3 min to read

Update April 2024

A lot can happen in a month.

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Its funny how things can be going one way and then suddenly switch directions. Long story short, my family is moving back to Phoenix, and I’m going to start applying to jobs. I still plan to work on the startup, but I’ll be transitioning to a more part-time role.

Moving

Last year, my wife and I moved out to Florida so she could take a new job. Meanwhile, I have been working on a startup and doing some consulting work, taking advantage of the fact that her stable income would be able to support us while I worked on the startup. But last month, the job did not work out. This was very unexpected, and it really showed us how financially vulnerable we are, living in a new place with a baby while predominately relying on a single income. While we love Florida, and we made some good friends here, we have decided to move back to Phoenix where we have more established roots.

While it’s never preferable to move, I think it actually is a blessing in disguise. Taylor now gets to spend more time at home with the baby instead of working in an office all day. Also, as much as we like Florida, we both at heart missed Phoenix, so we are excited to be moving back.

The Startup

The timing on this is funny because at the same time last month, I was already considering the idea of moving to part-time work on the startup. There was a realization that there are more roadblocks to entering the medical imaging space than we originally expected. This is not to say that it is impossible, but it does increase the go-to-market timeline. Especially coming out of an academic lab, we need to publish papers and get patents in the field before we can be competitive in the market, which will take on the order of several months to a few years.

I don’t want to sound super negative about this because the fact of the matter is that on the science side we’ve had steady progress adapting our tools to medical imaging. The issues we face are mostly related to getting access to datasets. We need to have a track record of publications in the medical imaging space before we can get access to the necessary datasets, but since a typical academic publication can take months, this is going to be a slow process at first.

Given this new timeline, it makes sense for me to get steady income at a job while continuing to work on the side. I am not sure exactly what this will look like, but I am excited to see what opportunities are out there. This will also give me a chance to gain industry experience, which will be helpful for the startup.

While I am applying to jobs, we are launching three new projects in the lab, all with the goal of getting a publication track record in the medical imaging and AI spaces. I will make a few project updates on these in the coming weeks.

Overall

While change is always uncomfortable, I think that this will be a good move. I’m excited to get back to Phoenix and excited about this new direction into medical imaging!