Back Doors
Jeremi prepares to escape from prison; Luca stumbles into a corporate office
Welcome back to Jeremi and Luca’s Newsletter, an update every Sunday from two friends connected by a relentless desire to learn.
Luca: Into Ramp
Last weekend was spent visiting my cousins up in Gloucester, MA. Highlights included nice walks along the water, amazing food, candlepin bowling for the first time (hard!), and great conversations.
Back in New York, work this week was heavy on interviewing candidates for engineering positions, with other time spent refining our development processes to ensure quality, productizing a few small quirks of business aviation, and doing outreach to build out a user feedback pipeline.
On Tuesday, I went to an event hosted at Ramp’s headquarters: a conversation between investor Patrick O’Shaughnessy and Founders podcast host David Senra.
David will read biographies of entrepreneurs and then record (solo) his takeaways. He prepares well and knows his stuff; I generally find his podcast pretty insightful. The live version turned out to be just as interesting, if not more.
But a quick rewind to arriving at the event, and something I’ve learned about big cities like New York: back doors are always open.
Following Apple Maps off the subway, I felt lost. My phone told me I was standing at the entrance to Ramp’s office. But the picture was much different. I asked what looked like a maintenance worker how I could get into the building, and he pointed me to an elevator barely visible amongst a mountain of trash bags and empty boxes.
As soon as I reached the second floor, I realized I had made a mistake. Other than servers holding wine and hors d’oeuvres, I was the only one there—not another attendee in sight. I hesitantly walked further into the event space, where I saw two men talking to each other: David Senra and Sam Parr.
I recognized them instantly. David of Founders and Sam of My First Million, a podcast that Jeremi and I both listen to regularly. I had taken the maintenance elevator directly to the venue. I was not supposed to be there.
Wrapping up a longer story, I met both of them—and I’m glad I did. The “back doors are always open” principle does apply literally (surprisingly easy to get into the building without going through security), but it also applies a bit more figuratively.
That was even a theme David spoke about: the world seems to run on relationships, and many of those are formed through unconventional backchannels. Knowing these doors exist maybe makes it all the more interesting to look for them—or at least be ready if I accidentally stumble into one.
Jeremi: Out of Alcatraz
I’m writing this outside a coffee shop next to my dad, mom, brother, and his girlfriend, in San Francisco.
Why am I up in SF? That’s right—another triathlon (am I sounding like a broken record yet?). I’m here for the last race of the school year, Escape from Alcatraz.
We swim 1.5 miles from the middle of the Bay to the harbor in San Francisco, bike through Golden Gate Park, and run up the infamous “Sand Ladder” right underneath the Golden Gate Bridge.
There are only five people from the team racing this, and for a reason: it’s a long drive to get up to the Bay, and the timing of it makes it inconvenient with dead week starting right after.
But it’s also a race I’m particularly excited about. If previous races were about belonging and communal suffering, this one is about the experience. Some races are beautiful because of the desolate wilderness that you find yourself in. This one is beautiful because of the iconic scenes and landscapes that you race through.
I’m definitely nervous—this swim is the hardest swim I’ve ever had to do, longer than the 1.2 mile swim on the half Ironman, and taking place in the ocean (with a current) instead of in a lake.
Despite this challenge, and despite how hard the last triathlon was for me, I’m excited about this race. The last one was hard because I wanted to race at the same pace as my friends. This time around, I really feel like I’m racing for myself.
Having my family here to support me—and cheer me on—also makes it all feel a little less daunting.
After this, straight to studying for finals!
Good luck, Jeremi!! Can't wait to hear how the triathlon goes!
Luca, you highlight an important theme that Covey highlighted in his book, The Speed of Trust. I often think about this concept and how it is such an important enabler for society, the economy, and our relationships.
Jeremi, enjoy your triathlon adventure, I’m sure it will create memories for a liftetime.