This year so far: San Francisco, Austin, Dubai, London. Starting Sunday: Australia, then Singapore, then Korea.
I'm grateful. I'm also feeling the miles.
When you're running this hard, the noise drops out and you're left with one question:
What's worth it?
For me, it's Blue Goat Cyber's mission. Medical devices aren't "tech products." They're the thing someone's mom, dad, kid, or spouse is depending on to save their life or improve it.
That's the lens I try to keep when the schedule gets crazy.
Here's the thought I keep coming back to as a founder in this space:
Most cybersecurity pain in MedTech isn't caused by attackers. It's caused by waiting.
Waiting to threat model until late.
Waiting to gather SBOM details until the deadline.
Waiting to define security requirements until architecture is already locked.
Waiting until a submission is in motion to figure out what "good" looks like.
That's how teams lose months. That's how "compliance" becomes churn. That's how you end up doing security as a fire drill instead of an engineering discipline.
Austin was a reset for me. We did a leadership offsite and I walked away proud of our team. They show up with discipline and care every day, and I don't take that for granted.
Also in Austin, I took Skip Barber Racing School's Advanced Formula Car class. I'm now greenlighted to race F4, and I'm hoping to do that this year.
Same principle: you don't earn speed by panicking late. You earn it with fundamentals early.
And because I'm a heavy metal fan, life handed me a couple moments that felt unreal.
I ran into Rob Halford at LHR. He was on my flight and we ended up chatting quite a bit. This year I've got tickets to Wacken. Lifelong goal. I'll see him there. 🤘
And Metallica is playing at the Sphere in Vegas, where I got married to Melissa Espinosa. That one hits different.
Iron Maiden's "Wasted Years" has been on repeat for me lately. Not as regret. As a reminder.
No wasted years. No wasted cycles. Build it right early.
Up the irons.