I was always a math-and-science-minded kid (read: not sure I really read a book until after college), so studying engineering felt inevitable. A stroke at 20 became a defining moment in my life. It taught me that life is short and worth taking seriously, while also reminding me that not everything deserves worry.

My family moved constantly, and all of my children were born in different cities. Curiosity and ambition drove my career as I chased new challenges and experiences. I spent a short time as a developer before becoming “a human data warehouse,” shifting from building software to answering questions with data.

Having developed an interest in understanding how companies were really built, I went down a path where I worked closely with customers. So I went from software development to packaging software and taking it to market, then ultimately to leading large teams around the world.

I spent a decade helping build Cloudflare from $1 million to $1 billion in annual recurring revenue. That’s the hardest and best work I’ve ever done. Once you’ve experienced a mission-driven organization, it changes you. You wake up thinking about everything left undone, and on the hardest days, you may not even like the person staring back at you. But you keep going. It’s a crazy and wonderful grind, and I have immense respect for entrepreneurs on that path.

I’m fortunate to choose what I work on and with whom. Peak XV’s mission, working with exceptional people to solve meaningful problems and fund impactful nonprofits, feels worthy of the limited time I have.