(forgive me if you have received multiple emails at this point - its testament to how supportive you were in the life of Siempo! 🙏)
At last, the deed has been done. I have published the postmortem before the close of 2021. After dissolving the company on Winter Solstice 2020. And pausing operations in the summer of 2019.
I don’t know why it took so long get this out. I guess there hasn’t been a real deadline. It’s interesting to notice how my energy for writing about a particular topic goes through its own motivation cycles, and after a certain point it becomes more effortful to communicate with the same level of clarity and grace. But here we are.
I wrote this retrospective in two parts:
Part I: Postmortem for Siempo: A Humane Tech Startup ☀️📲 (10min)
Part II: Vision for the Next Siempo 💡🗺 (10min)
and would consider the following pieces to be part of the postmortem process:
The Path of The Humane Technologist 📚⚙
Autobiography of a Silicon Valley Savior ⛔️💪🏻🌍
Disrupting Colonizer Consciousness in Silicon Valley 👾⌫
There’s much more I could say. Life from 2016-2020 was a roller coaster. Siempo has been my greatest teacher; a defining relationship. How to encapsulate the depth and complexity of a startup journey in a few words? How to properly mourn its loss?
At one point I felt like I had a book’s worth of material in me in sharing the Siempo story and offering a playbook for aspiring humane technologists. A series of essays will do for now. Note: I am available for conversations with those interested in learning more. Whether on a podcast or Clubhouse, or long hike with big questions and raw details.
I do believe Siempo is an inevitability. Like, obviously humans will figure out a better smartphone experience. Right? Wouldn’t it be great if your phone supported your quality of life, regulated your nervous system, and taught you how to make more effective choices? If it was on your side, protecting your mental health and re-sensitizing you to the world?
I wonder if and how I’ll be involved with future efforts to reimagine the interface experience. Not many people have experience trying to do what we did, let alone in the way that we did. I think that would be useful to those who come next. I can see myself advising at the early stage, helping founders think deeply about the process.
Our team came together in December over Zoom to check in, share learnings and memories. But I never did any sort of personal conscious closure ritual to support the process of letting go via acknowledging the past, clarifying what feels unresolved, and celebrating accomplishments that happened along the way. I wish I had. I suppose I still could. I wonder if I haven’t done it because part of me doesn’t want to fully let go.
Thank you, Siempo. I love you. Please forgive. I forgive you.