country road trip where I asked strangers for their favorite songs. The ways I was connecting with people around me felt more true to how music actually works than any algorithm ever could.

The story is still being written… but one thing about me that is for sure… is you will never be able to put me in a box. I am just Connor.