Venture investor · builder · Austin, Texas
“Markets dream in language long before they speak in numbers.”
Founder & CEO of feat. · Sr. Venture Associate, Startup Haven · TEDx speaker, TED Editor’s Pick
I · The Ideas
After evaluating 1,500+ startups and deploying $10M+ in early-stage capital, one pattern kept surfacing: language moves first. The words a company teaches the world are a leading indicator — cultural traction arrives before the financial metrics catch up. These are the ideas I keep returning to.
The best companies don’t just build products — they coin the vocabulary their market thinks in. When your words become the industry’s words, every conversation is distribution. Language adoption predicts startup outcomes earlier than any dashboard.
essay in progressBefore product-market fit, there is narrative-market fit — the moment a story starts spreading on its own. Cultural traction is measurable, and it compounds: employees, investors, and customers begin working on the company’s behalf.
essay in progressAI collapsed the cost of building; distribution is the new scarcity. feat. is my working thesis made real — a marketplace where builders and affiliates co-promote, so the things you make find the people who’ll sell them.
building in publicII · The Talk
My TEDx talk at TEDxSouthCongress in Austin — selected as a TED Editor’s Pick. The argument: the real target of venture-scale companies is to have their employees, investors, and customers work on their behalf. Lingo is the lever.
TEDxSouthCongress · Austin, TX TED Editor’s Pick
III · The Waking Hours
Jan 2026 – present · Austin, TX
The marketplace for everything AI helps you build. You built it; feat. lets people sell it for you — list your product, set a commission, approve affiliates for co-promotion, and let Stripe split each sale. Leading product, GTM, and partnerships. Raised pre-seed funding.
Feb 2024 – present
Working with venture-scale founders across Startup Haven on early-stage strategy, capital, and systems — diligence, financial models, and narrative-driven growth.
Advised founders on financial forecasting and strategies to prepare for investment and growth.
Built operational systems for a large accelerator; sourced and evaluated startups; authored diligence playbooks; helped guide financial models supporting $24M in Seed–Series A raises.
Led cross-functional analysis with accounting and engineering stakeholders in Hyderabad.
Foster / Lavin entrepreneurship community. Mentor with UW Leaders; Mary Gates Leadership Scholarship; Husky Leadership Certificate; early venture analyst internship with Startup Haven.
IV · The Unfinished Gallery
Essays, frameworks, talks, and stranger things — hung here as they’re made. The frames are already up.