1998 — Born in Cape Town, South Africa. Moved to Sydney, Australia a few months later.
2010 — Took up martial arts.
2013 — Started learning to code.
2015 — Published a game to the iOS App Store. It made ~$3 through ads.
2016 — First job (at a bottle shop). Earned my first dollars through software by freelancing.
2017 — Started studying computing at the University of Sydney.
2018 — First software job at a blockchain startup.
2020 — First full-time job at Deloitte doing DevOps. Co-founded Canopy Study. Joined Canva as a release engineer.
2021 — Got my skydiving licence. Left Canva to focus on Canopy Study.
2023 — Started calisthenics. Shut down Canopy Study. Joined a startup.
2024 — Visited America (NYC) for the first time.
2025 — First solo trip to Japan (snowboarding in Hakuba, then Tokyo) and first time in Europe (Germany and Amsterdam). Quit full time work in May.
Connection. Deep conversations. Being able to rely on others and having others rely on me. A feeling of truthfulness and trust.
Peace. Living true to who I am. Feeling safe around others. Not trying to control what I can't.
Integrity. I do what I say, I do what I believe, I am who I say I am. Living at the level I know I'm capable of.
Autonomy. A short distance between thought and action. Having the freedom and resources to act on what I want.
Adventure. Exploring new things. Being outside my comfort zone.
I care about simplicity. I think most things are overcomplicated.
I think from first principles. I understand things best when I can break them down to the fundamentals. High-level explanations don't stick unless I already have the foundation.
I always assume positive intent. My first coach at Canva taught me that. It stuck because it was already how I operated. I just finally had the words for it.
I've always been drawn to being different. Even as a kid, I loved telling people I was born in Cape Town. Fitting in was never the goal. If everyone was doing something, that was usually enough reason for me to do something else. And if I was going to do something that everyone else was doing, I wanted to be an outlier. The best.
I love anything that demands full attention from my body and puts me in a flow state.
I've done my fair share of martial arts. Karate at the end of primary school, then MMA, then krav maga.
Now it's calisthenics. I did tricking (gymnastics mixed with martial arts) in high school and can still do a backflip. I used to skydive, and I also snowboard when I can.
Updated 19th March, 2026.