I didn’t have a home for my first year in Silicon Valley.
That sounds dramatic. But it’s true.
After Closet Compass got acqui-hired, I showed up to the Bay Area with a backpack, no apartment, and the widest eyes you’ve ever seen.
I lived on conference coffee and take-out guilt.
I showed up to every event I could get into — TiE Silicon Valley, TechCrunch, @Scale, and any random meetups with free pizza.
Half the conversations led nowhere.
The other half rewired how I think.
At night I read biographies of founders who were way more lost than me at 23.
During the day at nSpire AI, I built solutions for job seekers and international students who were living the same story I had just crawled out of.
Somewhere between all this chaos, it clicked:
Nobody becomes a PM because they studied product. People become PMs because they act like PMs before anyone pays them.
Three uncomfortable truths
The fastest way to “break in” is to stop trying to break in.
Build stuff. Real projects beat fake assignments. Always.
Luck comes from being in rooms you feel underqualified for.
Say yes. Show up. Figure it out later.
Your life can be a mess, but your learning system can’t.
I didn’t have a home. I had a habit — read, build, ship, repeat.
Next year, I’m going to talk openly about all of this — especially for students and early professionals trying to do what I did without the “perfect resume.”
If that’s you… stick around.
I’ve got receipts.