From Poolside to Wake AI

The Pool That Changed Everything

Growing up with ADHD, I was the kid who couldn't sit still. School was tough – I felt lost in crowded classrooms, my potential hidden by constant distraction. When my family moved to a new neighborhood, we happened to settle just doors away from the community pool. That proximity would change my life.

That first summer, I lived at the pool – 7 AM swim practice to 9 PM open swim. In the water, I found more than just a way to burn energy. I found friends, mentors, and for the first time, a place where I belonged. By summer's end, I'd transformed from an anxious, bullied kid into someone with confidence and purpose.

That golden summer gave me everything: community, resilience, and the work ethic that would carry me through life's challenges.

From Champion to Technologist

Swimming became my outlet and passion. Despite tearing my MPFL senior year – a devastating knee injury that sidelined me for half the season – I came back to win four gold medals at the Pennsylvania state championships. Those victories led to Princeton, where I became a three-time Ivy League champion.

But between morning practices and afternoon weight sessions, another world captivated me: artificial intelligence. I dove into computer science with the same intensity I brought to the pool. Under inspiring professors, I explored machine learning and data-driven forecasting. Swimming had taught me focus, incremental improvement, and grit – qualities that translated perfectly to coding and AI research.

After Princeton, I spent a decade building AI systems at Amazon, Bloomberg, and Datadog. At Datadog, I led the development of their machine learning observability platform, scaling it from an experiment to a flagship product. Throughout, I never stopped swimming. And I couldn't stop noticing how primitive our tools were for tracking fitness and wellness.

The Problem That Needed Solving

In 2024, I saw a massive gap in the $6.3 trillion wellness industry. Most products are rigid, assuming everyone starts from the same baseline. But life is dynamic – busy seasons at work, injuries, family responsibilities – and our health tools should adapt accordingly.

Building Wake AI

I founded Wake AI with a simple belief: we can use artificial intelligence to provide personalized, adaptive health guidance that fits into your life. Not just tracking what you did, but predicting what will happen if you make a change, and guiding you accordingly.

We started with swimming because it's what I know best, and because it's the perfect testing ground for holistic wellness analytics. Swimming demands cardio endurance, strength, technique, and mindfulness. A swimmer's form reflects their total body wellness – sleep quality, nutrition, stress levels all manifest in stroke mechanics.

Our first product uses the same computer vision technology behind self-driving cars to analyze swim technique from video. But this is just the beginning. We're building multimodal AI models that understand how every facet of health interacts – how running affects sleep, how stress impacts workout performance, how nutrition influences recovery.