Friends, I am excited to tell you that I’ve left Google to join Cardiogram, a startup applying deep learning to detect heart disease using consumer devices like the Apple Watch.

I came to Google straight after graduating and spent 2.5 years there. It was challenging and interesting and rewarding. It was where I learned how an effective team operates, and how to quickly validate or disprove a hypothesis. Google was also where I learned to run fast, and where I made my first friends post-college.

It wasn’t an easy decision to leave.

An early stage startup offers benefits that Google could not. Not money or free food or massages. Impact. As one of a team of four, you get to do everything. In the past month I’ve worked on machine learning, hiring, backend systems, and product. Soon I’ll try iOS development and technical writing. Not only do you work on everything, you’re on the hook for everything. You’ve got to complete your experiments before the paper deadline, and must decide which open source framework is best for your company’s first distributed system. And if production goes down, you wake up.

It’s a crazy crash course, and it can feel like stitching together your parachute as the ground comes rushing up to you. For me, it’s the best way to learn.

Cardiogram is really special, and that’s why I joined the team. Our founders are senior Xooglers with ML backgrounds, one with a prior successful startup. We’re working on a big problem. Since 1930, heart disease has been the number one killer in America. By detecting it early, we can save lives.

If you want to chat more about startups, Google, or Cardiogram, hit me up.