Read on I’m a dad to 3 humans, 3 dogs, and Sundays with (Dr.) Tory.
I’m privileged to be doing great work with great people. Just trying to put a dent in the universe.
If you want the best food for your dog but also have a life, try Sundays. It’s air-dried, human-grade dog food, designed for parents.
We live in Cleveland, Ohio, where I grew up. It’s still my favorite place in the world. I spent my 20s and early 30s in New York, which ain’t bad either. I still go back regularly. Being a lifelong Cleveland sports fan gave me unflinching and, at times, delusional optimism, which I find useful as a startup founder.
Previously, I started a group dating app called Grouper. Despite early traction, funding from Y Combinator, and a brilliant co-founder (who went on to invent ChatGPT and co-found Anthropic, no big deal), when swiping apps arrived a couple years later, users preferred them. It was fun when It’s Always Sunny did an episode about us. Grouper is the way I wish the world was, Tinder is the way the world is.
Before that, I dropped out of Yale, came back, and graduated. In between, I started a language learning startup and got to work with another group of amazing people in San Francisco, including Nate, our lead engineer, who later started some air mattress company. I hear it’s done pretty well.
I’ve played the drums since I was 5. I dabbled in a Led Zeppelin cover band. I picked up the piano mainly for the purpose of live karaoke. I’m writing a musical.
I discovered tennis as an adult and try to play 3 times a week, often with my dad, who played in college, and probably wished I played as a kid. Whatever it is, it’s never too late to start.
I walk the dogs every day in the Metroparks—one of the truly great public park systems, endowed by the Rockefellers—and lift weights a few times a week in my small home gym, which I put far too much time and attention into. I sauna most nights; the Finns know what they’re doing.
I appreciate thoughtfully crafted products, including: single-origin coffees and creative ways to brew them, most devices designed by Apple in California, and vintage objects from the great mid-century German designers.
10 everyday products I love are: Claude Code, Apple AirPods Pro, Rogue Ohio Bar, Rhone Commuter Shirt and Pants, Fellow Aiden, La Cabra single-origin subscription, Lululemon Fast and Free Running Hat, HOKA Gaviota 6, Sundays (obviously), and Tesla FSD (currently at 96%). It’s a miracle of capitalism that nearly all of these amazing products cost less than $100 per month.
I’m a proud and practicing Jew.
I have a brother, Adam, who is a product designer at SeatGeek, and a sister, Jen, who is an accomplished horseback rider.
I read a lot. Some recent favorites: Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live by Susan Morrison, Apple: The First 50 Years by fellow Clevelander and Yalie David Pogue, Football by Chuck Klosterman. And my favorite book from the last few years is probably, What’s Our Problem? A Self-Help Book for Societies by Tim Urban. Also be sure to check out his prescient two-part blog post about AI from 2015, “The Road to Superintelligence,” in which he almost perfectly predicts the timing of ChatGPT.
I try to seek truth above all and gravitate toward people who do the same: curious, boundlessly open-minded about the future, but sharply realistic about the present. It’s less common than I’d wish.
I’m a techno-optimist and unapologetic accelerationist. I feel so lucky to be alive at the same time as LLMs, self-driving cars, mRNA platforms, GLP-1 agonists, reusable Starships, CRISPR Cas9, spatial computing, and, most of all, memes.