Personize

Six years ago my financial life started getting really crazy. Today I am officially leaving Personize. I am a middle child. My younger brother, Antonio, is 23. My older brother Jacob passed away in 2020. I had just gotten out of a car crash in northern Alberta on my way up to plant trees. My older brother picked me up on his way home. That was the last night I saw him. The car crash insurance settlement came through a few months later. 27K. I traded it into a multi-six-figure portfolio over two years. I've failed a lot. I blew up 80% of that portfolio. Tried rental arbitrage in Texas lost 30k. I've taken out multiple loans for things that made me money and for things that lost me money. So fast track to May. Today, after 21 months of building with Hamed, we've agreed it's time for me to focus on what's next. Personize is building category-defining infrastructure in AI memory, and I'm proud of what Personize is today compared to the personalized emails-at-scale product we were pitching 2 years ago. The friendship stays. So does my belief in the product (I use Personize every day inside CoWork, Anthropic's desktop agent). I'll be cheering from a different seat. The reason I'm explaining all of this is that I am very delusional. My risk tolerance is crazy, but ever since my brother's passing (there are many details in this story that are a bit too personal for LinkedIn), I've been given many things strictly through my belief that it will be given. Karma & manifestation are very real in my world. So when you read all of this and you think, "Wow, that's sad" or "That sounds stressful," it truly doesn't even faze me in the least. When I believe in something, it means exactly that, with zero doubt in my mind, and that keeps me at peace. So... Started off the month by finishing day five at Vancouver Startup Week, and just got home from four days at Web Summit. These two events genuinely blew up my network. A private banker planning ultra-high-net-worth dinners. A new friend who just closed $2M of a $5M venture fund out of a bar. Conversations started with the federal and provincial Ministers of AI. A keynote speaker my mom worked with a decade ago. An artisan whiskey operator looking for the right sponsorship moment. This is probably less than 5% of what's been activated this month. Why? Vancouver Island Business Experience. Aka. Vibe Summit. Fall 2026. The thesis is simple. Vancouver Island is filled with scared money, which is leading us to ship away our best. The solve is VIBE. The rooms have to be built. Talent has to be showcased. The network has to be activated. If you want to bet on the next chapter, my DMs are open.