I'm Jon and I love mentoring junior engineers!
For 10+ years I lived & breathed 📱mobile.. worked on top 10 App Store apps (Google Maps, Gmail, Google search) as well as a bunch that didn't see the light of day. The pressure took it's toll finally & I followed the "burnout track" and took 6 month sabbatical (that would later turn into almost 3 years). My family & I left the bay with 8 suitcases of all our belongings, and i thought tech would only be in my rear view mirror...
I exchanged the standup desks & nap pods of silicon valley to serve families in the slums of Philippines & Cambodia. To my utter surprise and delight though, these families were happier than I was. Something was missing?
We came back to the mainland & I tried my hand at using tech for good, by working on the "strava for sobriety" app and it was amazing. I was finally helping ppl again!
But as w/ many startups, funding fell through...
I then went to help a big, well-funded startup who's goal was "tech for good", specifically in non-profit church space. I was so excited! And somehow, in the midst of "strat sums" and super fun budgets I lost my way... I actually kind of lost heart.
