Inspired by Paul Graham's essay "What I Worked On," I wrote my own version. Here it is.
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Before college, all I really wanted was to play basketball and create things. I did graffiti and painted. Though I liked painting, I didn't plan to study it in college.
I was going to study business, which sounded more logical: I always considered it the gateway to bringing your creative ideas to life. While the idea felt right, all I knew was that I kept taking finance and marketing classes, and they kept being boring.
So, I decided to start things on my own. Fascinated by a transportation and logistics course, I contacted manufacturers in China to import goods. The idea of shipping goods across the world in 30 days was fascinating. I launched several small ventures, including a brand selling stationery made from stone paper. I learned a lot about running a business—much more than in lectures.
I was a business student, yet planning to be a creative, yet running import-export businesses on the side. In other words, like many undergrad students, I was working energetically on multiple projects that were not my thesis.
My college required me to write a thesis with a company. I intended to do it in my own business. Then, one day in March 2020, a crack appeared in the wall. Our small angel investment failed during the COVID-19 pandemic. It could have been a better time to do business in China. In retrospect, I'm glad for this. We never found product market fit and didn't pay enough attention to our users. I didn't realize it back then. Above all, I wanted not just to make things but also to make things that would last.
Disappointed, I looked for other thesis projects and ended up at HelloFresh. The energy of a scale-up excited me. I got massive responsibility for things I had no clue about. I taught myself SQL and built a real-time analytics platform for warehouse operations. I finished my thesis quickly and was offered an entry-level job as a data analyst, but I declined. I was good with data but preferred to work with people. That led me toward product management.
For the next two years, I led a team of engineers in creating an inventory tracking product, saving 2 million EUR yearly. Things were great, but by 2024, my learning curve flattened. The company cared more about politics than innovation. Craving a fresh start, I moved to Munich to dive into technology.
In Munich, I started a master's program at TUM. Going back to college meant I was a beginner again. I could take classes in supply chain management and study programming—a perfect match. It was an ideal match, but I missed my passion: Design. I hadn't created things in a while, but this new environment in Munich filled me with new ideas. I realized that nothing could hold me back from becoming a designer. I also knew that understanding the principles of what makes excellent design is another aspect of bringing my ideas to life. So, I started learning all about UX design and co-founded the TUdesign club to teach it to others. I designed app improvements for OroraTech and secured a design internship at Predium. Wow, I thought, there were people who liked my creative work. This was when I realized I had found the gap in which I could create value. And this brings me here.