Age 6 / 2010
Competitive swimming
I worked hard, but it never turned into any major success. It did build real discipline.
Prior Convictions
People have told me more than once that I have done some unusual things growing up. This page is the shorter explanation for how that happened.
It is not a resume and it is not a list of credentials. I usually pick a hard thing, get serious fast, and keep going until the skill transfers somewhere more interesting. That pattern has repeated enough times that it is probably the point.
For founders, investors, and anyone hiring who want the shorter explanation.
Age 12 / 2016
Rock climbing on a whim
I switched to rock climbing on a whim. Swimming built the engine. Rock climbing was the first time I felt the fit might actually be there.
Age 13-14 / 2017-2018
Rock climbing nationals to national team
A year later I made nationals, and a year after that I made the national team. The thing I picked up on a whim turned into serious training, travel, expectations, and figuring out how to manage all of that alongside school.
Age 15 / 2019
Youth rock climbing World Cups
I started competing internationally with the national team before COVID. By then I already knew I liked high-stakes environments and hard ramps.
Age 16 / 2020
COVID and making things
COVID killed the normal rhythm of pro climbing. I had too much time, not enough structure, and started putting real energy into making things, first through music production and cinematography, then eventually coding and creating small things on the internet.
Age 18 / 2022
ASU, code, and too many credits
I joined ASU for CS, got an internship early, and learned to code in the "pre-AI" era, which sounds fake enough now that it probably needs the quotes. By then, music production had already turned into websites and then software.
At 19, in sophomore year, I got back into pro climbing through collegiate competition. Classes felt trivial, so I loaded nearly every semester with about 22 credits and 7 classes instead of the usual 5, which let me finish my undergrad and master's in 4 years.
Age 20 / 2023
Speech and hearing AI research
I moved into speech and hearing research with no medical background. What pulled me in was the chance to work on genuinely interesting AI problems at the boundary between clinical operations and applied intelligence.
Age 20 / 2024
Leaning hard into AI tooling
Around the same time, I started leaning hard into AI tooling, open source, and the idea that software was getting commoditized faster than most people wanted to admit.
The raw tech felt less important than what you built with it, how well you implemented it, and whether you had any real taste about where to apply it.
Age 21 / 2025
Got fascinated with startups
By then I had gotten fascinated with startups, and since then I have mostly just been building.
The deeper view underneath it stayed the same: the raw tech matters less than what you build with it, how well you implement it, and whether you have any real taste about where to apply it.