Trying to justify myself is not something I relish. Doing it in public is a real challenge ! But if you like the HiLO Lens project maybe you’d like to know more about where it comes from. If the story looks too long, just scan for the words in bold :)

I’m born and raised in New Zealand and feel extremely lucky about that. A lot of New Zealanders (or Kiwis as we like to be called) feel they should travel. I guess this is because New Zealand was colonized by the English and, relative to England, we are on the “other side” of the world. In most New Zealand classrooms the center of the world map is Europe.

After working a couple of years in Christchurch, New Zealand, I left for Europe. That was about 13 years ago. Most of the time has been in France but also Ireland and Japan, with a few small stints in California. To be honest, I now want to return to New Zealand. In particular I want to be able to spend time with family.

Sandrine is the reason I spend so much time in France, we’ve been together over 10 years. We’ve wanted to share time in New Zealand since we met. With this in mind Sandrine created an internet based company. Mondizen sells French products to French expats and Francophiles living anywhere in the world. Mondizen has been designed to be managed over the internet, so Sandrine can work from New Zealand or France. Now we are finally doing heading down under, from December 2011!

I would love to become a serial entrepreneur, ultimately helping other entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs contribute enormously to a society, creating value and valuable jobs, providing the foundation for civilization as we know it. I’m focused on walking the walk before talking the talk.

The motivation to create HiLO Lens comes largely from this situation. It took many months and many bad ideas to find the HiLO Lens concept. It is a stressful time, wondering if HiLO Lens will work out. But it is also a very exciting time.