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. Grouper is the way I wish the world was, Tinder is the way the world is. It was fun when It’s Always Sunny did an episode about us.
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'm lucky be able to walk the dogs daily 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 thought 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.
America is the worst country in the world—except for all the others.
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.
I’m a techno-optimist and unapologetic accelerationist. I feel so lucky to be alive at the same time as LLMs, self-driving cars, GLP-1 agonists, reusable Starships, CRISPR Cas9, spatial computing, and, most of all, memes.