2024 In Review
Highlights, Challenges, and Lessons
Looking back on 2024, I’m filled with gratitude for all its challenges and change, and optimism for the future. I want to share highlights, lowlights, and lessons of the past year with you.
Health 💪
While I’ve made huge progress with physiological health, 2024 really challenged my mental health. I’ve often found happiness in moments of movement and friendship. My two snowboarding trips this year were fun, spiritual, and therapeutic! I’ve been lucky to visit friends in the Northeast and during two trips to Texas. A few friends even visited me in Boston!
Career 💼
2024’s key theme was finding a full-time job as I fully return to startups, and I navigated multiple roles with resilience. I began with a contract job in Growth Operations at a private equity-backed startup, and took a temporary role at a political nonprofit, where I embraced leadership opportunities such as speaking with NPR and Senator Elizabeth Warren. In August, my contract job was impacted by a company acquisition, leading to temporary roles with a Y Combinator startup and a hospitality business. Recently, I accepted a fractional role at an AI company and I am still evaluating full-time opportunities in startups.
Mentorship ✨
My season of mentoring continued beyond Cornell, with opportunities at Startup Boston, Cleantech Open (America’s leading cleantech accelerator), and Harvard Business School. Serving as a returning judge and mentor for Harvard’s flagship business competition and joining an HBS Student Advisory Board this summer were incredible honors. I also continue to write in my entrepreneurship blog–here are some favorite articles:
While I decided to step back from mentorship to focus on work and education, these experiences allowed me to give back to the community and enriched my professional growth. And who knows what the future holds – life has a funny way of coming back full circle.
Tech 🤖
Generative AI was a game-changer for me. Now, agentic AI is revolutionizing organizations and business models at astonishing speed. I built automation and conversational AI products for my addiction recovery startup InCommon starting in 2017, and saw this seismic change coming.
I often advise, “Let tech be good at tech things, and let people be good at people things.” Invest time to learn and think critically on future-proof skills.
People ❤️
Technology promised more leisure time, less work, and better quality of life, but Parkinson’s Law has led to more productivity with less time to recharge. Many Jobs To Be Done are stripped from our societal fabric: checking in on friends, talking with strangers, and even asking for directions.
Unplug, nurture relationships, and indulge the inconvenient.
Democracy 🏛️
This past election and Trump’s imminent presidency have weighed heavily on my mind, and I’ve decided to focus my attention on areas where I can exercise more agency.
What Worked 🚀
Obsessive discipline, overcoming distractions, and redefining my relationship with technology and external validation.
Reclaiming personal power by confronting what I once avoided.
Shifting focus from deficits to positives.
Strategic cycling between “Less but better” and “Ride your winners.”
Stay proactive to avoid being reactive.
I obsess about sleep, invested in it by buying an Apple Watch, and overly engineered my routine.
I’m so much better at routines and boring stuff.
Analyzing progress with a Job Tracker CRM spreadsheet was a game changer.
A weekly Highlight/Lowlights practice with a friend.
Closing Out 📈
If 2023 was chaos, 2024 was reinvention. Stable housing after moving four times in six months in 2023 made a profound difference in my growth this year. 2025 is a “Year of Fear”–using fears to indicate what problems to solve next.
I am proud to have fought so, so hard and overcome so, so much– the future is more abundant with possibility than ever. We often overestimate what’s possible in a year and underestimate what’s possible in a decade.
Thank you for being a supportive part of my life. Here’s to a prosperous and healthy 2025 and decade ahead!
