My name is Guðmundur Már Gunnarsson. I’m the youngest of three Guðmundurs in Vivaldi, and even the youngest Guðmundur Gunnarsson in the company. Senior Guðmundur Gunnarsson goes by Gummi, but I go by GMG as it is an easy handle which ironically is the equivalent of OMG in Icelandic. 😅
Born in Chicago and having lived most of my life in Kópavogur (with a short stint in Atlanta), I currently live just outside of Boston. After meeting my significant other at a summer camp in the mountains of North Carolina we decided to meet in the middle, and so I moved to Boston.
Before joining Vivaldi I was working on a startup of mine remotely from Boston. In a visit to Iceland, I met with the CEO of my previous company who knew Jón and said I should meet him since we were both living in the Boston area. It was a little hike from where I was, but I went anyway, just to say hello.
Talking to Jón was like a breath of fresh air. His views on always doing what’s best for the user and never selling personal data aligned very well with mine. Being able to work on the internet without gathering unnecessary data for commercial use, and trusting the people around you to do what’s best for the user is both fun and a great privilege.
So when I was offered a job, I gleefully accepted. Even though that meant turning down half a million dollars of grant money recently offered to my startup.
Working with a team on the other side of the Pond means my schedule has turned into somewhat of an old person’s schedule. I wake up at 6 am every morning and have a standup meeting with the Icelandic team Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 6:05. My now fiancé drives me to the train station where I have an hour to kill, which I do at the gym. I take the commuter rail to Magnolia every morning where I’m actually writing this text now. Unplugging from the internet to read or write twice a day is really calming.
At Vivaldi, I mess in the javascript side of things. It’s very nice to be able to work with people that are both knowledgeable and generous with their time. Mail has taken most of my attention so far but I’ve also “done some damage” in the settings and contacts.
Other things I like to do at work is bother people like my colleague in Magnolia Christian with bad jokes, Ruarí with typo corrections, and Guðmundur Gunnarsson Senior about how much older he is. 😜
Outside of work I enjoy hanging out with family and friends as much as possible because without people around me or a schedule I’d just lie around the house. I also like the dangerous sport that my grandmother warned me about, which entails kicking a ball around, leaving me on crutches from time to time. In which case I’ll turn to playing the piano and making music again because someone is eventually going to ban me from engaging in any activity that involves running too fast and has the word competition attached to it.
