July 2024 Updates
Landing a customer, celebrating love in the Philippines, and layover reflections
You’re receiving this monthly newsletter because you’ve been a valuable part of my life in some shape or form (or I’d like for you to be). See this video for context.
Let’s catch up sometime :)
What happened this month
This month started off with the late release of my June 2024 update — and I was reminded as to why I have been writing this consistently for the past two years. For those who have been following my journey, you may remember that staying in touch with the several influential friends and mentors has been top of mind lately. This short, monthly update allows me to do just that. With this June update, I heard received a heartwarming note from my elementary teacher, found out that my cousin in the Philippines also reads in, and (best of all), was able to make my mom cry from 4,234km away. I just wanted to start off this update by saying a heartfelt thank you to those who have been following and supporting my journey, and please know that I would always be willing and able to return the favour. Let me know too if you want to catch up sometime :)
I spent half the month in the Philippines, seeing not only my immediate but also extended family for almost 2 weeks to celebrate my cousin’s incredible wedding, and another’s engagement. Being in the bubble that is South Bay, it was exactly the change of scenery I needed. Before heading to Asia on the 17th, I fell sick. I still don’t know how or why, considering that I only go between the office and my home on a weekly basis. The contrast of being sick and alone in Palo Alto (not that I am complaining), to being surrounded by the love and warmth of family members a week later, made this trip even more memorable. We celebrated lots of love, both at the wedding and engagement, but even in the everyday conversations and time spent with each other.
We signed our first customer at Biogenesis. Three months in the making, and several calls but the team did it. We closed our first pilot enterprise client for our study startup product, and have several other conversations with CROs lined up for the next few weeks. Things are picking up, and going to be a focused next few weeks to close off the summer and prepare for our public release in early Fall.
What I’ve been thinking/learning about
Cebu boasted makeshift shacks with the savoury oils of the Filipino barbecue aimlessly rising through the metal panels that comprised of the structure. The chaotic, half-finished roads were lined with these, and also with the smiling faces of little boys and girls in oversized t-shirts, drenched in murky rain water. Filipinos on 20%-paid for motorcycles (the downpayment is all they can afford) swarmed through the terrible traffic, trying to get home after their long day of manual labour. This was quite the change from the Model 3’s doing 35mph along Sand Hill Road, and just brought me back to the other (the real) side of the world. This picture to me just showed two completely different people born on two completely separate sides of the world, completely unaware and non-empathetic towards each other. The stall owner selling crispy lechon would not be able to empathize with NVIDIA GPUs, and vice versa. It’s a very pointed picture that, to me, reminds me of a line that one of my mentors encourage me with: choose curiosity over judgement, for every human is worthy in their own right. Of course, this is a stark example, but a good reminder to me when ego subconciously influences judgement when getting to know someone. In a period of my life where everyone I meet is new, judgement is usually my subconscious instinct, and I’m reminded to drop my ego and just be kind and curious.
On a lighter note, I’m coming back from Asia with a lot more clarity and grounding in who I am, the lifestyle I want to have, and what my priorities should be. I was quite surprised at how much being in SF influenced my thinking and what I thought my priorities should be: becoming more technical, improving my public image, trying to get into these influential circles. While these things are not necessarily bad, they aren’t necessarily true to who I would want to be: someone who’s authentic, empathetic, and impactful in the things that I do. Stepping back and reflecting (with the help of 4 hour layovers) helped me get a lot of these thoughts down to come back to California with.
Lmk if you are (or know someone who is) working on or thinking about the above!
What’s next for me
Back to work, and 110% focus to bring on more customers and features to speed up clinical trial operations.
Building up a strong routine and system around my life in California
Exploring a potential resurface of creating?
Thanks for reading this month’s update. Would love to hear how I can help you this month (maybe I can make some intros, work through some thoughts with you, or otherwise). See you next month.
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This was real, thank you for sharing man!
Happy to hear you are grounded as you go back to California <3