The 'sci' behind the 'fi'.
I was shaped by science fiction and fantasy—genres where impossible questions are met with technology, design, and myth. I learned to see stories as speculative blueprints. Fiction fuels science, and science reshapes fiction; together, they form a feedback loop that drives invention. That same drive—to imagine, experiment, and build—has carried me from molecular biology to creative technology. It's applied creativity: treating codebases like story structures, systems like mythologies, and products like lived‑in worlds.
My time in science—especially working with non‑model organisms—gave me intricate puzzles and the freedom to solve them without a manual. In the lab, no two days looked the same. I'd go from running experiments at the bench to writing custom code, from designing figures to troubleshooting equipment—or building it myself, often under budget and using cast‑off parts from the '70s. I became a one‑person instrumentarium: part researcher, part engineer, part designer, part fixer.
That's exactly why I feel at home in startups. Startups thrive on people who can shift gears, build from scratch (or know when to use the scraps), and hack away at any idea until it takes shape. Being scrappy, underfunded, and resourceful is the common thread. Startup life is just the next experiment.
