A little about me

About

I'm Karl, a Minnesotan (you-betcha) living in Chicago with my wife Akansha (Magic Kansh). A recovering biochemist, passionate about business and tech, and endlessly curious about how things work. Here's where I've been and a few facts that fill in the rest.

The odds & ends

A few facts about me

๐ŸงฉI can solve a Rubik's cube in under two minutes.
๐ŸคนYes, I can juggle.
โ›ณI golf, and I've hit a hole in one.
โšฝSoccer, hockey, and ultimate frisbee keep me moving.
โ›ตI can rig and sail a boat from the dock out.
๐ŸFavorite food: pasta with chicken, artichoke hearts, and sun-dried tomatoes.
๐ŸƒNext goal: run a marathon.
๐Ÿ“บI was in an ESPN commercial with JJ Watt (sounds way cooler than it actually was, and no, I didn't get to meet him).
On repeat

A few favorites

๐Ÿ“– Book
Project Hail Mary

Andy Weir. Curiosity, problem-solving, and a lot of heart.

๐ŸŽฌ Movie
Miracle

The 1980 US hockey team. The Minnesotan in me will never get tired of it.

๐Ÿ“บ Series
Avatar: The Last Airbender

Still, genuinely, some of the best storytelling around.

Home base

Where I've lived

From Minnesota winters to Bay Area optimism to Chicago's practical grit: a few places I've called home.

Where it started
Rochester, Minnesota

Roots, and the first pull toward science.

Then
Minneapolis, Minnesota

College and the lab years: biochemistry, research, and a published paper.

The leap
Bay Area, California

Into tech and business. Where the pivot really took hold.

Now
Chicago, Illinois

Home base: a dog named Bean, and a lot of good food.

๐ŸŒฝ

Minnesota-made

Grew up on cold winters, lake weekends, and hockey. The accent slips out on "you-betcha" and "ope", and I make no apologies for it.

๐ŸŒ Where I've traveled

The map

Sixteen countries I've been lucky enough to see. Hover the map for country names. I once stood at the DMZ and looked into North Korea, close enough to count as a story, not close enough to count as a visit.

Countries visited (16) Marked with a pin Tip: hover a country for its name
The 16

Countries

๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ Canada
๐Ÿ‡ฒ๐Ÿ‡ฝ Mexico
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฟ Czech Republic
๐Ÿด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ณ๓ ฃ๓ ด๓ ฟ Scotland
๐Ÿด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ England
๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡จ Ecuador
๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ฌ Singapore
๐Ÿ‡ฐ๐Ÿ‡ท South Korea saw N. Korea from the DMZ
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡น Italy
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ India
๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช Germany
๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ท Greece
๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡ช UAE
๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ฑ Netherlands
๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ฒ Jamaica
๐Ÿ‡ป๐Ÿ‡ฎ US Virgin Islands
From the people I've worked with

What colleagues say

A couple of words from former teammates, straight from my LinkedIn recommendations โ€” click through to verify them yourself.

Karl is an exceptional colleague with a rare combination of technical expertise, client-facing professionalism, and analytical capability. During our time working together, I had the opportunity to see him excel in two very different but equally critical roles.

First, as a client-facing technical advisor and educator, Karl consistently earned the trust and respect of clients through his deep knowledge, clear communication, and professionalism. Clients genuinely valued working with him, and it was evident that he took pride in helping them succeed.

Second, in a revenue operations environment, Karl demonstrated an impressive ability to adapt, learn quickly, and thrive in a highly analytical and operational setting. His strengths in data analysis, business intelligence, and HubSpot administration became especially apparent as he produced meaningful reports, actionable insights, and cross-functional operational improvements. He was highly effective at collaborating across teams and ensuring stakeholders could successfully leverage the tools and reporting he developed.

Beyond his technical and analytical strengths, Karl is a friendly, passionate, and dependable teammate who makes any team stronger. He is genuinely enjoyable to work with, and I would confidently recommend him to any organization fortunate enough to have him.

Karl is a one of a kind teammate. There are, of course, tactical things I could share and highlight about his ops skillset (data diving for insights into lead attribution, retention figures, marketing success metrics, etc.), but I think that would read as AI slop even though it's true.

What really makes Karl a fantastic teammate is that he makes others around him better. He is a pleasure to be around, and teammates from all departments enjoy working alongside him. In fact, our clients also love working with him! Before he made revenue operations his expertise, Karl conducted personal concierge onboarding sessions for our high net worth clientele at Unchained, and he was masterful at that as well. Soft skills, making technical concepts easy to understand, and a great sense of humor.

Like I said, he's one of a kind and I sincerely hope I get to work alongside Karl again one day!

Let's talk

Always happy to swap stories about travel, sports, a good book, or the work.