what i'm doing now

August was mostly chill. And yes, I went camping again. Beach this time. The photo's from the road trip there, mountains the whole way down to the sea.

Also turned 20. Teens, done.

Got intro'd by a huge Greek investor, the kind with his own VC, to a Greek founder. Got in touch with the founder right after. One intro and suddenly a whole new room.

Kept reading interpretability papers. The July habit stuck.

And started studying for the September exams. early On time-ish.

* a chill month that still somehow ended with a vc intro. i'll take it.

July was the quiet one. After the June sprint I needed a month that didn't ask anything of me, so I went camping and did nothing on purpose. No signal, no laptop, just fire and sleep. Studied a little on the side. a lot a little.

Then San Francisco. Ten days. First time in the US and it went by like a weekend.

YC Startup School, this time in SF. Paris was the trailer. Standing under that orange Y with people who fly across the world for a two-day event does something to your baseline.

The rest was the city itself. Dolores Park on a clear afternoon, the skyline sitting right there behind everyone, half the park building something. Turns out the thing about SF isn't the buildings, it's that nobody thinks your plan is crazy.

Kept chipping at Miru between all of it. And started reading properly, papers, not threads, to actually contribute at the AILS lab instead of just talking about it.

* ten days is not enough. that's the whole review.

The month opened with exams. The June session doesn't pause because your month gets interesting, so everything below happened between chapters, at gates, on planes. Ask me in July how that went.

June 15: laid off from Sophea. Same night, an email lands: the CEO of a YC startup had seen my CV and wanted to talk. An interview, hours after a layoff. Then I overslept it. Three alarms, all useless. never again five alarms next time.

Around the same time, a friend and I sat down with two a16z scouts, both ex-YC. An hour of hard questions. Walked out of it wanting to learn everything, faster.

In the middle of it all, Malta with my girl. A few days of sun, sea and no laptop. The reset the month owed me.

Then the sprint. Hustle Hours turned three, and Dinos, Takis and the team are doing god's work. Celebrated by pulling an all-nighter straight into my flight, running on caffeine and nothing else. Bumped into a friend at the airport, off to SF. Felt like a sign.

YC Startup School Paris. Came alone. Left with like ten insane Greek guys. Crossed a continent to end up surrounded by Greeks. Wouldn't have it any other way.

Between talks: more cracked people than I can count. One of them took me to Google's offices for breakfast. One of those weeks where every conversation raises your ceiling a little.

Writing this from the Paris airport on the way home. SF is in July.

* laid off and headhunted within the same 24 hours. you can't write this stuff.

Volunteering at Panathenea, May 27–29. One of those things you just say yes to.

Attended Thinkbiz Academy, May 15–16. Two days surrounded by founders and operators. Left with more questions than answers, in a good way.

Finalizing Miru's scope with karate practitioners I actually trust. Moving Miru from hackathon prototype to product.

Sorting a first-ever passport before YC Startup School in SF. The paperwork is its own boss fight.

Deep in finals. trying to stay off the beach staying off the beach until they're done. Mostly.

Also talking with researchers and PhDs at the AILS lab about contributing to their research. Working out how to contribute.

* the passport thing is genuinely stressing me out more than finals.

Won the NVIDIA x Kiefer AI Open Hackathon with Miru, a phone-camera coach measuring reaction time, speed, and power, sport-agnostic, already endorsed by a world champion. Four days, Monday to Thursday, on NVIDIA B200s. The adrenaline was unreal.

Presented to NVIDIA engineers. Got the prize. Immediately went back to building Sophea on Friday morning.

* april 17: got into YC Startup School. san francisco is happening.

Just joined Kiefer Tech as a junior ML engineer. First real job. Imposter syndrome is loud but the work is too interesting to stop.

Learning what production ML actually looks like. Spoiler: it's 80% infrastructure, 20% the cool stuff.

Right after exams, flew to Cappadocia with my girl. Hot air balloons at sunrise. Needed that reset before diving into the deep end.

Deep in exam period. The kind of weeks where you measure time in chapters, not days. getting better at studying getting better at studying?? jury's still out.

Then I skipped an exam to attend an intensive LLM bootcamp by NVIDIA and Kiefer. The kind of decision that either looks genius or stupid: no in-between. Ended up 1st place out of 37.

Two weeks later they called me. "Come work here."

* you need to STOP attending your exams if you want to get a job. at least that's what i did.

Flew to Krakow. Cold, beautiful, heavy with history. Walked the main square in freezing wind and loved every second.

Came back to a wall of school exercises all due the same week. The kind of scheduling that makes you question every decision you've ever made.

worth it absolutely worth it.

Second national karate medal, 3rd place again. Consistent podium. The goal is higher but the consistency means something.

Started attending IEEE RAS workshops and CS meetings at NTUA. Found the people who care about the same weird stuff I do.

Also working as a barista at a coffee shop here in Athens. Learned how to make a flat white, how to talk to strangers, and how to function at 6am. Genuinely had fun.

First internship at Aktor. First time writing code that someone else depends on in production. First time wearing a badge to get into a building.

Working on SAP ERP data pipelines and prompt engineering. It's not glamorous but I'm learning a lot I'm learning everything.

Went to Milos with my girl. White cliffs, turquoise water, zero WiFi. The best kind of offline.

Kept going back to Patras. Multiple trips. There's something about that city: the pier, the sunsets, the pace. Every time I went I didn't want to leave.

No agenda, no deadlines. Just showing up and being there.

* the pier at golden hour is my favourite place in greece. i said it.

Went to Naples with the boys. Pizza, chaos, scooters, shouting. The city runs on a frequency I didn't know I needed.

* we got lost four times. on purpose by the third.

Started skiing. First time on a mountain with boards strapped to my feet. Fell a lot. Got up every time. Got hooked.

* the après-ski is 80% of the appeal. don't tell anyone.

She moved to Dublin. I stayed in Athens. Long distance started.

5,202 km according to the map. Two time zones. One shared location pin that I check more than I'd admit.

* it's harder than any exam. but some things you don't give up on.

Finished school. Done. That chapter is closed.

The summer that followed was LIVING. No deadlines, no obligations, just existing fully for the first time in years.

Got my first national placement in karate. Stood on a podium I'd been imagining since I was a kid.

* this is the summer i'll tell stories about when i'm old.