Category: Personal

With a full heart I must share this is my last week as part of the executive team at Senseye. It’s been a heck of a privilege to work with such a talented team of neuroscientists and true SaMD pioneers — first as a Leadership Coach, then as Head of People Growth, then supporting innovation / marketing efforts as Head of Design. Thanks always to David Zakariaie and Simon Woods for the opportunity to contribute to the company’s journey thus far.

What adventure is next? I’m not yet sure… I’ll be consulting and taking on design projects while I explore FT roles, so please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have an initiative that I can help with (in Austin or elsewhere). I have a few other creative endeavors up my sleeve as well, so stay tuned.

Grateful to begin the year in the Davis Mountains. If you look closely, you can see McDonald Observatory in the distance.

2021 was a hard one on so many levels, but there are many positives to focus on. My trip to Honduras. Taking the kids on their first trip to Big Bend. The Big Sugar bike race in Arkansas. Friendships both old and new.

And it’s always good to start the year with a review of my prime directives:

1. Be the best dad I can be
2. Share my rather long list of “what not to do” in this life with others
3. Help purpose-driven entrepreneurs & teams thrive

With the above at heart, I’m happy to reveal that I’ve joined the executive team at Senseye. As “Head of People Growth,” I’m initially focusing on recruitment efforts (as we’re currently on the hunt for an experienced CTO). I’ll also be involved in design and marketing efforts moving forward, as well as supporting a healthy team culture as we go through the growing pains of scaling a truly novel technology.

I’ll continue to work with current clients via 1st Assembly Supply Co in the short term, but I plan to wind down many of those engagements in the coming months.

Senseye is heading in a new and very important direction. You may be familiar with the fact that Senseye provides novel insights into cognitive states via the eye through mobile phones. Now the company is focused on building the world’s first objective mental health diagnostic on top of the core technology. Our first diagnostic is for PTSD and is entering pilot studies now, followed soon by additional indications for anxiety and depression.

Like so many others, my family has been significantly impacted by mental health issues, and I look forward to shaping the future of digital medicine with this talented team.

Last week, I returned to Texas after an almost three-year stint running acceleration programs in New Zealand. It’s impossible to distill my overseas adventure into a handful of descriptors, but I’ll “give it a go” as is often said in that part of the world: inspirational, eye-opening, insightful, failure-prone, educational, transformational. (Much like the journey of a startup, actually.)

With Lightning Lab Manufacturing (which resulted in the creation of 1st Assembly), two R9 Accelerator programs, Disrupt (Fonterra’s internal accelerator) and many other projects and endeavors, I honed my skills on how best to deliver value and faced many challenges — the distinct pains of growing hardware companies, the complex politics of working with (and across) government agencies, counseling co-founders through profound disagreements (and breakups), and the limits of my own resilience to name a few.

I learned more about my strengths. I learned more about my weaknesses.

If left to my own devices (and considering the state of the country and current political climate), I’m not sure that I would have returned to the US of A. However, with ongoing family issues, we decided it’s best to be close to family in Texas (perhaps the silver lining of this change).

In the meantime, I’m on the hunt for new opportunities and interesting work in Austin.

The path ahead will no doubt be a different one, but I’m up for the challenge to begin anew in the very special city that was my home for over 20 years.

Iterate. Adapt. Onward through uncharted waters.

Since I left my role at SXSW last July, I’ve been on many adventures.

I started my consultancy, Apostrophe Industries. I co-founded a health technology startup called Litmus. I worked alongside the marketing wizards at JDI. I built, launched and unintentionally destroyed a number of flying model rockets with my kids.

I’ve learned a tremendous amount over the past ten months. And this Sunday, I will embark on an entirely new adventure to learn even more.

A New Home

Adrienne and I have lived in Austin since first coming to the University of Texas in 1993. Technically, that’s not just the last century — but the previous millennium. It certainly feels like a long time ago. Adrienne has always desired to live abroad, and I’ve always wanted to gaze upon the stars in the southern sky. An opportunity recently arose that allows for both dreams to become reality.

“The Southern Hemisphere holds all the good stuff.” – the late astronomer, Bart Bok

If you follow me on Twitter, you may have noticed that I recently spoke at an event many time zones into the future. The speaking engagement in New Zealand was also a reconnaissance mission. It’s true — I’ll very soon be leaving Austin for a sabbatical in Wellington, located at the southwestern tip of the North Island.

Creative HQ

A fortuitous initial meeting during SXSW Interactive in March quickly turned into this new opportunity. As of today, I’m honored to be working with the talented team at Creative HQ on a brand-new product and manufacturing accelerator called Lightning Lab Manufacturing. I’m going to take my passion for maker culture and experience growing business communities to foster some really cool product innovation in the Wellington region.

We’re about to open up the application for participants, so I’ll soon share more details on the intensive 12-week programme. (← I am learning a number of alternative spellings and Kiwi cultural preferences.)

Litmus

My role as co-founder in charge of product and experience at Litmus will continue uninterrupted. We have the right vision, an incredible team, and a technology that we’ll use to transform the $1.6 trillion per year pharmaceutical research business, which today is the opposite of lean and agile. My fellow co-founders (CEO Daphne Kis, Dr. Sam Volchenboum, and Josh Jones-Dilworth) are excited for my family’s opportunity to live overseas, and I’m grateful to have their support in this endeavor.

We’re planning to tap into the fantastic dev talent in Wellington, so there are real strategic advantages for the company as well. We’re not saying too much about what Litmus is up to just yet, but a few things have begun to leak out here and there.

Litmus is for one, honored to currently be a finalist for investment from the University of Chicago’s Innovation Fund. We will soon launch our pilot program to nearly 10,000 patients. And I’ll be able to say even more about what we’re doing after we complete our seed round, which is now in the final stages.

The Foreseeable Future

For at least the next 12 months, our home in the Wellington region will be the picturesque community of Eastbourne. Each morning, I’ll walk to a ferry for a 20-minute ride across the harbor into downtown Wellington. A new adventure for sure.

With our scrambling to get ready to leave town, I don’t have much of a social calendar at the moment — and unfortunately won’t be able to individually catch up with everyone. If you’re in the ATX, please join me for a bon voyage happy hour of sorts at 5pm on Friday, May 22 at Whisler’s on the East Side.

Hope to see you there, or perhaps on the other side of the planet!