Proof-y People
When I graduated from college in 2006, my classmates and I did not know we were living in the eve of an economic crisis. On the whole, we were optimistic. Many felt secure with their jobs post-graduation: entry-level positions at storied companies like Bear Stearns. I was going to grad school. It was a sucker’s play in terms of lifetime earnings, but still a reasonably common choice; treated neither with disdain nor reverence. I didn’t really know why I was going, and no one really asked. I was told it was the next thing that mathematicians do. It seemed comfortable — to slide seamlessly from one classroom environment to another, to keep walking down the path I’d already set myself on.
Of course, nothing was what it seemed. Pursuing a Phd proved to be a very different experience than I expected, often leading me to question my choice. When the financial crisis hit, the layoffs struck hard and fast on the population of recent graduates, leading many of my peers to lament, “I wish I’d gone to grad school.” Neither choice was very different in the end: we were all seeking a kind of comfort and stability that we’d assumed existed. It turns out that it does not.
I didn’t know anyone in those days who took a chance on something as blatantly unstable as a startup. It wasn’t the kind of option my friends and I considered. I weighed the typical options relative to one another, but I didn’t look beyond the well-trodden path. That was a trait I acquired later.
The college graduates of 2020 face a constellation of crises that will weigh down their futures in myriad ways we cannot yet imagine. I could not blame them if they try to cling to fading hopes of stability, seeking out prestigious grad schools and established behemoth employers who are most likely to weather the storm. The larger economy is doing as much — giving more and more capital to tech giants like Apple simply by process of elimination. After all, who else is a safe bet right now?
In the fall of 2019 when I offered Matt Schoenbauer an internship at Proof for the summer, both of us had a very different future in mind. He likely imagined celebrating his graduation from the University of Notre Dame in May surrounded by his friends and family. I imagined him moving to New York City in June and joining us in our small office in the flatiron district, writing mathematical formulas all over the whiteboard wall that Beau painted. Neither of those things happened. But Matt did take the internship, and just a few months later, he has already become a highly productive and invaluable member of the quantitative research team.
When we offered him a full time position to start in September, I half expected him to say no. “Now is not a great time to work for a startup,” would have been a reasonable response. After all, he is a an extremely talented young mathematician and computer scientist with many options open to him, despite this difficult environment. But Matt didn’t hesitate. He accepted the position, and I am thrilled to announce that he will be starting as the sixth full time member of Proof on September 1.
Internally, we have talked abstractly about what kind of people the sixth/seventh/eighth members of Proof should be. Prerak coined a term that has stuck with me when he said they should be “Proof-y” people. So who are Proof-y people? They are people who tell the truth even when it’s unfavorable. They are people who ask a lot of questions, who seek mastery over their craft, and want to solve problems, not just appear smart. They are people who join mission-driven startups in the middle of crises.
So welcome to Proof, Matt! We think you’ll like it here.
