Reflections on Turning 22

Today I turn 22. In the past few months, I've graduated, accepted a new internship and begun work on a new stealth startup.

Graduation

The undergrad chapter is officially closed. Four transformative years have spilled open the doors to personal growth, opportunities and new landscapes. I've had the privilege of facing challenges while feasting on successes, all shaping me profoundly.

KP Fellows

I'm extremely grateful to have received the Kleiner Perkins Fellowship, awarded to ~80 fellows annually, to work at innovative startups in the KP portfolio. I will be working at Neuron23, an incredible biotech startup working on innovative personalized medicine and data-driven approaches to treatment for neurodegenerative disease. Massive thanks to Jiali Zhang and Qasim Wani for helping with the application process! Very excited to spend the summer with some incredible people.

ThermoBeat

Since my high school days, ThermoBeat has served as my personal academy for understanding entrepreneurship. It's a journey filled with triumphs as much as learning opportunities, all crucial to running a company.

ThermoBeat has also received some great honors and the team is still at work on more.

• Best Startup in Canada (SAGE 2018)
• DMZ Basecamp
• DEBUT Finalist
• FUEL Grand Prize

Stealth Startup

After years of working in the fields of Parkinson's Disease, Alzheimer's and Brain Tumors, I've seen first hand the challenges of creating powerful, advanced personalized medicine tools for the diagnosis, disease progression and personalized treatment of these diseases. It's not just a professional endeavor – it's personal. Witnessing friends grapple with diagnosis timelines or experiment with treatments to no avail makes this mission even more significantly crucial. Since January, I've been working intensely on a new early-stage startup to develop the tools and frameworks for personalized medicine in neurodegenerative disorders with backing from Johns Hopkins and On Deck. More on this very soon!

New Plans

This summer, I'm excited to work with Neuron23 in the KP Fellows program. Beyond that, I still have some decisions to make! Here's my plan for 22:

1. Embrace serendipity: Embrace unexpected opportunities and chance encounters that can lead to breakthroughs and success.
2. Continuously learn: Pursue knowledge and skill development relentlessly to stay ahead and adapt in a rapidly changing business landscape.
3. Make others: Empower and support those around you to reach their full potential and contribute to your startup's success.
4. Build and break things: Foster a culture of experimentation, iteration, and improvement to drive innovation.
5. Fail more: Embrace failure as a valuable learning experience and a stepping stone to growth and innovation.
6. Be adventurous and try more things that mostly won't work: Embrace calculated risks and explore unconventional ideas to push the boundaries of what's possible.
7. Think big: Set ambitious goals and strive to make a significant impact in your industry.
8. Iterate relentlessly: Continuously refine and improve your products, services, and strategies based on user feedback and market insights.
9. Embrace the long game: Maintain focus, adaptability, and persistence to navigate the challenges of entrepreneurship and achieve long-term success.
10. Inspire others: Share your passion, vision, and values through effective storytelling to inspire and rally stakeholders, investors, and customers around your startup.

As I embark on the journey of my 22nd year, I am ready to dive deep into a world full of uncertainties and possibilities. I stand on the brink of a future shaped by relentless learning, boundless innovation, embracing failures, and nurturing an unabating spirit of adventure. A future guided not merely by commercial success but by the profound impact we can create on human lives by harnessing the power of personalized therapies for neurodegenerative disorders.

Acting on the lessons learned from ThermoBeat, I am not merely excited about the journey that lies ahead, I am thrilled about the potential for transformation that it carries - for me and the entire realm of personalized medicine. As I venture forth, my focus remains sharp and unyielding - fostering an environment of continual improvement, iteration and innovativeness that functions as the lifeblood of my new startup.

When the rewards are tremendous and the stakes high, pressure naturally accompanies. It's in these moments that we must remember to meet failures with the same warmth with which we welcome success, for they are the building blocks of any endeavor worth committing to.

At every step of the way, I intend to work with and help those around me to follow the same path of relentless pursuit of dreams, staying in sync with a fast-paced industry and making a difference. As we set forth to conquer the challenges that lay ahead, we reaffirm our commitment to nurturing a culture centered around valuing human lives above everything else.

Other ventures might pique my interest, new opportunities may knock on the door, but as I peer into the future, I promise myself to stay consistent with and passionate about the values and mission that I have set forth today.

To quote Steve Jobs, "The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do." Our pledge is to harness the power of technology, the brilliance of human intellect and the undying spirit of entrepreneurship to strive towards a future where personalized therapeutics for neurodegenerative disorders become a reality and not just a distant dream. This dedication is not just ours to uphold, but ours to inspire others with as well.