On the Summer of 24

Everyone's got a village rooting for them, and if you’re reading this - I appreciate you being part of mine.

If it seems like you haven't heard from me in the last few weeks or months, that's probably true. I've been locked away in an apartment in San Francisco. Occasionally, I'll be exploring the city or visiting random towns in middle America (it’ll make sense soon). Though the last few months have been strange with highs and lows, it's all been an interesting season to say the least.

This is yet another go at sharing more of my life and what I've been up to.

Since the end of last year, I've been working on Village Labs with Roger. We help businesses become employee-owned via Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs). TLDR; it's a US retirement plan that allows employees to receive stock ownership from of their company. As of now, this exists most commonly with construction companies, manufacturing companies, etc. - think middle America businesses. The thesis here is that we can create more employee-owned businesses and help them operate much more efficiently.

Great, Village Labs is a thing - why have I been MIA?

Back in June 2024, we got accepted into Y Combinator. The program that funded Airbnb, DoorDash, Stripe, and so many more household names. It was a surreal experience to get accepted. There are so many analogies I tried to come up with when trying to describe it, but it's tough. It felt like we got into the G-League or got drafted - in the context of startups. Crazy ass analogies, I know. Maybe a tad exaggerated, but it’s the closest example I could make up. What we were trying to do felt crazy (still does), but we got this massive investment to give it a shot.

Let's be clear, I'd lie if I said it didn't come with a million other emotions. But excitement is the core emotion I want to focus on.

Next, in July 2024, I moved to San Francisco to start this new chapter. Within the span of 3 weeks, my life felt like it took a sharp turn. That’s when everything started feeling different, good, but different. Much more to figure out from here. From logistics, transportation, housing, it was a long list. Imagine deciding where you'd spend 99% of your time for the next 4 months through photos on a listing. Here I’m referring to my apartment that I barely seem to leave.

Cool, building a startup in SF (classic) - does it really explain why I've been MIA?

Well, this can be explained through two (of many) lessons that I've learned. Both the hard way (or the right way):

• Building a company is hard
• Being hyper-focused requires sacrifices

I intentionally decided to do this really hard thing, so why not go all-in? For course, I'm doing all this knowing that I'm making sacrifices in other aspects of my life. Don't get me wrong, it's been a tough decision to make. But this is what it took to get here, so just focus. For the first time in my career, it's been focus on this one thing. Everything and anything related to Village Labs, which has truly been an interesting experience. It's given me the chance to tell myself that if I'm going to do it, there's no looking back and wishing I had worked harder. Find that dawg in me.

Fast forward to today, my mindset has developed (in a good way). Though there's tremendous pressure, the two liner I always repeat - things will work out and I just need to take all this step-by-step. The reality is that it's exactly how things always play out and it's what seems to be happening right now. The pressure (good & bad) from Demo Day / Y Combinator continues to creep in, but I'm trying to be more intentional about reinforcing this message.

With all that said, it felt like the perfect time to loop back with reality. At least, try to.