Darien Brown (IPA pron: dæ’·ri·ɛn braʊn):

-noun.  Male, 25 year old Seattle resident; aspiring entrepreneur with professional interests in IT commercialization, web 2.0 monetization, and ESL education in the South Korea market; an indefatigable optimist.

-synonyms.  Badass, Ninja warrior-poet

My name is Darien and, as the helpful definition above indicates, I am a Seattle resident with an entrepreneurial streak who has never been short on vision.  I love problem solving and I am constantly searching for weaknesses in systems, opportunities in markets, and usefulness in patterns.  The bulk of my expertise has been acquired through three years of near-constant engagement with the ESL industry in South Korea at every level.

Before moving to Seattle, I attended Whitworth College (now Whitworth University) in Spokane, WA and studied abroad at Keimyung University in Daegu, South Korea.

I used to be very involved in theater, though I’ve been inactive in any theater communities since college.  It’s hard to find the time for those types of hobbies these days.

I was recently laid off from a medium-sized education company that specializes in technology education for children, primarily through e-learning and summer camp programs.  I liked that it kept me engaged in the education industry and up-to-date with how technology is being employed in the virtual classroom.  (Check out my resumé if you think you might want to offer me a job.)

My newest entrepreneurial project is called YongoPal.  It is a conversation partnering service for intermediate-level ESL students in South Korea delivered live via video VoIP chat.  I am working on it with my childhood friend, Jon Hickey.  We are currently building our web infrastructure and the whole process is being documented and blogged at www.yongopal.com.  (Some of my posts there may make appearances here too because, well, I’m kind of lazy when it comes to blogging.)