Sure, you're following us- you're even a subscriber to our website, but have you met us? After all, every brand starts somewhere, with someone. Most of the companies you are used to following and buying from may be made up of hundreds if not thousands of faces. Us? We are just two, (four if you count our four legged employees)! Everything you see from our instagram feed to our website, is coming directly from the two of us, so we figured we would introduce ourselves formally.
We are Mark and Helena Para, two first generation Polish-Americans who happened to meet in Poland just to discover that we both grew up in the same neighborhood on the south side of Chicago (crazy right?). Every good story starts with some romance, so I'll tell you a little more. We dated for just three short months before getting engaged, and a few years after that we set out to start our own watch company. We both feel like we've grown up with one foot in Chicago and the other in Poland where half of our families live. We travel to our second home often and we love it so much there, that we named our company after the mountains that pass through the villages we came from. The specific part of the Carpathian mountains we live by are called the Tatras, and they're pretty impressive.
Professionally, we have very different backgrounds, Mark is a graphic designer and I am a doctor of acupuncture. How did that turn into a watch company, you ask? Mark has had a life long passion for watches; he works on them as a hobby and has done design work for other watch brands as well. I really didn't know much about watches before I met Mark. We like to take interest in one another's work and hobbies, however, as it makes us feel closer together (awwww). So even though I originally rolled my eyes every time my watch obsessed husband bought yet another timepiece, they eventually became a source of fascination to me. Now I know a lot about watches, and I have a pretty big collection of them myself!
Mark is definitely the one behind all the actual watch making. He designed every aspect of our first watch himself. He has also done all the branding materials, handles content for social media platforms, and does most of the buying. Mark even assembled and tested our first group of prototypes himself, and before we met our photographer, he did all the photos too! I tend to work on the back end of things. I made our website, I communicate with suppliers and write all the blogs and emails that go out to you!
The process of creating Carpathia has been a long one, and we're not quite at the finish line. By the time we launch on Kickstarter in February 2019, we will have been on this journey for three whole years! I think we would both agree that creating a startup on top of our day jobs has been exhausting and at times stressful, but also so very rewarding.
We would love to get to know YOU too. Feel free to drop a line via email or social media, and we will be sure to respond. As always keep an eye on our updates as the Kickstarter launch will coming after the holidays- and share us with your watch loving friends! Thank you so much for tuning in, for sharing, and for being so supportive, we hope to bring our beautiful watches to you very soon.
Best,
Mark & Helena Para
Founders, Carpathia Watch Co.
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