Charnae is the visionary designer behind our platform's vibrant and colorful visual style. She brings a multifaceted background that blends creativity, scientific precision, and a relentless pursuit of excellence, making her an exceptional leader and innovator.
Early Ambition & Pursuits
From a young age, Charnae demonstrated a diverse range of interests and talents. As an avid equestrian, she competed in show jumping, moving to dressage as an adult, developing a keen understanding of equine husbandry, anatomy and physiology. Her passion for detail extended to gardening, where she specialized in importing and cultivating rare plants, and to baking, where she mastered challenging pastries.
(insert photo at horse show, plants, and cake)
Charnae's early ambition was to become an equestrian specializing architect, a dream that saw her carrying sketchbooks and drafting tools everywhere. She taught herself 3D CAD modeling as a teenager, blending her artistic vision with technical skills. Her love for art also led her to become a self-taught watercolor painter.
Her intellectual curiosity is accompanied by a logical and ordered approach to problem-solving. Charnae was known for her dedication, waking up at 5am to read the Wall Street Journal before school. She also excelled in Latin and French competitions in High School.
Overcoming Adversity
Charnae's journey has been marked by significant challenges that she has overcome with remarkable resilience and determination. She experienced a devastating grand mal seizure at 21 years old that severely impacted her long and short-term memory, speech including an overnight onset stutter and tics, balance, and strength. This health struggle led to profound feelings of hopelessness during her young adult years, as she feared her life, intellectual capabilities, and childhood memories might never recover. Subsequent concussions further compounded these difficulties, and a later broken knee seemed like an insurmountable setback physically and mentally.
Despite these obstacles, Charnae spent nearly a decade overcoming these adversities, demonstrating incredible strength and perseverance. Her journey from being advised against even attempting to get into the University of Texas to graduating nearly as valedictorian underscores her tenacity. This mental fortitude, developed through experiencing such profound setbacks, has instilled in her a steadfast attitude and unwavering focus. Her real-life experience of weathering storms and maintaining dedication, even when feeling overwhelmed, has forged a mental toughness that is invaluable in leadership and innovation. This resilience and determination add a profound layer to her leadership qualities, making her an inspiring and capable leader for Feast Your Eyes.
Educational Breadth & Success
Charnae holds a degree in Sustainability and Geography from the University of Texas at San Antonio, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude with a 4.0 GPA, ranking in the top 5% of her class of 2293 students, and 5th ranked student in the college of Liberal Arts.
Her interdisciplinary academic training encompasses a wide array of disciplines, including Geography, Art, History, Political Science, Defense Studies, Economics, Population Dynamics, Data Science, Data Extrapolation and Modeling, GIS, Scientific methods and Experimentation, and vast professional research.
Her degree also taught skills such quantitative methods, Statistical Analysis, and SQL. The Sustainability side studied micro-and-macro systems, weather and climate, sustainability focused city planning and how it affects people in the present and future. This includes resource use and planning and inequality.
Notable research included spatial analysis on the unequal distribution of urban noise pollution and the effects and availability of green spaces on neighborhood dynamics, crime, and child development.
This interdisciplinary education equipped her with the skills to combine cultural and behavioral studies with data analytics to enhance the dining experience. By understanding the diverse values and needs of diners, she is uniquely capable of launching a platform that improves available options and serves as a resource for communities. Her approach, known as the "Why of Where," integrates geography, history, and data science to understand cultural and behavioral patterns, providing unique insights and solutions for restaurants and diners.
Charnae's academic achievements were consistently recognized in both scientific and liberal arts, with her research papers and analytical data science projects being praised as graduate-level work. Her experience in legal research for federal copyright litigation further honed her analytical skills.
Founding Feast Your Eyes
Despite encouragement to pursue graduate studies by advisors or law school by multiple top case law producing lawyers whose cases are routinely argued in front of even the Supreme Court, Charnae chose to co-found Feast Your Eyes, driven by her belief in her unique perspective and the potential of technology to transform how we understand and describe complex cultural phenomena. There's never been a better time to modernize and innovate in the dining search space, which has been seen as peaking with review websites loaded with ads, outdated design, bad photography, and incorrect focus on ratings above all else. All current platforms in this space gave up on really understanding how many needs and wants work in tandem for one diner's search, nevermind in combination with others. They gave up on trying to describe this complexity in diner-friendly ways, like describing in detail the attributes of a dish or physical space, and present it in an easy to understand and searchable way. They declined to innovate and interview to find out what really matters to diners, and how they can use fun methods and data science to match moods with dishes or venues, find ways to present information that really matters in detail (accepts Mastercard? Yawn. Do they have a great wine list, covered patio with a view, that isn't generally loud? Good luck sorting through blurry pictures and many websites to figure it out),. She believes her approach, training, and unique view of how technology can be applied to describe what has, until now, been nearly indescribable, in a way that generates business and traffic to more businesses, and giving many diners with ignored needs a way to finaly feel heard.
Professional Successes
Charnae has co-authored utility and design patents in the fields of computer science, search engine algorithms, and technology, which play a crucial role in developing Feast Your Eyes into one of the most innovative and user-friendly search engines available. These patents enhance the platform's functionality, making search processes more accessible, accurate, and customizable. Moreover, the technologies she has developed have potential applications across various marketplaces, promising to revolutionize how search engines operate and improving user experiences on a broader scale.
Closing Thoughts
Charnae's diverse background, from equestrian pursuits to advanced data analysis, positions her as a dynamic and forward-thinking leader who balances simplicity and complexity. Her commitment to excellence and innovation makes her an inspiring figure for investors and a driving force behind our platform's success.
