Déjà vu

A few days ago, I had one of the best days I’ve had in a long time.

I was sitting in my favorite spot in NYC: the amphitheater at Little Island, directly facing the Hudson, with sweeping views of Jersey City. I had my headphones in, my favorite playlist blasting, and the weather was perfect: 82 degrees, enough sunlight to feel warm and cozy, and a cool evening breeze coming off the river for balance. The NY Knicks had just won the NBA championship. The World Cup was in full swing. The vibes were immaculate. The city felt so alive, and one could argue that there’s no other place in the world buzzing with that kind of energy. June 2026 feels like one of those NYC months people will talk about for a long time. I love it here.

The statement above might seem counterintuitive when you realize that I’m currently on a one-way flight to San Francisco, which will be my home for the foreseeable future. To understand why, we need to backtrack a bit.

The pull

A few months ago, I saw a post about a startup’s seed raise on my timeline. I skimmed it: something something payments for agents. I checked out their website and found the clean, minimal design delightful -- I could tell that someone spent a lot of time obsessing over these seemingly simple details. Honestly, though, while the whole payments for AI agents thing sounded interesting, I didn’t give it too much thought at the time. I added it to my “interesting startups to check out” list and went about my day.

Time passed and I happened to stumble on Natalie’s post. After reading it, I metaphorically “sat up” and decided to pay much closer attention. I pored over everything I could find about Natural online and followed the team from the sidelines for months. During this time, I read all the blog posts, press releases, and website copy. It felt like we cared about similar things: the brand and aesthetic direction, the strong writing culture, and the way the team thought about product.

I became more intrigued and I found myself constantly coming back to read more about the product and team. I felt a pull towards what they were building and that pull lingered for months. It felt like this might be a place that I’d seriously consider joining when I was ready for something new. I knew that I had to reach out to learn more about what they were building.

First impressions

Around this time, I happened to be in San Francisco. I vividly remember drafting an email to Kahlil while airborne on my JFK → SFO flight. I was interested, but I wasn’t actively looking for something new. I figured I should take advantage of already being in SF, have a casual chat, and get a better sense of whether this was a place I’d want to work when the time felt right. I sent the email once I finished the draft. He responded in two minutes. We had a chat scheduled for the very next day.

Less than 24 hours later, I found myself in an elevator heading to the top floor of a building on Market and New Montgomery. I walked in to huge windows, a flood of natural light, a couple of folks locked in on Studio Displays, and a few people who I assumed were technicians helping with installations. It was a new office, so a few things were still a work in progress, but the space was beautiful. I don’t know exactly what I expected, but my first thought was, “this makes a lot of sense.” There was a clear cohesion between the physical space where the team worked and the digital manifestation of the brand.

I saw Kahlil come out of a room to my right. We exchanged a few pleasantries, I grabbed a cup of water, and we walked back into the same room. We started the conversation light: he asked about my life goals, what drives me, who I am...obviously pretty standard questions for someone you've just met! It caught me slightly off guard, though not in a bad way. I'm just not used to those kinds of questions, especially in a corporate setting. They forced me to pause and really think. I liked that.

He finished his questions, which meant it was my turn. I pulled out my old, trusty journal and spent the next 25 minutes drilling Kahlil: What if the thesis that agents need to move a significant amount of money is wrong? What if they do, but the existing infrastructure is good enough? What if you're right that they will, but you're just too early? Timing matters a lot.

At some point, I had to remind myself to pause and give Kahlil some breathing room. But fair play to him, he was genuinely happy to answer every question and did so in good spirits, with a consistent smile -- the kind that signals a quiet confidence from having thought through all of this painstakingly and still deciding that it was a problem worth solving and a risk worth taking.

When our time was up, I asked what their interview process looked like. By then, I was completely sold on the idea of going through the loop with the company, maybe in a few months. He looked at me and said this had been the first round of the interview.

LOL.

He somehow also convinced me to come back the next day for two more rounds with Eric and Walt. As evidenced by this post, I not only completed those rounds but also completed a 4-day work trial with the team, all within the span of 8 days. To be fair, the decision to go through the interview loop was pretty straightforward. I felt a strong sense of momentum with the team, and regardless of the outcome, I knew I wanted to follow that feeling and see where it led.

So much for a casual chat, ha!

Why I joined

As I thought through the offer, I had a chance to take a step back and intentionally decide what I’m optimizing for.

First and foremost, I knew I needed to be somewhere my rate of learning would be exponential. I wanted to be in the critical path of whatever I joined, close enough for my work to directly shape decisions and outcomes. Bonus points if it meant being in the early innings of something and developing the skill of taking an idea from 0 → 1.

I also knew that team and culture mattered a lot, especially if I was going somewhere earlier stage. I wanted to be surrounded by people who were deeply committed to being excellent at their craft and willing to do what it takes to get there. People who understand that great things take time, who are willing to take the long road when needed, but who still operate with a strong sense of urgency and a bias toward action. People who care deeply about the small details without losing sight of the bigger picture. A culture with a winner’s mentality, where people work hard toward an important shared goal while still having fun and being kind to each other.

Finally, I wanted to work toward an outrageously ambitious goal that, if solved, could unlock immense value for society.

Laying out what my personal goals were helped me see the Natural fit. The company is at a stage where everyone is genuinely essential to the team. That, combined with the sheer amount still left to build, creates a forcing function where I know I’ll be pushed to stretch my capabilities and increase my rate of learning. During my work trial, I felt like I was able to ship a feature that could have taken months at some companies. The team is also very strong. You look around the office and see everyone from repeat founders in payments to people who led entire functions at incredibly high-growth companies. It’s a highly capable, talent-dense team, which frankly feels like table stakes given the space we’re going after. But what stood out just as much was the level of care, meticulousness, kindness, and empathy the team operates with, in everything from the software we build to the human interactions we have.

Any role that offers everything I’ve mentioned so far would already be a pretty strong opportunity. What makes Natural even more compelling to me is the problem we’re solving. In a world where agents are becoming more capable and ubiquitous, how do we build the rails that allow them to move money safely, reliably, and efficiently? Companies like Stripe have shown how much value gets unlocked when you remove friction from payments. It doesn’t just improve existing processes; it creates entirely new markets. I think building trustworthy payment rails for agents has the potential to do the same: make the status quo better, but also create the conditions for entirely new kinds of economic activity. Natural is still early, and there’s a lot to figure out, but I believe this team is well positioned to help shape that frontier.

I’m writing this from 30,000 ft in the air, mid-flight from JFK → SFO, as I travel to officially join the team in a few days. It feels oddly familiar, considering that the catalyst that set this whole thing in motion was a cold email drafted on a plane while traveling this same JFK → SFO route...maybe I should write more on planes.

If you resonate with this, join us /careers.