journal / founder progression
Growing up in a military family on the grounds of West Point, NY, gave me an early foundation in complex logistical systems and strict access networks. Over time, I moved through art and design, built my first startup, taught myself software and open-source engineering, and took on creative and commercial leadership inside venture-backed technology. I founded Countercult and now lead its product and technical direction as CTO. This is not a story of leaving one field behind. It is how the parts of my work began to connect.
By Shona Neary
Between 16 and 18, the U.S. Army recognized me for creative thinking. I also won the Congressional Art Award and a Scholastic Art Award Key, and was honored in Washington, D.C., and at Carnegie Hall. I went on to study Experience Design and Fine Arts at FIT. Making things was not a side interest beside the systems I grew up around. It became one of the ways I learned to understand and change them.
At 19, I moved to New York City and launched my first startup from scratch while balancing a full university course load and working two jobs. That business received innovation grants and recognition from the Clinton Foundation. It remains self-sustaining 11 years later. Starting a company early taught me that a creative idea also has to meet the daily realities of customers, money, operations and time.
By 22, I was directing physical spatial installations in New York for institutions including the MoMA. I later moved abroad and continued working across U.S. and European markets, including retail and spatial projects for MoMA, Tommy Hilfiger, Fendi and Versace. The work asked me to connect a clear idea with a place, a customer, a production team and the conditions of a real build.
During a fully funded Rural Hackers residency in rural Spain, supported by WordPress and the Goethe-Institut, I taught myself software development and open-source engineering. I did not stop being an artist or a creative director when I began working with software. I added another way to make systems, test ideas and give people access to something useful.
I joined a venture-backed laser and drone technology startup at inception with a CMO remit. I led creative, brand and product work across software, hardware and a physical retail environment. My work with the CEO on company positioning and investor presentations helped the business raise millions.
I launched Countercult in Berlin and built its product and software as founder and CTO. I lead product roadmap and architecture across UX/UI, data, APIs, privacy and consent, and used AI to build and engineer its front and back ends. Countercult was selected for Grace Berlin Accelerator and received funding and operational support from the State of Berlin. The venture brings together open-source cultural infrastructure, a public Network, member Exchange, paid Studios and a business-owned Fund.
My work has moved between culture, technology, business and place because the problems I care about rarely sit inside only one of them. I am now building AI infrastructure for the physical economy, connecting digital systems with local capacity, real environments, rules and permission. That ambition grows out of the work I have already done, while the system itself is still being built.
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