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I have been returning to blog since last year. Most of stories are my personal online activities with the global startup communities.
My initial motivation was more about documentation prepared for my own book. I realize that they are very useful for those going the same path of building AI startups and The Common Good. There is a lot of content on the internet with Social Media Gurus with know-it-all videos how to turn zero to one. However, entrepreneurship is a long winding trail with trials and errors. Here I am only trying to help you reduce that search space and hopefully you will arrive at the final destination faster than me.
I join the first startup community a decade ago as a graphical designer. My academic training is pure mathematics with geometry and algebra. I always think that I would become “the Professor”, however, I become more interested in startup problems than anything else. After getting a degree in applied math about computational neuroscience, I walk into the head department office and say I am gonna be a manager of company. A year later, I return to a grad school after realizing that I don’t fit to a business world driven by revenue.
By a mistake, I join a department of privacy and security. Because of that, I stumble upon a research article called Generative Adversarial Networks. This is early 2015 when Deep Learning, an incarnation name of Artificial Intelligence, is only a rumor spread by a group of researchers in North America. An attitude of my department at moment is “eh, no way!” I drop out and start my own adventure. Eventually I land a fellowship of a data science training program in Silicon Valley a year later. During that trip, I attend the first Deep Learning School founded by pioneers in the field (those who spread the rumors). Thankfully, the last lecturer with the last slide has the problem that I am searching for.
Trump wins in 2016. I return to my home country and join another group of people to build the first learning AI community. We start with a classroom of 20 people and now have thousand students across the country. In 2018, I move to Montreal to continue my research. Outside I join startup communities mostly about AI for Good, specifically healthcare and education. The end of the year, I move back to the Valley as an attempt to build my own applied AI lab and start to write the first chapter. But it is hard. I cant not raise any dollar. Luckily, I get a new grant from an institution at Montreal.
However, I cant not return to the Valley and struggle with the first chapter about the Philosophy of Design that put human first when building an AI system. During that time I become a mentor of AI 4 Good in Montreal and get another invitation from a pioneering research institution in Switzerland. Accidentally, at that moment, there was a big strike in Europe led by 16 year old Swedish girl trying to push pressure on the world leaders about their carbon emission commitment. Interestingly, I am also carrying another climate action project from my home country. However, the general reaction is super underwhelming.
In Geneva, while visiting a impact hub, I discover a ground breaking report of insurance about the loss caused by climate change. When looking at those numbers, I burst into tears. I feel a strong sense of urgency and decide drop everything else to build a product to solve communication problem in healthcare and climate change with a message about protection, prevention and early treatment. More than one month later, I am selected by an online community called Pioneer Tournament. However, it is not fast enough. Two months later, the Australian bush fire happens. Three months later, a pandemic started at my home country.
As a pandemic happens, the world is torn apart. We learn new concepts with guideline provided by CDC to bend a curve. Like every one else, I work from home on the internet in different time zones. Though I can’t travel, I am still able to connect to other startup communities mostly online due to Covid-19. And learn a lot from their past experience. Here I wanna sum up some of my learning and take away. Hope that this will help someone in the same journey.