A love story. With a matchmaker. And an RTX 3090.
There are moments in your career that feel less like decisions and more like destiny catching up with you. This is one of those moments. And because my life apparently runs on meaningful dates, I’m sharing it right here at the intersection of Women’s History Month and the anniversary of the boldest move I’ve ever made.
On April 1st, 2013, I packed up my life in the Bay Area and drove to Los Angeles to pursue my dream of disrupting Hollywood and bringing my own flavor to the mix. No safety net. No joke. Thirteen years later, on the cusp of that same week, I’m announcing the next chapter. And once again, it is absolutely not a joke.
I’m Nicki Sun, and I am thrilled to be joining Puget Systems as their Head of Media Production.
But honestly? This story has been writing itself for years.
The Moment I Realized Something Was Missing
It was 2018. I was on stage at Post | Production World at NAB Show as emcee, doing what I love: hosting, connecting, and being right in the middle of the action. But when I stepped off that stage and looked around at the tradeshow floor, something struck me. I was a woman who genuinely loved tech. And I couldn’t find myself reflected back anywhere in the marketing, the panels, the faces being amplified. I thought: where are we? And how do I connect with more of us?
That question lit a fire. In Women’s History Month of 2019, I launched my second YouTube channel, TechNicki Speaking, kicking it off with an interview with iJustine herself. It became a space for product reviews, gimbal and camera tutorials, and helping creators build their own mini studios at home. That last part became especially meaningful during 2020, when all of us were suddenly making content from our living rooms and wondering what gear could actually handle it.
Enter: The Matchmaker
Here’s where the love story really begins. And every good love story needs a great matchmaker.
Through the iJustine connection, I crossed paths with Kevin Bourke, who handles PR for Puget Systems. Kevin is one of those people who just knows when two things belong together. He connected me to the Puget team in 2021, and not long after, a package arrived at my door.
Inside was my first Puget Systems workstation, built with an RTX 3090.
I want to pause here, because if you’re a creator who works in 4K, you understand what I’m about to say. That machine was one of the most high-performing computers I had ever owned. It didn’t just handle my workflow. It elevated it. For the first time, I wasn’t fighting my tools. I was flying.
Meeting the Family
A great first impression will make you curious. What happened next made me a believer.
I flew up to Puget Systems headquarters in Auburn, Washington, to meet the team, see firsthand how my computer was built, and sit down with President Jon Bach for an interview. I remember walking through the building and talking to person after person who had been there for over a decade. Ten years. Fifteen years. More.
That doesn’t happen by accident. That’s culture. That’s a company that takes care of its people, builds something worth staying for, and earns loyalty the old-fashioned way: by actually deserving it.
I left Auburn thinking something I hadn’t expected to: if they ever have a creative role on their team, I’d consider it in a heartbeat.
I was fresh out of corporate life, building Nicki Sun Media from the ground up, and fully committed to charting my own path. But that thought stayed with me.
Five Years of Slow Burn
The years between 2021 and now weren’t quiet. I kept showing up at the tradeshows: NAB Show, Cine Gear Expo, InfoComm, IBC. And so did Puget. Our paths kept crossing. The relationships deepened. The respect was mutual and growing. I watched Puget continue to be exactly what I had seen them be when I visited: meticulous, genuine, and deeply invested in the creator community.
All the while, that quiet thought never fully went away.
The Zoom Call That Changed Everything
Then came May 2025.
Without going into every detail here, I cheated death. It was the kind of experience that rearranges your priorities, clarifies what actually matters, and shows you very quickly who your people are.
Puget Systems was one of the first to show up. Not with a form email. Not with a generic “thinking of you.” The team reached out personally to check in, hopped on Zoom calls to hear my story, and offered to send me anything I needed. As a company I had partnered with in the past, they absolutely did not have to do that. But they did it anyway, and they did it with the same genuine care I had witnessed in Auburn four years earlier.
I’ve asked myself since then: who does that? A hardware company, reaching out to a creator during the hardest chapter of her life, just to make sure she was okay?
Puget Systems does. That’s who.
They had earned my loyalty back in 2021 the moment I walked through their doors. But somewhere toward the end of 2025, they sealed a place in my heart. And when you go through something that reminds you how short and precious time really is, you don’t take that lightly.
The LinkedIn Post
So when a LinkedIn notification crossed my feed in February 2026 and I saw Jon Bach posting about Puget Systems’ first-ever creative hire, I didn’t hesitate. I wasn’t casually scrolling past and thinking that’s interesting. I was ready. Everything that had built up over five years pointed directly at that moment.
But I also didn’t want to get my hopes up if they were only hiring locally. So before anything else, I reached out to Marketing Manager Eric Brown to check in. Puget Systems is based in Auburn, Washington. I’m in Orange County, California. I needed to know if that was a deal breaker before I let myself believe this was really happening.
It wasn’t. And the rest is history.
The team met my question with enthusiasm, care, and a genuine desire to honor what I do, both in front of and behind the camera. They didn’t ask me to fit a mold. They built around me, crafting a custom role that made space for my voice, my connections, and my vision. Just like they had once custom-built me a workstation with a beast of an RTX 3090, they custom-built a role for the creator who came with it.
Why Now? Why This Week?
I’ve always said that March into early April is my season of major shifts. The launch of TechNicki Speaking happened in Women’s History Month. My leap to Los Angeles happened on April 1st. And now this.
So no. This announcement is not an April Fools’ joke.
It is, however, the fullest circle I’ve experienced in my career. The woman who stood on a stage in 2018 wondering where the women in tech were, who launched a channel to find them, who received a computer that changed how she worked, who flew to Auburn and left with a feeling she couldn’t shake, who fought her way back in 2025 and came out knowing exactly where she wanted to put her energy. That woman is now on the team.
I am so excited to bring my energy, my ideas, my industry connections, and everything I’ve learned to a company I believe in deeply. I’m here to amplify the work Puget Systems is doing to help creators tell their stories. I’m here to show up for the community, especially the women and underrepresented voices who are building incredible things and deserve hardware that can keep up.
And I’m here because five years ago, I made a quiet promise to myself. When the moment came, I would not hesitate.
It came. I didn’t.
Welcome to the team, me. And thank you, Puget Systems, for building something worth fighting for.
— Nicki Sun
Head of Media Production, Puget Systems