I build companies that make the physical world work better.
I've been building companies since I was 14, including Rent the Backyard (YC S19), a backyard home startup that hit a $10m run rate. Before that, I studied Statistics & Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon, where I paid my tuition by arbitraging textbooks.
Enduring businesses, and enduring nations, are built by optimizing the physical world: energy, housing, manufacturing, transportation.
I wrote this guide to help founders navigate the uncertainties of their financial lives. Your startup and its shares will certainty be worth unimaginably large amounts of money at some point but for now there are bills to pay and tricky situations to navigate.
See you at IPO!
Updated January 2026
More …This guide is for a mainly US (possibly Canadian) audience who travels to much less developed countries in (generally) Africa, Asia, and South America and wants to save thousands of dollars by getting their travel vaccines at Costco’s Pharmacy.
You should start thinking about this at least a month (maybe two) before you leave. Time gives you the option to use the much cheaper Costco instead of a last-minute travel clinic that will charge you 10x. If you’re planning to travel many many months in advance your primary care physician could also help you get these shots closer to Costco’s pricing.
More …I wrote this guide to help founders get the most from their business and personal spending. As a founder, money has always been tight, but setting up simple systems for my business and personal spending has allowed me to travel the world for free, reward employees, and reduce our company’s burn.
See you at the airport!
Much has been said about how wars of the future will be fought over water. This is probably true, but the scope of the conflict seem like they will be considerably smaller.
More …I wrote this guide to help founders work with global talent (generally in the Philippines). At my last company (Rent the Backyard YC S19), we built an operations team of nearly 20 based in the Philippines. The team helped us with everything from payroll to sales proposals to procurement. The team helped extend my capabilities as a founder while extending the company’s runway and our chance of success.
The below methods are a combination of what’s worked for me and what I’ve seen others use.
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