I enjoyed the sweat equity opportunities in the cafe. Closing on long holiday weekends to perform upkeep like painting bathrooms, building new furniture or sealing the floors weren’t glamorous, but it appealed to my DIY nature.

Speakeasy affected my life so deeply. I have continued on with my tech infatuation and am now a Sr. Applications Developer for AT&T.

The experience I gained and the people I met at the Speakeasy made it possible for me to get a job at Starwave working on ESPN.com. They were eventually bought by Disney. 20 years and 5 jobs later, I’m still using skills I learned working at The Speakeasy … and I’m rich!!!

Those founding members basically took a chance on me and gave me a career, so it has more-or-less created my professional life.

I view everything having to do with technology, information security, privacy, state surveillance, and our dystopian future (today!) through the lens of the culture and ethics I developed as being part of this team. It was a great place to be when all of this was happening.