Jan 31, 2022I Raised $800K in 100 Days Of a Political Campaign.100 days ago, I launched my campaign for State Assembly in San Francisco. As a first time candidate, many doubted we could get endorsements, or volunteers, or donations. 100 days later, we’ve earned dozens of endorsements, mobilized hundreds of volunteers, and raised nearly $800,000. How one runs a campaign is…San Francisco2 min readSan Francisco2 min read
Jan 17, 2022Homelessness is not a Money Problem. It’s an Ideas Problem.San Francisco has one of the largest populations of unsheltered homeless residents in the country. 9,800 homeless according to the last biennial survey. 4,600 living in shelters. Leaving over 5,000 unsheltered people on any given day. While politicians have given up and said that homelessness “may not be solvable”, evidence…Politics6 min readPolitics6 min read
Oct 17, 2021I’m running for State AssemblyI’m excited to announce that I’m running for State Assembly in California’s AD-17 district in East San Francisco. I’m running for Assembly because San Francisco is headed in the wrong direction, and the status quo is unacceptable. The American dream of upward mobility is out of reach for most San…Politics2 min readPolitics2 min read
Sep 22, 202132 Reflections Before an IPOAs Amplitude Analytics nears its IPO, it is the end of my startup journey which began with ClearBrain five years ago. And so I wanted to shared the many lessons I learned along the way, and the many people who helped me learn it. The most consistent lesson: people >…Startup9 min readStartup9 min read
Published in 13 Fund·Apr 5, 2021Announcing our $100K UBI syndicate in support of Bay Area Restaurant WorkersSince the pandemic began, we launched 13 Fund to research high-leverage solutions to local issues, and new nonprofits led by under-represented groups to address them. Family and immigrant-owned restaurants have been hit especially hard last year. So we focused our initial research on assessing how to help. …Restaurant4 min readRestaurant4 min read
Mar 7, 2021How To Sell Your StartupOne year ago, my startup was acquired by Amplitude. I received several offers from companies private and public, and had to navigate the strenuous process a day at a time. After closing I realized the acquisition process actually follows a fairly consistent protocol. I documented it for other YC founders…Startup11 min readStartup11 min read
Published in 13 Fund·Jan 15, 20215 Key Challenges Impacting Restaurants in the Pandemic13 Fund’s Philanthropic Investment Thesis on Small Business Development — Restaurants are an essential part of our cities. From family outings to date nights, corporate outings to conventions — restaurants form an important component of our social lives. In San Francisco and New York, they provide livelihood for hundreds of thousands, often immigrants of Asian, Black, and Latinx descent. When…Covid-1911 min readCovid-1911 min read
Dec 12, 2016How to Automatically Segment Your Data With ClusteringOne of the most common analyses we perform is to look for patterns in data. What market segments can we divide our customers into? How do we find clusters of individuals in a network of users? It’s possible to answer these questions with Machine Learning. Even when you don’t know…Machine Learning5 min readMachine Learning5 min read
Nov 29, 20164 Reasons Your Machine Learning Model is Wrong (And How to Fix It)There are a number of machine learning models to choose from. We can use Linear Regression to predict a value, Logistic Regression to classify distinct outcomes, and Neural Networks to model non-linear behaviors. When we build these models, we always use a set of historical data to help our machine…Machine Learning6 min readMachine Learning6 min read
Nov 15, 2016What is an Artificial Neural Network?These days we hear a lot about Artificial Neural Networks. Facebook uses them to classify different types of text in their posts. Zillow recently started using them to better predict house prices from images. Google even open sourced their technology to help any company build their own. But what are…Machine Learning6 min readMachine Learning6 min read
