Following the example of Will Larson (as I often do), I figured I'd give a shot of my 2025 in review. A lot has changed, even if I haven't written about it here, and I should probably give this process a try moving forward.

Personal Life

My daughter, Lily, was born in December of 2024, so the start of 2025 was an asbolute blur. Navigating a newborn baby, especially for the first time, was one of the most challenging things I've ever had to do. We've been so fortunate that she is actually quite an "easy" baby; however, that doesn't mean the huge changes to my lifestyle, hobbies, sleep schedule and personal relationships haven't gone unnoticed. Being a father is fantastic and I wouldn't change a thing here.

That said, it's also consumed the entirety of the year and has made it feel like time has flown. We've done our best to travel with Lily, when possible, but having a baby definitely isn't a great time to continue travel habits like they were previously.

Career

I entered the year on paternity leave while at Seed Health and then made the hard decision to move on from the company in March. I had joined Seed to establish Engineering as an internal competency and assure the business could scale to new heights - I think mission accomplished there.

Looking for a new job and interviewing (while managing a baby) was interesting. I had a ton more experience on an "executive" level and knew I wanted to continue along that path - but did I want to go back to something more established or stay in startup land? After a bunch of interviews and conversations, I found ReflexAI and decided that it was the right next step for me. I began doing part time consulting for them while I wrapped up my remaining paternity leave from Seed and started full time in May.

Since then it's been a wild ride jumping into an entirely new industry. I've gotten so much more exposure to AI and this novel technology. I'd say I'm far less of a skeptic than I was when the year started. Fortunately, everyone that I've had the privilege to work with so far there has made the transition much easier than expected and I feel confident that I made the right choice!

Looking forward into 2026

If I had to make some predictions for what I think 2026 holds:

  • Grow ReflexAI like crazy, both in terms of business numbers but also the Engineering organization. We have some transformative plans to ensure we can scale while also continuing to push an innovation pipeline to stay competitive. Will definitely be hiring extensively!
  • Finding some sort of exective coach/mentor. The best leaders are aware of their deficiencies and seek out those smarter/more experienced than them to get help. I should lean into this to keep pushing myself.
  • Get back into personal fitness and self care. 2025 was big on figuring out how to keep a baby alive. Great, now let's make sure we get back into losing weight and putting muscle back on.
  • Traveling more and finding alone time with my wife Melanie. At the time of this writing, I haven't actually spent an evening away from the baby in the entire year. I love her to death, but there's a better balance here.