It’s been a while…
July 2017 my life changed completely and forever. It changed my career, my outlook on life, where I was working, and what I truly deeply wanted. July 2017 is when my daughter was born, and thus everything changed.
But, the reality is that the change had begun over a year prior. For those of you who know me personally, you know how entrenched and involved I was in my startup Rendevu, and CrowdClock. They were my passion, my drive, and my vision. They gave me purpose in life as I wanted to change the world with my products. I wanted them to make an impact greater than the sum of one man. But something happened in 2016, and it was when my wife and I first found out she was pregnant. We were overjoyed and extremely happy. But we kept it a close secret — even to this day most of our friends and some of our family members do not even know this. But we miscarried when the baby was 7 weeks old. All those dreams, all those plans we had for a life with the baby got shattered and torn asunder into a million pieces. The aftermath was sleepless nights…in fact for the first two weeks we would go to sleep with both of our eyes open. They were not shutting as we were depressed and very emotional about the loss. It was that much more difficult for my wife. This was also when I began to reflect on my career choice of that of an entrepreneur. Was the commuting between San Diego and the Bay Area wise? I felt like I was needed down here, and not just for the aftermath, but to truly plant myself in San Diego rather than keep plugging away up north. My trips began to spread apart further and further apart until I began to think about what opportunities existed down here. I also knew that if I was to truly build a life for our future child (if we were lucky enough to have one in the future) I needed to bring home the bacon so to speak. So, I sent my feelers out and I was extremely fortunate that a local and very successful entrepreneur introduced me to the CEO of a private equity firm. Soon, I was working there as a consultant, bringing home the bacon, saving up (this was new to me), and desperately trying to conceive. Until we did. And I only found out about it on October 19, 2016 – on the eve of the third debate between then candidate Trump and Hillary Clinton. I remember it vividly, because I decided to ignore the debate upon my wife telling me the amazing news and going out to dinner instead of listening to politicians duking it out on national television.
Since then, we bought a house, remodeled it, fixed the backyard with a pergola, became suburbanites and friends with our neighbors. And July 2017, our daughter was finally born! It was the most joyous occasion for us, and it has been an amazing adventure since then. Career-wise (after the consultancy I joined a local software company) though I was not too happy with where I was working, I disagreed strongly with the company’s path, and how they refused to embrace modern technology, and wanted to remain loyal to a dead technology. I began to look for other places, other opportunities that were better suited for me. I also began to consult again for different companies, and businesses. At least, I felt like that gave me some solace knowing I could build whatever I wanted. But I still did not feel a mission driven purpose. There was no big end goal. But, I kept telling myself that all I cared about was the well being of my daughter. And I did, for to me she is the moon and the stars, and the very sun which shines upon me and my life. But, somehow, some way, the stars granted me an incredible opportunity to yet again become part of something bigger, something that would change the world — but not just with one mission, but several of them, and more would continue to be born as quick as new ideas became validated.
In August of 2018, I was offered a position with Analytics Ventures which is a VC firm, but also contains a Venture Studio within it. And it is within this Venture Studio model where I get to work with a team of amazing data scientists in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, and equally amazing engineers and peers who are all on the same journey as I am — to change the world and leave our mark on it. And it is here within Analytics Ventures that I have found a new purpose in my career, or rather my life’s mission because being part of the Analytics Ventures family is not something I view as a job, but I view it as an amazing fun time where I get to be part of something amazing that I believe in. It’s a place that has allowed me to tap into who I truly am, and yet again set out on giving back to my community. And the giving back to my community starts on January 16, 2019, when San Diego Tech Hub is holding its kickoff event to bring techies around San Diego county together to not only bring greater awareness to our ecosystem, but to also help one another where needed. These are things that I had begun doing in 2014 as one of the founding members of Local Startups in San Diego, but a mission that I relegated to the back of my mind when I moved my startup up north. Now that I am once again fully engaged and committed to my local tech scene, I will go forth full force with San Diego Tech Hub, while continuing my journey at Analytics Ventures and building Legendary companies as our CEO Andreas likes to say. And it is one sentiment that I fully embrace and believe in.
You can find me tweeting @yashara or on Linkedin where I like to connect with interesting people both local, and world wide.
Note – these posts are my own, and do not necessarily reflect that of my company Analytics Ventures.
