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A Letter to the EcoDater Community
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October 1st, 2009
Hello EcoDaters,
I hope I'm catching you at a good time. There's a few things I want to share with you that are best received in a good state of mind.
EcoDater is about 6 months old now and is rapidly approaching 1,000 members. I personally review and approve every new profile, weeding out the crap and ensuring that our community is populated with good, earnest and genuine people.
And we have some great people here! I've been in touch with many of you, and you guys have really impressed me with your ambition, intelligence and willingness to help. I thought it was a good time now to tell you more about me and the EcoDater story. I've been asking all of you to share of yourselves, so I thought it was a good call for to me to follow my own intentions.
My name is Ryel. I created and run EcoDater. I live in Denver where I'm happily married with a 15 month old daughter and boy/girl twins on the way, due in about a month. So things are going to get pretty crazy here, but my wife assures me that I can still get my EcoDater fix in every day.
I've taken a pretty meandering journey to where I am now. I was born in London, grew up in Switzerland and New York, went to boarding school in England, college in Connecticut (major in Econ), did a gig in finance in the city, got my pilot's license and then spent 3 months flying around the entire country, just me and my dog,
That really opened my eyes.... I spent the next decade or so working as a ski instructor, taxi driver, author (check out my book "The Ultralight Backpacker"), grad student, EMT volunteer, DJ, music producer... and traveled a ton. I spent 6 months in Central Asia, Bhutan, Nepal, Tibet and India studying Buddhism, definitely the highlight of my itinerant years.
In 2003, I moved to San Francisco pursue a dream of DJing and being a part of a creative collective. I was introduced to Burning Man at around the same time... BM has been and continues to be one of the most important recurring experiences of my entire life. Anyone who's been knows what I'm talking about. And if you haven't been, the very fact that you're an EcoDater is pretty good indicator that it will totally and irrevocably change your life.
I met my wife in SF and together with a couple other friends we started the Pink Mammoth creative arts collective, in many ways inspire by the Burning Man philosophy. You can check out their homepage here (www.pinkmamoth.org). Pink Mammoth's mission was and is to provide a vehicle for artists to express themselves with community support, and informed by a belief that if we help each other reach our dreams, we take steps towards our own.
My wife and I moved to Denver to take the energy level down a notch and start a family. We have a beautiful little daughter named Aliya and then the twins about to join the party. Anyway, I did a stint in business school here and worked for a real estate developer for about a year before I realized it was a total sham... I was living someone else's life. I quit, nested up at home for awhile, and then things started guiding me toward what is now EcoDater.
The huge sense of fulfillment I got and the incredible community of people that formed around Pink Mammoth was the soil in which the EcoDater seed was sown. I wanted to take the same ethos of community and apply it to the digital realm where it could be accessed by like-minded like-souled people from all around the world.
I met my wife and best friends through community and that's what I hope EcoDater can be for our members. It's just me behind the wheel here, and some awesome super talented programmers over in India, and I want you guys to be a part of everything that goes on here too. Many of the new features you've seen incorporated into the site were first suggested by you. I personally respond to every email I get and do my very best to accommodate everyone and resolve any issues that come up.
Soon after we launched, someone pointed out that the plastic bottle that the guy in the image on homepage was holding was not environmentally correct. Damn good point! So I had my guys in India photoshop in a reusable bottle. A small but direct way that I listen and respond.
I want EcoDater to be your site too, one of your many homes online. I want to keep honing the EcoDater experience more and more so that we can all connect with each other better, find our soul mates, our new friends, our extended community of eco-living eco-loving people everywhere.
At some point after the kids are settled down a bit, I'm planning on flying to all the major eco cities and hosting all local EcoDaters at a communal gathering somewhere, my treat. I'm here to stay, EcoDater is here to stay, and will only grow and get better and better over time. You guys are the innovators, the pioneers here, and I really appreciate every one of you and your involvement in this very special place, EcoDater.
Thanks for listening to me. I'm pretty active on Facebook if anyone wants to find me there. I'm at facebook.com/ryelk. I look forward to further communication, cooperation, community and excitement! Please be kind to our Mother Earth and don't forget to breathe...
Much love and respect,
Ryel Kestano
EcoDater Founder
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Posted on
Oct 9 2009
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