Hey Twenty Mentees! I’m a Bay Area native who relocated across the country to Raleigh-Durham four years ago with my now-wife so that she could pursue her PhD. Since then, we have grown into home-owners, dog parents, and travelers, just to name a few. I’m 30 years old and spent most of my twenties balancing aspirations and expectations.

Since leaving Stanford in 2015, I’ve worked for several different companies, in different stages of growth, with different levels of product strategy. I consider myself to be a “small company” or “early stage” contributor because I like wearing a lot of hats and immediately seeing the impact of my work and leadership abilities.

I started as a Sales Engineer, moved to Product Marketing, and have been in Product ever since. I’ve learned more about what I value in leaders, especially in business, and the work environments I thrive in. It’s been a long, arduous process that has taken time, patience, and discipline - and realizing that true meritocracies are hard to come by. I’ve also had to learn how to avoid the existential crises and comparisons that would trigger anytime I learned about another friend’s accomplishments.

Outside of work, I have found hobbies that allow me to also fund do what I enjoy doing. It has been a long, arduous process to learn work-life balance.  But, I’m now invested in outdoor leadership opportunities as an adventure travel guide with Mountain State Overland. A true passion project that allows me to have an additional stream of income and skills doing what I love the most: teaching, leading, and hosting a good time.

Lastly, mentorship is difficult. It takes a lot of time and commitment to get to a healthy mentorship relationship, whether that’s providing the right kind of feedback, perspective, and upholding commitments to each other. For many years, I’d been involved with EDGE Youth Leadership out of Northern California leading their program development team and as the Co-Executive Director. Mentorship and leadership have been passions of mine since high school.

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• Getting organized to prioritize effectively
• Paths to careers in Product; Job application strategy
• Work-life balance & sustainable pace of life
• Holding a long-term view
• Healthy relationships, work or personal
• Public speaking, executive presence, and confidence
• Navigating corporate culture, politics, and knowing when it’s time to move on
• B2B vs B2C and more broadly choosing a company to work for

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• Growing into yourself - Do you know why you’re doing things? Are your actions aligned with your values and what you want? Do you know how you developed those values? How can you expose yourself to new perspectives and challenges?
• Career Development - How do you increase the likelihood of achieving your goals? What skills will you need?
• The Great Outdoors - Being outside is restorative to me, and one of my top 3 favorite things in the world is waking up to the sounds of birds in the morning. I camp a lot, and love helping others find themselves outside.
• Moving West → East Coast/South - especially as a person of color, this was a big life decision. We can talk about my preconceptions, the realities, and the differences I’ve observed.
• Work-life balance - How do you make time and space for the activities and hobbies that keep you inspired and motivated? How do you do this in a sustainable way?
• Ethical Design - How do you consider other perspectives when designing a solution? Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Are you considering the possible negative impacts of solving the problem you’re trying to solve?
• Closing the Wealth Gap - This is, and will continue to be a huge problem for humans. I don’t have all of the answers, but perhaps I can be a sounding board and help think through your thoughts. Wicked problems like this require creative solutions.
• Accessibility - Web accessibility and other general inclusive design principles. How can we make more solutions more available to more people?
• Personal finance and building wealth - This is part of Acre’s company mission. I’ve been exposed to a lot of different mechanisms, trends, and fads. There is a lot of cultural innovation happening here (e.g. TikTok, GenZ work trends), so how can you leverage that?
• Broadly, the Asian-American or Japanese-American experience and cultural impacts on growing up and thriving in the US. I’m fourth generation Japanese-American and had family members that both served in the US Military and were Interned in Jerome, Arkansas during WWII. While I consider myself firmly Japanese-American, awareness of cultural values passed through the generations helps me understand where my blind spots are, and where my tendencies lie.

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...a supportive, inspiring, and motivating mentor. Personally, I am motivated by playing a role in others’ successes. This doesn’t mean that I’ll blindly support you and build you up. I’m a realist and can offer my perspective where it applies, but you can rest assured that in whatever way I can help, I will be committed. I’ll also be open, honest, accessible, and principled throughout our time together.

Most likely, I’ll help you organize your thoughts, prioritize your wants and needs, and help you focus on activities that will help you move in the direction that you want to go.