Reflecting on One Year at Fulfill.com

This wasn’t supposed to be a substack post. It started as a journaling exercise and re-reading some journal entries from over the past year. But the more I wrote, the more it felt like something worth sharing… mostly because I ended 2024 pretty close to giving up on my career altogether. I was tired, burned out, and seriously thinking about walking away from the whole tech field.

Then a friend reached out, believed in me at a moment when I didn’t believe in myself, and the entire trajectory of my year shifted.

So if you’re reading this, thanks for letting me think out loud for a bit.

My mom squinted at me over FaceTime in late 2024 and said, “Honey… you look exhausted.”

Which, honestly, was generous. I’d just come out of the roughest stretch of the year — lots of time helping care for a loved one with Alzheimer’s. It was one of those seasons where every day felt heavy and foggy, and I was pretending I could still show up to work and be productive. Spoiler: I was not pulling that off.

Around the same time, a “dream job” I thought would anchor me… didn’t. It unraveled quickly, and so did my confidence in my entire career path. Tech, sales, all of it. I started replaying every job I’ve had and started wondering if maybe I wasn’t built for this world.

Maybe the reason nothing worked was me.

So when Joe texted me — the CEO of Fulfill and one of my old wrestling buddies — it felt like someone cracking a window in a stuffy room. We grew up training at the same wrestling club. My dad used to point at him as the example of how to work hard and how to have great sportsmanship.

Joe just wanted to bounce ideas around. Talk shop. Build a couple hacky marketing experiments together for fun. Nothing official. Nothing serious.

But then it turned into a short-term consulting gig.

Then it turned into momentum.

And eventually it turned into me joining Fulfill.

Somewhere in those early months, something clicked. I’d sit down at my desk and feel… excited. Energized. Like the problems in front of me were games instead of monsters. I didn’t know work could feel like that.

And part of that shift came from working with Joe and Dan, Fulfill’s co-founders, and the two best leaders I’ve worked with. Joe sees big, messy problems as invitations and charges at them with a confidence that makes impossible things feel doable. Dan brings a steady, precise operating mind that can turn a pile of moving parts into something clear and solvable. That combination created an environment where I could actually do my best work and enjoy doing it.

Another unexpected change came from the fact that Fulfill is bootstrapped. (The company is self-funded.)

No VC oxygen tank.

No performative “hypergrowth” theatre.

The constraints we have are real — tight budgets, real stakes, and the intense focus that comes from knowing every decision matters.

In my past roles, strategy often boiled down to: “Here’s a huge budget. Please light some portion of it on fire in the general direction of market share.” But here? Every bet has to be thoughtful. Every move has to be timed. You can’t hide. You have to build things that work.

Now, sitting here in December 2025, it’s surreal to look back on my first year and realize how much has changed — not just professionally, but personally. A year that started in uncertainty and exhaustion became the most meaningful stretch of my career.

Not everyone gets to rediscover their career in the same breath they were ready to abandon it.

Not everyone gets to build something with the people who shaped who they were as kids.

I don’t take any of that for granted.

Year one was better than I could’ve imagined.

And I’m excited for what lies ahead.