Meet The Team — Alex Tzinov

Here at Glimpse we wanted to take a unique approach in how we operate our company and how we pursue our vision. Instead of standing behind a veil as founders and distancing ourselves from our followers, we wanted to bring down that veil and have the world get to know us. The very essence of Glimpse is about story telling and a true view of peoples lives. So we figured we’d let you guys get to know us. And I mean, really get to know us.

Who Am I?

I like to pretend that if we were to ever meet in person, your first question would be “Oh my god, where is your accent from!?” and that I’d then go on a long exotic spiel about my origins and my lineage. But honest disclaimer. I’ve never been asked that before. And I probably never will. Because I don’t even have an accent. See, I was blessed with this interesting circumstance where I was born in a different country but raised in America. And interesting things happen.

A lot of times people will see my last name and immediately start getting stressed. A blend of curiosity and confusion. Is the T silent? Is that Russian? Does he have a typo in this? I proceed to explain to the person that I’m from Sofia, Bulgaria but that I moved to America when I was 9 months old. At this point they whip out a fake smile and a nod behind which they’re thinking “Oh wow that’s really cool but I’m 15 seconds into talking to this person and I already feel dumb because where even is Bulgaria is that even a real place god I’m an idiot why did I even ask oh wait remember to keep smiling don’t give it away”. Trust me, happens a lot. And it’s so entertaining to observe it. So, this is where Bulgaria is.

The Origin

22 years ago my dad uprooted everything he had ever known and came to America for the first time to pursue an MBA. He landed in Oklahoma with a college acceptance letter, a few loans from back home, and a whole lot of faith. He recently showed me his journals from back then where he kept track of his cash flow. -$1.67 for a cheeseburger, +$34.11 salary as a TA, -$43.13 textbooks, etc. It went on and on for pages. As I flipped through his life in America I asked him, “Dad, what would you do if this bottomed out and hit $0?” His answer is something that inspires me to this day.

“You don’t think about that scenario. You look forward and focus on what it is you set out to achieve and that’s all you think about.”

A year later he had saved up enough to sustain my mom and I coming out to stay with him, a year after that he got a job offer in Colorado, and five years after that my parents bought their first house. With every endeavor I start in life, including Glimpse, I keep his words in the back of my head. “You look forward and focus on what it is you set out to achieve and that’s all you think about.”

Actually About Me

I will always be grateful for my crazy adventurous mom who dragged my ass around as a little kid and ultimately made me the outdoor fanatic that I am today. I ski upwards of 20–25 days a year, I go mountain biking as long as my elbows aren’t broken (future story on this sure to come), I scuba dive, I climb 14ers, I’ll swim if I’m ever within 5 miles of an ocean, and I’ll go hiking in literally any weather. If I’m not outside I’m probably in the gym. I obviously program for fun, that’s a given. I grew up in Arvada, Colorado and although I had aspirations to go to the west coast for school, I have found an amazing home in Boulder. But enough words. Picture’s are more exciting.

Top of Mt. Kala Patthar crying. Not just a couple of tears either. I was a fire hose. This was the last leg of our backpacking trip in the Himalayans in 2016 which also took us to Everest Base Camp. Whether it was the altitude and resulting lack of oxygen
(18, 500 ft.), the fact that I was so close to certain death (one misstep and I was falling off the cliff), exhaustion, or the unbelievable view of Mt. Everest right across, I cried like a baby. And I am proud of it.

I was initially reluctant to post this picture because it’s not exciting, it’s not worthy of a bunch of likes on Instagram, and I was afraid it would sound like a pity story. But then I realized that life isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, and that a true view of my life would not be accurate without this. This was me in the hospital with myopericarditis, a cardiac condition I was faced with for the second time in 9 months. For me it was the realest reminder of life’s fragility I could have asked for. Today I live my life in a totally different way, embracing the present moment and living life to the fullest. I’m not including this for pity, but as a reminder that there’s more to peoples lives than what you see on the surface and that life is a lot more precious than you think.

This was our first official pitch of Glimpse in mid-December. And although it was just 6 minutes of unpolished pitching, this moment represented the culmination of an entire semester’s worth of effort and the journey our team took. I could not have been more excited about the progress we made in just a few months or more proud of the incredible team I had standing up there with me. Throughout the process each one of us was willing to pivot and abandon an idea as long as it meant keeping the team together, and that’s when I knew we had a great team. Seriously, they’re really cool guys. Go checkout them out. Danny and Alex

Countries Travelled To

Having my entire extended family back in Bulgaria has helped facilitate numerous trips throughout Europe all of which have been incredible. And it was thanks to my mom that we finally got to see Asia this past spring. Here’s the list of places I’ve been to so far:

Mexico, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, U.A.E, Nepal

#1 Bucket List City

Istanbul, Turkey

3 Bucket List Items

• Sky Diving
• Backpacking around Europe
• Summit Island Peak in Nepal

5 Hobbies outside of programming

• Meditation
• FIFA (yes, the video game)
• GoPro-ing various things of ranging coolness
• Reading
• Travelling

Why I Started Glimpse

I realized, over quite a long period of time, that there is so much more that we can be doing with our time. I realized that below the surface level impressions and initial comments, there is so much more to every single person that walks this Earth. We judge on first looks, on social media portrayal, and on gossip, but fail to really hear someones story. We believe the world is what we see on the news, on travel blogs, and on Snapchat stories, but fail to get a genuine look at it. So that’s why Glimpse needed to happen. A global, story-telling, social adventure to shake up the digital complacency our generation has grown into and truly show us the world.

Join the experience at www.glimpse.world