I recently had a conversation with a former colleague. He was intrigued by my decision to join a seed stage start-up as the founding head of sales. Dude, do you know how much work that’s going to be? Why not join a bigger, less risky company and coast it out? At this point in your career, don’t you think you’ve earned it? That would be the easy choice. I’m 52 years old and on the back nine of my career. Most people in my situation would indeed choose the comfortable path. I’m not most people.
The truth is I’ve been stuck in a rut professionally for the last few years now. I’ve done good work, but I haven’t felt satisfied. After a bit of soul searching it struck me. For the entirety of my career, I’ve been on someone else’s mission. I’ve mostly had a good seat on the bus and at times agency, but I’ve always had to play by someone else’s rules. That chapter of my career is now over. I’m no longer going to follow in someone else’s tracks. I’m going to make my own. It’s time to set out on my own mission where I control the outcome.
I’ve always believed if you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse. For the last few years I haven’t been getting any better. This role will force me to be better every single day. It is an exciting and somewhat daunting challenge to be the first one carrying the bag for a company with this kind of technical pedigree, but I’m all in. One of the lessons from my book is that true belief takes failure out of the equation. At Weilliptic, I truly believe we will forever change the world of AI.
If you’re wondering about the picture I chose for this post it is a rendering of Icarus from Greek mythology. His father, Daedalus, famously crafted two pairs of wings out of branches, string, and wax, so that they could escape imprisonment by King Minos in a tower on the island of Crete. Despite being warned by his father, Icarus flies too close to the sun, his wings melt, and he falls to his death in the ocean. Icarus is also the name of our fully aggregated AI chatbot, which is no coincidence. Our mission at Weilliptic is to enable our customers to take the capabilities of AI as close to the sun as possible, but without crashing and burning. We provide the missing trust layer so our customers can deploy AI safely, transparently, and cryptographically securely.
The mission is set. The tank is full. Now it’s all about the grind. LFG!
JQ Rising 
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