started 2025 as a junior at university of arizona.

junior year for me was largely tamid arizona, a finance club. had fun there, met people. felt like i belonged somewhere.

badminton was huge. probably the biggest constant. felt like therapy more than a sport. when i was there, the world didn't exist. not just because of the game, but the people. the friends.

for most of my life, i had only played badminton and chess. then randomly in 2025, i started learning new sports again. played golf for the first time ever. started pickleball with the same friends. felt weird learning new sports after years lol, but also nice.

around march, went on my first Camping trip ever in Northern arizona. also went to vegas for my first proper 4 day fintech conference. spent a lot of money. not sure if it was "worth it" in hindsight. but it was an experience, and that matters when the goal is to live a life fully lived.

around april mid, my internship offer got rescinded. went back to india for summer.

so around then, finny started forming more clearly. started tinkering seriously. applied to plaid to get access to real banks. that felt like a real step.

end of may, applied to a hacker house type thing in dubai by nas daily. i was applying everywhere back then lol. they had fully paid flights and accommodation so why not.

had no idea it would turn into one of the best summers of my life.

in june, went to udaipur for a one day trip. got drunk on my 20th birthday. EXPERIENCE!

july was insane lived in a villa in dubai with 11 strangers. built ai products all month. learned more than i expected. made real friends.

built a dating app with nas daily. hit ~1000 waitlist signups. co founding team broke up. shut it down. still learned a lot.

oh yeah, also around august, i was a founding engineer at a gaming startup. two founders from berkeley and austin. spent time building their app, had equity. pushed ugc and tiktok hard. didn't grow. shut down.

came back to school in august.

september was HackMIT in boston. my first big hackathon. met some insanely cracked people. met some not so cracked people. saw garry tan in person.

attended CalHacks in SF in October. picked a much better team this time. learned what to tolerate and what not to. super quick trip.

november is when i was really quiet and locked in. started going to gym everyday and eating clean. started building finny properly. full focus. no noise.

got approved by plaid for production across banks for finny. that felt relief.

applied to a weird devhouse + hackathon thing in sf. got accepted. decided to go.

preponed my finals to attend. which i failed btw FUCK CSC 473. flew to sf. grinded for 7 days straight. worked heavily on finny's personalization.

won the supermemory track! my first ever hackathon win! funny because a few months earlier i used to look at dhravya and think "woah". ended up meeting him for a whole week and got a prize from him.

won my first ever hackathon $1000. money didn't matter much. the win did.

ended the year in atlanta with my sister. celebrated new year there.

probably forgot a few things. hell of a year.

excited about finny. graduation in 4 months. earning + learning lots this year. don't know if i'll stay in the us or move back to india. odd feeling.

but i'm in attack mode.