Jimmy E. Chan
Entrepreneur, product builder, and computer engineer. Often on X and LinkedIn
About me
- Member of Technical Staff at Anthropic
- Product Lead and Agent Architect @ Vapi
- Co-Founder & CEO of Dropbase, a startup backed by YC and Gradient Ventures
- Built FearCutter, a production vibe-coded app, before the term was coined
- Y Combinator alumni (YC W20)
- Computer Engineering @ McGill University; natural language understanding
- MBA @ University of Toronto
- Live in San Francisco
- Enjoy spicy food, board games, soccer, hiking in forest trails, playing guitar
- I have a lion 🦁
Beliefs
- The future is not what we predict; it’s what we build
- Great storytellers craft visions of the future and compel it into existence
- The best founders are uncompromising about truth — about the market and about themselves
- A founder's personal growth and their mistakes both compound. The ultimate test is which compounds faster — the steeper slope always wins
- Good judgement = fast and deep nth order thinking
- We don't spend enough time in deep, quiet reflection
- It's inspiring to work with people who have >=1 superpower you admire
- The key to starting anything is to blindly take a small step towards it
- Working smart and working hard are necessary to achieve goals. Do both, in that order
- Great design is simple, delightful, and keeps users in a state of flow
- Craft and excellence matter
- Love asks for sacrifice; to love is to make those willingly
- Love seems to be all that matters in the end. Care, kindness, and fairness closely compete for second place
How I think
- I cognitively frame most thoughts as a tree (a rooted out-tree, to be precise). Trees help me structure and solve problems, learn and explain concepts, communicate clearly, and understand the world better
Advice
- Examine ideas or narratives before internalizing them. Be highly critical of them: most do not earn room in your head
- Smart people can have poor judgement. Be careful who you let close — their judgement may impact you too