This is my sixth year-in-review.

I write these mostly for myself—to document memories, to reflect on the year, and to say thank you.

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2023

I officially entered 2023 as a college graduate¹. Three and a half years flew by way too fast. Finishing up classes meant I had a lot more free time on my hands.

During the first week of the new year, my senior year roommates and I flew to Switzerland for a ski trip. Interlaken, Chamonix², Geneva, and Zurich. It was such a blast. Thank you Kalman for saving my life as we skied down Les Grands Montets. That was one scary run.

February was also packed with travel. Austin for a weekend with the Contrary crew. Miami for a week to check out our new Ramp office and hang out with the team. Costa Rica (La Fortuna & Tamarindo) for spring break. Went whitewater rafting. Hiked around the Arenal volcano. Learned to surf for the first time. Pura Vida!³

Shortly after, SVB blew up and I was spending a lot of time on Twitter. I helped launch a quick program for Ramp customers to get introductions to other reputable banking partners that weekend.

During this time, I also launched one of the largest changes to Ramp’s core product. Over several months leading up to this release, Jason and I were heads down building a core layer of abstraction above physical and virtual cards—which later unlocked multiple features for Ramp moving upmarket into the enterprise (spend limits, multi-currency limits)—and allowed us to win customers like Shopify.

Life in Ann Arbor between my trips was fun—the weeks were mostly spent working out, supporting the V1 community, and just generally having a good time with friends. At the end of April, I formally walked at commencement and graduated with my class.

Over the summer, I worked on multiple new projects at Ramp. A lot of the features I helped work on over this time ended up shipping recently: Expense Intelligence (AI-powered policy enforcement) with Felix and smart routing (AI-powered spend limit routing) with Jinyi and Danny.

In July, I spent some time in San Francisco with my sister. It was my first time properly exploring SF—biked the Golden Gate, hiked through the Marin Headlands, and more. That city never fails to energize me. I also rode in a self-driving Waymo⁴ for the first time; so optimistic for the future.

At the end of the summer, I traveled to India (Mumbai, Nasik, Pune, Jaipur, Udaipur) with family. It’s been 11 years since I last visited and it was so good to get some refreshed perspective. We also traveled to Dubai⁵ after and indulged in all of its luxury before heading back home.

In September, I moved to New York City. My roommates and I threw a housewarming party that ended up bringing together 60+ of our friends. That was a fun night.

At the last minute, I jumped in and helped pull off running a fake restaurant (Mehran’s Steak House)⁶. That was by far one of the crazier things I've been a part of. Massive respect to Mehran and Riley for making it happen.

In October, I flew to Budapest, Hungary⁷ for the Stretch conference where I spoke about engineering velocity. I also represented Ramp at MHacks in Ann Arbor later in November.

The final few weeks of the year were spent enjoying New York (runs, bike rides, concerts), meeting new people, and thinking deeply about my longer-term goals and how I want to get there.

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If this year's theme was exploration (travel, learning, building), 2024 will be a return to focus. I'm eager to spend time learning and figuring out what to focus on and then move fast⁸ on those priorities.

In short, 2023 was my best year yet⁹. Thank you to everyone—my family, friends, mentors, peers, coworkers—for such a great year.

Here's to the next!

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_{If we haven’t met yet—or we haven’t caught up in a while—please reach out! I'd love to chat.}

Footnotes

1. [1] I finished classes in December 2022 and received my diploma shortly after. However, I decided to stick around Ann Arbor and walk at commencement with my friends in April. ↩

2. [2] Chamonix was the site of the first winter olympics in 1924. Truly a quintessential ski town. One thing that surprised me was how affordable it was to ski in Europe compared to the United States. Lift tickets and rentals for two days cost me less than $200 USD. ↩

3. [3] Every local (and I mean literally every local) in Costa Rica greeted us with "Pura Vida"—we couldn't tell if they truly believed it or if everyone was all in on promoting it for the sake of driving tourism. ↩

4. [4] The Waymo ride felt super natural. As the stop light turned yellow, the car accelerated to cross before it turned red. Human-level intuition. Thank you Varun for giving me a ride. I'm very jealous of your Waymo access. ↩

5. [5] Dubai almost seemed too good to be true. Almost manufactured. It's the definition of luxury, especially seen through it's resorts (we stayed by the Palm) and malls. ↩

6. [6] Some more press: TikTok, NY Post, The Guardian ↩

7. [7] I stayed in Budapest for two days after the conference to explore the city. It was my first time solo traveling. If you ever find yourself in Budapest, I reccomend checking out the Szechenyi Baths and Szimpla Kert (my favorite bar I've ever visited). ↩

8. [8] "It is much more important to work on the right thing than it is to work many hours. Most people waste most of their time on stuff that doesn’t matter." - Sam Altman. When I do figure out what to focus on, it's mandatory to move fast. Speed matters. ↩

9. [9] I often hear people reminisce about a past year (or set of years) as their absolute best: "college was the best four years of my life". Don't get me wrong. I absolutely loved my college experience, but I do not expect it to be the best four years of my life. I would like my life to be an exponential curve. More learning, more growth, more life. Each year better than the last. ↩