In 2010, I came to UC Berkeley for an exchange program. I was young, curious, and completely fascinated by the energy of the Bay Area. That short stay left a deep impression on me. Two years later, in 2012, I moved back to the U.S. permanently. I was 23, fresh out of CS school, and eager to jump into the heart of the tech world.
Over the next decade, I watched Silicon Valley reshape the world. Uber disrupted traditional taxis with UberX. Airbnb turned spare rooms into global accommodations. Tesla proved electric cars could go mainstream. Google's new AI models were released. Self-driving cars began quietly rolling through San Francisco.
Being in the Bay meant living at the edge of innovation. The conversations, the culture, all the new startups & ideas, it all shaped how I saw technology and my role in it.
After some time away, I recently returned to the Bay Area. This time, not as a student, developer or manager, but as a CTO and co-founder of a small startup that just joined an accelerator program. And honestly, it feels like I've come full circle.
There's Still No Place Like It
A lot has been said about the post-COVID tech exodus. Founders and investors tried out Austin, Miami, and other cities. But now, something interesting is happening. People are starting to come back. And I get why.
The Bay isn't just a place where tech happens — it's a place where tech is the culture. Your Uber driver might talk to you about generative AI. Your barber asks about Bitcoin. Everyone talks about the latest AI models.
People get it when you spend your evenings and weekends working on a side project, building your startup, or hacking away at a new idea.
Co-Founder, Honest Feedback, and a Pivot
Last summer, I signed up for Y Combinator's Startup School. I had an idea in health, fitness, and healthy-food. I built a strong MVP, wrote out the business plan, even put together a diagram to map it all out. I reached out to a friend from Y Combinator (most famous startup accelerator), someone I had met years earlier, and he generously took a meeting.
He told me the product looked great, and that I clearly had passion. But he also said something that stuck: "This space is saturated. Go do something different." It was tough feedback, but honest and incredibly helpful.
Around the same time, someone else gave me a piece of advice that changed everything. He said, "If you're serious about being a founder, you need to be in the Bay." He was right.
Here, you're surrounded by people who think big, move fast, and aren't afraid to take risks. You're in the same coffee shops as investors, engineers, and other founders. The pace is intense, but so is the support. It's the one place where building something ambitious isn't the exception: it's the expectation.
Finding a Co-Founder the Hard (but Right) Way
Through Startup School, I talked to seven or eight potential co-founders. Then I met Jonathan. We connected quickly and agreed on a one-month trial. I'd build the MVP, and if it didn't work out, I'd be compensated. But after that month, it felt right. I officially joined as co-founder and CTO.
Jonathan had been on this journey for over a year, but everything was new to me. It was challenging. It was exciting. It was everything I had been looking for.
I haven't taken a paycheck in over six months. I'm lucky I had savings to give myself that runway. We've had disagreements, of course, but they've been productive. We pushed through. We built the MVP. We started pitching to VCs.
At first, it felt like shouting into the void. Even warm intros went unanswered. One VC ghosted us twice: once after scheduling, and again after rescheduling. It was frustrating, but not surprising.
We applied to dozens of accelerators and were fortunate to be accepted into three. Choosing Berkeley SkyDeck was the best decision: the program's reputation, network, and resources made it the clear choice for us. Only 20 companies out of 3,000 make it in. That's a 0.7% acceptance rate.
That changed everything. It validated our idea, our team, and our vision. Our odds of raising money went from nearly zero to something real. I'd guess around 60 percent now.
Building, Growing, and Leaning Into the Unknown
These past months have been intense. We're building fast. We're meeting the right people. And more importantly, I'm growing.
Every week pushes me further out of my comfort zone. But the more I stretch, the more I realize that's exactly where I'm supposed to be.
This isn't just a return to the Bay. It's a return to purpose. To the version of me that came here in 2010, full of curiosity. Now I'm here again, this time with experience, a co-founder, a product, and a mission.
And it feels like just the beginning.