I was engineer number 3 at Eventbrite and founding engineer at Reforge. I've created a dozen or so startups myself and have worked in many others, like Instacart. All this time, no one knew that I was a convicted felon.
It wasn't exactly a topic that came up, but it was certainly something that I never brought up. When you're a convicted felon, people look at you as if you are tainted.
I was unable to rent apartments in San Francisco. I was unable to get a job directly after being released from prison. It's funny because when you owe the state $17,000 in restitution and you can't get a job, people become extremely desperate. And that desperation can easily put you right back into prison.
So I went from homeless person at age 19 to 7-figures about 10 years later. I retired at age 38.
What I'm doing now is writing an autobiography. The main theme of it is hope.
And I want to make sure that people know about it. They don't necessarily have to be interested in it, but if people know about what it's like sleeping in a car believing that one day you will travel the world and then actually doing it, then I think I've accomplished my task in writing this book.
If you're interested, please let me know.