I started as a zone electrical engineering, mechanical engineer. And so I wasn't really I wasn't really thinking about career and computer science or anything related thio software development. But then over time, I I discovered the rial flair for, uh, for development and and I decided to get a degree in computer science. So I went to U. C S D. And just basically, my career progressed as a typical software engineer, senior engineer, architect and director of engineering and then eventually, VP and CTO. Uh, now again, I I found that I have a neck for taking complex problems and breaking them down into a smaller problems. But over time I realized that I really wanted to start my own business at some point, and I just I had a lot of limiting beliefs, thinking that I won't be able to start a business unless I have a business degrees. So I got a I got another. I got another degree in computer science, but it was It was a master's degree. And then, uh, instead of getting N b A got a PhD in business. So at that point, I felt that I was ready to start a business eso that's what that's what sort of what inspired me seeing other people, owning their own businesses and my perception waas, um that they completely 100% control their career and control their destiny, and I wanted to do that.

I'm gonna I'm going to talk about one of my startups that I started that I co founded in 20 co founded in 2014. It's called Reagan. Now that start up the elevator pitch for that startup is we help construction companies keep track of keep track of activities that are occurring occurring on the construction job side. So prior Thio, prior to us being being able to address that problem, our main competition was pen and paper. So the companies construction companies kept track of activities that are occurring on the construction job side just using pen and paper, and that it would that it would fill out either an Excel spreadsheet or a PdF or just basically hand written notes. They would rip that out of a journal and then just file it away.

So I joined the project, joined the project is alleged stage co founder. So the company, the company was already in existence. So my first week was not very emblematic of how the how you start the company from the from the ground up when you don't have an idea. But typically the first two weeks or really its's certainly more than first two weeks. Uh, you you you have an idea, and you need to validate it. You need to validate the idea by by going thio your intended customers and just, um, speaking with them about the idea, Right? So if, uh in our case, the construction companies were the ones who are going to be the final customer for our product is going in talking to a construction companies on the construction job side because the solution was targeted towards towards the construction companies and these construction companies specifically not not the office software that they would keep, but really, what gets used in the field. So construction is separated between the field in the office and the field is really where the notes are being taken. Um, so my co founder and I, we called it hunting for cranes, right? So when you saw a crane, then you would that that means it's a construction job side. You go to a construction job side and just talk to project managers that are running the project. That's what the That's what the first week is. Looks like we're a first few months really what it looks like because you really just collecting feedback and you're trying to understand as much as possible about the problem and what sort of issues that now that you are intended customers air dealing with and then over time, that evolves into you. While we've heard enough, we're going to consolidate the data. We're going to do some sort of qualitative analysis and, um, the kernel of the idea that we had. If that changes ever so slightly from there, you go into the building, your prototype