An incredibly supportive girlfriend deserves an equally creative proposal. So, that’s exactly what Mahmoud made sure his long-time girlfriend Emily received. After enduring long working nights and weekends while he toiled to get a startup off the ground, he cleverly hid the ring en route to romantic Santorini. Read on for how he pulled off the surprise.


“Emily and I met in university and have been dating for over seven years. She calls me the gambler of the group because she does not like to take risks, but I enjoy shaking things up every now and then. About three years ago, I decided to quit my job and help start a new company called ROAR for Good.

“ROAR is a social impact company that builds a safety wearable called Athena. When pressed, Athena sends the user’s GPS location to emergency contacts and emits an alarm to deter an attacker. Within the company, I was solely responsible to get the product through manufacturing and to market (a milestone we just hit this past July). This meant that I worked a lot of late nights and long weekends for the past several years – all time that I would otherwise be spending with Emily.



“She has been so supportive and patient with my work, but eager to become engaged. I’ve been waiting for the right time to propose for when I could afford a ring and find a place to make it special. I didn’t even know Santorini existed before I was researching places to propose (shame on me)! In addition to visiting Santorini, Emily and I decided to book our travels to Greece an extra week early so we can volunteer with a refugee organization in Athens. I became concerned that she might find the ring in my carry-on, so I decided to get a little creative. I reconstructed one of my Athena devices to hide the ring inside. I’m so happy I was able to give her the proposal that she deserves.”- Mahmoud


 Flytographer:  Kimon in Santorini

Flytographer: Kimon in Santorini

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