The place where I come from is a small town
They think so small, they use small words
But not me, I’m smarter than that
I worked it out
I’ll be stretching my mouth to let those big words come right out
– Peter Gabriel, “Big Time”
[Updated Sep 30, 2024] My name is Kirsten Lambertsen. I was born in 1966. In Wyoming. Now I live in the NYC area. I was supposed to be rich and famous by now. This is my personal blog where I strive to be completely honest about the facts as well as my internal experience.
I’ve been working in internet tech since 1997, when I became employee number 14 or so at XOOM.com. It was the first job I had where I felt like I was in the right place. Plus, I got to sing in the company band. My startup addiction had begun.
I founded BeautyRiot.com in 2000 (the first virtual beauty makeover on the web). I sold BeautyRiot to Total Beauty Media in 2009. I’m still waiting for that to make me rich. Those bastards robbed me blind, and you’d better believe I’m bitter about it—bitter but unbroken.
I started working on my latest startup, Kuratur.com, in the spring of 2012. I tried to launch a couple of startups in the years between 2011 and 2018. They didn’t work out. But one did get selected to participate in a startup accelerator in Providence, RI. That was a great experience that I still think about often.
I’ve worked at Automattic, in the VIP group, which was the best job I’ve ever had working for someone else. Then I went on to work a couple more consequential but ultimately doomed startups like GatsbyJS.
Today, I’m once again trying to find a way to be my own boss. And I’m very active in the decentralized social web (aka the “fediverse”). I’m focused on making the web’s promise of self-determination a reality for independent artists of all kinds. You can see this work right now at PatronHunt.com, an alternative to Patreon that acts as a promotional arm for artists to help them get more supporters.
Before all that, I studied acting in NYC.
My earliest memories are the Mercury space program and the first two seasons of “Sesame Street.” My parents had lunch once, in my home town, with Gordo Cooper. I rode the elevator at Rockefeller Center once with Richard Harris (King Arthur). I once met Brigid Berlin in my corner drugstore (and was the only person there who recognized her). And that’s how I came to believe that everything is possible. The internet hasn’t cured me of it.
Imagine something of your very own
something you can have and hold
I’d build a road in gold
just to have some dreamin’
dreamin’ is free– Blondie, “Dreamin'”