Savan, in a nutshell
I sometimes wonder what the people writing the blogs I read are like. I’ve met some, but for the most part, I don’t know most of the writers. So, to give you some a view into my life, here’s a quick snapshot of who I am.
Full name: Savanrith Kong (Yes, no middle name. Asians don’t like that superfluous stuff). I go by Savan, Sav, Savon, Savin King, King Kong, Donkey Butt, Skeet, Son, and a slew of other Cambodian names.
Born January 18th, 1980 in a Thailand refugee camp. My family fled Cambodia, our homeland, during the killing fields of the 70’s and 80’s. I lost a lot of family members. I consider myself lucky because I could have easily been decimated in a plain of grassy meadows along with my brothers.
Part Cambodian, part Chinese. I claim my Cambodian heritage and background as a source of strength and motivation. I speak it at home with my family but hardly ever in public. If you’d like to come over and eat dinner with us, drop me an e-mail.
Grew up in the projects. My parents raised me in the south side of Seattle. The better part of my life was spent in the Park Lake Homes projects in White Center. I spent my elementary school years at Mount View and Salmon Creek. I then relocated to Burien where I attended Cascade Middle School (still in White Center) and 2 years at - what I consider the worse school out of all of them - John F Kennedy.
Most people would argue that you can’t get any more ghetto than these places, though I found comfort in government cheese, making my own toys and eating lots of rice every day.
I was debater and on the team during all 4 years of my schooling. I made it to the state tournament and found out that there were people nerdier than I am. I also spent one term as a Senate page for Margarita Prentice in Olympia.
My last two years of high school was an awakening to the upper social stratosphere of the world. After being put through a rigorous interview and testing process, I was admitted into The Lakeside School. And, yes people, it’s a tough sucker to get into. I got mediocre grades but loved the experience. I also learned that the rich really do get richer and the poor stay that way. There may be a few stragglers that break that chain, but that was far and few in between. Case in point: all of the my friends that grew up in White Center are working rudimentary jobs and probably will never read this blog; all of my friends from Lakeside are living comfortably and will probably email me about this blog.
During my high school years, I invested three of my summers interning at Microsoft.
I spent my last year of Lakeside getting into Occidental College in Pasadena, California. I dropped out a year later and moved back up to Seattle to work for a startup called NextHost/NextStudio.
NextStudio would go out of business in a year. A good buddy of mine, Kirk Wetherill, and I took some of the major clients and started our own business. He and I ran it for a few years before I decided to go back and finish college at the University of Washington. I received a degree in Communications with an emphasis in digital media.
I ran a consulting company called Skky Digital. During this time, I met David Eraker and a friendship bloomed from our work together. He eventually would go on to found Redfin and suck me into the madness.
I devoted a whole summer of my life working next to him, Josh Horton, and Bahn Lee for no money, a few packets of Ramen and some great games of Halo. I loved those days. We kept the company afloat and it’s now thriving under the reign of Glenn Kelman and Co. (Including Pamela, Sr. Transaction Coordinator who is working her butt off here late!).
I’m currently the Director of User Experience at another great company called Conenza. I love it. I love the pace, people and environment. One can say I’m addicted to taking something intangible and making it real (well, as real as 1’s and 0’s can get). It’s a passion I have and something I take very seriously. Though, from my Flickr pictures, you can definetly see that I’m a party animal, love interacting with people and dogs, and enjoy the daily dose of liquor (see my post below).
Conclusion
There is some power above that’s given me this once in a lifetime opportunity to do something that I love, instead of being buried in the burial grounds of a mass extermination field of Tuol Sleng. I remind myself everyday that I am very fortunate to be in my position. I am fortunate to have my family, my friends, my house, my condo, my dog, my car, my office, my computer, my bills. I don’t take my work for granted; I don’t complain about overtime; I don’t gripe about over-extending myself; I don’t understand the notion of not working hard.
My fortunes have afforded me to take care of myself and my parents. I am humbled by my past and look forward to my future.