Building ambitious, time-rich lives with AI
I'm using AI to rebuild on my own terms and help high-achieving, non-technical professionals stop trading freedom for ambition.
Origins
I grew up in Manila with big dreams. I earned a spot at Philippine Science High School, the most competitive science school in the country (aka nerd city 🤓). My classmates came from many walks of life, all over the country. And a lot of them were so much smarter than me!! It was inspiring but also taught me to dream BIG, even at a young age.
The Scholarship
Dreaming big paid off, baby! I got a full ride to Wesleyan University through the Freeman Asian Scholarship! Without this scholarship, I would absolutely not have been able to study abroad. I'm so grateful to have quality-tier & FREE education since high school. I appreciate how education opens doors & desire to give back in a similar way.
Creating the Path
In college, I eventually decided tech was the industry I wanted to be in. I was determined to make it to ✨ Silicon Valley ✨ Wesleyan just didn't have a roadmap for that (as a liberal arts school). So I built a tech organization from scratch, planned excursions to the Bay Area & taught product, design & eng classes myself. That work landed me my first internships & my first tech job! *squeal*
Breaking In
Many things were stacked against me: international visa, woman in male-dominated industry, no tech feeder school, no network. But many-a-hustling after, I made it!! I got my 1st tech job through the prestigious Kleiner Perkins Fellowship. But #visaproblems were neverending. Eventually, I had to leave & had 30 days to find a new job when my visa status changed. I thankfully landed at LinkedIn and eventually led products on the jobs team, including the purple "I'm Hiring" ring you've probably seen on profiles
The Wake-Up Call
LinkedIn was the 🌈 dream job on paper: big title (in product, no less!), prestigious company, job security, AMAZING benefits. But I was building products for internal metrics & executive approvals. Every decision required 42 approvals & 56 emails back & forth. I still worked SO HARD thinking "so many people would LOVE my job... i need to be grateful"... eventually burnt out. 🥵 I realized it just wasn't the dream I always imagined.
The Founder Life
So I decided to quit & start my founder phase! Founding a company is the HARDEST thing I've ever done!! Respect to all the founders out there. After meandering in the idea maze (it takes longer than ya think!), I co-founded Parallax, a stablecoin payments startup, and in under a year we hit $100M in transaction volume, raised $5M from Dragonfly and General Catalyst, and built a team of 15 across 8 countries. I landed on Forbes 30 Under 30 and Tatler Gen.T, got featured on TechCrunch & other media outlets, went on live TV for the first time. A lot of things looked awesome...
The Exit
We eventually sold to a $3B company, one of the biggest in the industry! But looking back, I had been quietly burning out AGAIN. 🥵 The day to day just ended up not being my cup of tea: compliance paperwork, vendor shopping, admin grunt work, risk management, fundraising. I'd also lost the freedom I left corporate for in the first place. Now, instead of pandering to execs, I pandered to investors. None of it was why I started a company (I love talking to users, growth, marketing, product & design). All of it wore me down.
The Break
After the exit, I took a breath, worked with a coach & reflected on my life (#quarterlifecrisis) I also got married to Nick! And somewhere in that quiet, I realized: 1. I care about autonomy, freedom & building a time-rich life. I'd burned out the 1st time pandering to execs, and again pandering to VCs. 2. I dove deep into AI & wish I'd had this at my 1st startup. AI could've handled many tasks I dreaded. AI is one of the most direct paths to getting your time (& life) back. I wanted to build with it & help more people see what I was seeing.
Building on Our Terms
I'm trying something new & doing it with my husband as a co-founder! Nick & I are building an AI company on our own terms, optimizing for time-rich freedom (no more burning out!) I'm the growth & marketing founder (again) and we're building for growth & marketing teams so naturally I am nerding out about all of that! We're in the early days but have big dreams 🚀 I'm also sharing everything I know about AI, because I know how education (especially about this amazing & crazy tech) opens doors. I hope you'll join me in my journey 🙂
Let's work together.
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Reach out directly
mika@kingscrosslabs.com
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