Six years ago, I defended my PhD thesis at ETH Zürich. Since then, I've been helping build an AI product at Ren Systems that thousands of users rely on every day to strengthen their relationships.
This photo is from my first day: Lionel Hertig sticking our company name onto the mailbox of our first office, two desks in the space of Rockstar Recruiting AG (rockstar.jobs). That moment taught me something Lionel emphasized from day one: start scrappy and iterate fast.
Being the first employee meant more than building the product. It meant shaping Ren's culture and values alongside Canay Deniz and Lionel Hertig. One of our core values besides "be fast" is to "be systematic"—a principle Mike Hayes drilled into us and that immediately resonated with me. We move fast and systematically: write down the problem, logic, and conclusion; share proactively with the team; then iterate. Perfect is the enemy of done.
Lionel and Canay took a big bet on me. Working at an early-stage startup is a grind, and we learned many lessons the hard way. But together with a great team, we built this product from scratch, and seeing it used by thousands of users every day makes every hard lesson worth it.
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