2023 felt like “the climb”
After quitting my cozy job in 2021 doing AI research at IBM, life was a bit chaotic 🫠
I was living nomadically; meaning for 2 years, I never had a true home or community. Plus, I spent my time founding multiple startups and attempting to maintain a “work-life balance”; meaning I had no time to do anything up to my standards.
My energy levels, sense of clarity, and social support system were all suffering.
I was at my lowest low in 2022 😮💨
Fortunately, I had a plan to return to my curious, optimistic, and ambitious self!
I knew I needed a home and focus.
In 2023, I started with both.
Home: a lovely apartment in San Francisco that I became obsessed with decorating and filling with plants (82 and counting…)
Focus: my startup, The Residency.
A home and focus didn’t immediately bring me back to “thriving”.
I’ve been having to climb to get out of my lowest low.
I’ll save you the details and leave you with the mantra helping me most in 2023:
good things take time.
I know it is an obvious and overused cliche, but it never truly resonated with me. It took reflecting on my #1 played song of the year (“I don’t want it at all” by Kim Petras) to show me why.
The 80’s dance pop, synth-filled song gives the emotion of an angsty “brat” with lyrics like: “I want all my clothes designer, I want someone else to buy 'em”.
Growing up, most things were relatively easy for me to pick up, and my family was well-off enough to give me most of what I wanted.
So in 2023, when I faced a million challenges “getting what I wanted” as a founder, I was frustrated. The “angsty teen brat” inside me was coming out and singing this song was the perfect way for me to enjoy those feelings.
Understanding, and seeing, that good things take time (plus effort, thoughtfulness, and a capable team) has given me a new mindset. It makes it easier for me to not take it personally when things don’t go my way. It makes it easier to plan the next step. It makes me much more excited for what is to come in 2024 :)
More details below on the startup and the family :D
Startup - The Residency
Context for those not familiar
At The Residency, we are building “the new college experience”.
We have “residents”, not students. Residents live in our houses that are positioned on college campuses. Instead of having lectures, residents learn from doing. We provide coaching, access to mentors, and a light structure to help keep residents on track to achieving their self-selected goals.
We are a LONG ways away from being an alternative to college for the masses. Currently, we are a landing pad for 18-24 y/o founders who want to take a semester off of college to live and build with others in the bay area.
Major insight from 2023
A failed fundraise this year was actually a blessing in disguise.
Originally, we had planned to invest into every resident in exchange for equity in their startups.
After failing to raise the money to invest in residents, we asked if they would be willing to pay. And they were!
Our business model now is to charge a small program fee that allows us to sustain operations, maybe investing into residents down the road.
This business model is great because our top priority is to serve our customers, not any investor. Plus, it is a much more scalable model that will allow us to serve millions!
Where are we now
We launched our mini pilot cohort September 2023 in Berkeley, CA. Each of the 3 residents had great things to say about their experience, such as “this is the most intellectually stimulating environment I have ever been in.”
Our second cohort with 17 people (a 5.6% acceptance rate) is starting SOON! January 7th 2024 is orientation 🥹 We’ve got more programming, a larger team, and more mentors to connect them with! AND additional housing in San Francisco!
Our goal for May 2024 is to open a 3rd and 4th location housing 34 residents!
Follow us on X to stay updated, and share this with any 18-24 y/o you think might be a good fit :D
Family
I’m up to 3 nieces and 1 nephew!! Skylar, Ben, Grace, and Lilly all bring me and my parents sooo much happiness. They bring that, plus a lot of sleepless nights to my sisters and brother in laws 🙃
This year we celebrated lots of birthdays and holidays, and even made a family vacation to Tennessee happen!
While I have not been able to maintain a traditional “work-life balance”, I have been able to maintain a “work-family” balance that I am happy with 🥰
2024
2023 has been a year of growing up, it has given me a taste of “the business world”, and it has made me more resilient than ever.
I don’t know what lessons are in store for 2024 but I know there will be a lot of work to be done! But don’t worry, for the most part, it is work that I love. For example… I’ll be starting off 2024 by going to Richard Branson’s island to hang out with investors and founders who want to build a “free and prosperous future”, thank you Liberty Ventures for this amazing scholarship 🥹
Thats it for me, I hope to hear from you!
How was 2023? What are you looking forward to in 2024?
Love,
Nick 🫶
Other takeaways from the year I’d like to note:
care less about some opinions and care more about others
there are rarely hard truths; more often there are context-dependent, best practices
ask again, try again; no doesn’t always mean no
"After failing to raise the money to invest in residents, we asked if they would be willing to pay. And they were!" Founders are often surprised when people actually want to pay for what theyre building. Residency will go really really big. Also, thanks for being so vulnerable Nick!!