I figure if you’re on this page, you deserve more than a cursory introduction, so here we go.

I’m Emmanuel Quartey, and I’m currently a Marketing and Communications Fellow at the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology Incubator (MINC), which is home to 13 early stage African tech startups in Accra, Ghana. I support MINC companies by using words and images to discover, attract, and retain customers. At my best, I help small teams of great people define what they stand for, and be their best selves.

I believe that writing well is easily the most important, most powerful skill anyone can have. It’s something I dearly wish to be better at.

Here’re some of the things I’m curious about

• The history of/business of/present of/future of media and journalism: What does it mean that ESPN is interested in the data being harvested from wearable tech such as the Jawbone UP? Arguably, content companies have always been data companies, and the lines continue to blur in interesting ways during a period of severe contraction.
• The ways in which digital systems interface with the physical world, and vice versa: cities and the internet are some of our greatest monuments to ourselves, and the infrastructures that make them possible (and the victories and tragedies that play out within them) are fascinating.
• The art and science of building online and offline communities: Have you ever tried building momentum around an idea? Or attempted to get a team working well together? It’s hard. It’s really hard. There is nothing more powerful than a group of people, linked in spirit and in mind, acting in concert towards a common purpose, and I want to understand how this happens, and why it sometimes doesn’t.

Here’re some things I’m good at

• I’m good at getting people excited about things on the internet. It’s taken me a while to be able to articulate this, but I have a gift for converting strangers into prospects, and prospects into leads.
• I know a fair bit about the ways in which the proliferation of sensors and mobile devices is changing our relationship to space, our cities, and ourselves. I’m a packrat for information about anything to do with connected devices, the quantified self, and location-based networks.
• I’m a good editor of words, images, and ideas.

I was born and raised in Tema, which is a coastal town in Ghana, and since then I’ve had a chance to travel to a number of places. I don’t think I’ll ever shake off the sense of wonder at seeing just how wonderfully vast and shockingly small the world is.

I studied Architecture at Yale University with a concentration in Urban Studies, after which I spent a few years working (at SeeClickFix, at the Yale Office of Public Affairs & Communications, and at Laboratorio Para La Ciudad, Mexico City’s official think tank for urban creativity) during which I thought a lot about what kind of person I want to be, and what cause I want to give myself to. It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

I have no patience for people who try to make others feel small for getting excited or caring about things, and I’m saddened by the knowledge that I’ll run out of time before I make complete sense of anything.

I’m making it up as I go, and my desire is to build something enduring with a team of talented people who aren’t afraid to be curious and kind.

Thank you for reading, and feel free to get in touch about literally anything. Seriously, the best emails begin with “This is random, but…” and end with “…thought this would be relevant to your interests.”