It’s commonly said that happiness is a choice. When I first heard that, I thought it was a bunch of BS because in my experience happiness is circumstantial. How can I be happy when I haven’t achieved what I want with my life yet? “I’ll be happy when …”, I…

Ask anyone what jobs they worked in high school and college, and you’ll hear a lot of great stories. Most people worked seasonal jobs or part-time gigs that didn’t pay much and were a lot of hard work. I worked all sorts of different jobs during that time. …

Founders everywhere: Apply for up to $120K in investment from Techstars Detroit and much more! 👋 Early Stage Founders, It’s no secret that the bear market landscape has changed for early-stage companies and raising money is more challenging than it’s been in a long time. Not to mention that fundraising…

Today is a day for celebration! Not only do I turn 30, but I’ve also been promoted to Principal at Backstage Capital (and Chief of Staff at ArlanWasHere LLC) :) This year, I’ve had the privilege of sourcing and co-leading several deals including Beyond, a subscription micro-mobility company, SUMA Wealth…

Our family lost our dear Tio Juan to pneumonia at just 49-years-old last week. The type of pain and loss felt by our family is indescribable. There really are no words. It has felt so unexpected, so quick, and so unfair. But I do not want this to be a…

What it feels like to battle deep depression — As I reflect on another year of my life, I can’t help but think about how difficult and rewarding 2019 has been for me. I celebrated two years at my job, finally finished my bachelor’s degree 10 years after graduating high school, met cool people I look up to like…

Hacks to Help You Break Into VC — We were sitting in our Deal Flow Team meeting at SXSW a few weeks ago, and I looked around the room at each of my team members thinking about how a Harvard MBA grad, two lawyers, a designer, and me, came to be there, reviewing applications from thousands of underrepresented…

From a retail job in Detroit to Investment Apprentice at a fast-growing VC firm — On March 13, 2017, still tired from working on my schoolwork the night before, I was waiting for customers to stroll through the door of our Detroit Sprint store. My least favorite part about my job as a bilingual sales consultant was helping customers with billing issues — those were…

Entering my birthday weekend last year, I was glad to be done with work and enjoy a weekend with my then girlfriend (now amazing wife). I was particularly excited that night because we were going to be watching ABC’s Shark Tank with special guest Chris Sacca. Chris is someone that…