Nestled in the cozy South Park district of SoMa, South Park Commons is a technology community where ambitious entrepreneurs share space, resources, and ideas, as they come up with their next big projects.
We sat down with two members to learn more about the kinds of conversations that take place within the decorative walls at South Park Commons. Read on to learn more about how Dilan Dane and Michael Lai are building crypto companies and innovating early childhood development at SPC.
What is your background and how did you end up at South Park Commons?
Michael: I got into education about seven years ago when I started classroom teaching. I fell in love with kids and always thought, “What role does technology or innovation play in solving education problems?” That eventually landed me at Minerva, where I spent the last three years.
About a year and a half ago I got really interested in early childhood, so I started teaching at a preschool and working with three and four year-olds for three hours a week.
I left Minerva about five months ago and knew I wanted to do something at the intersection of early childhood development and innovation, but wasn’t sure what. I live in this house with ten really awesome people in the Mission in San Francisco and a bunch of them have gone through SPC and said amazing things about the community. I reached out and got lucky, and now I’m part of this community.
Dilan: I grew up in Sri Lanka in a very tumultuous, war-torn kind of situation. I ended up getting a scholarship to MIT, so I showed up in Boston without speaking English, which was a crazy experience.
For two years, I was super depressed because I didn’t know what I was doing. Then, a professor took me by hand and walked me to the counseling mental health department because he was worried about me. That was a big turning point in my life, which started me on this journey of self-growth and self-improvement that has been a theme in my life since then.
“Having a place where I can show up at and feel like I belong while I’m in this space of not belonging was really cool and powerful.”
After school, I moved to San Francisco and in 2011, helped build the first real-time search engine, which eventually got acquired by Google. In 2013, I did one of the things that I’m probably most proud of, which is throw myself at full-time self-growth. I did that for about a year, and then came back and did another startup in the VR space.
Since then, I’ve been looking at what I want to do next. Having a place where I can show up at and feel like I belong while I’m in this space of not belonging was really cool and powerful. So I became a member of the Commons about a year and a half ago.
Michael: I’m curious. Have you heard of this concept of choice points before?
Dilan: No, no.
Michael: There was a professor at college I really admired who has this concept of choice points. When you’re telling stories, it’s not just a sequence of events, but it’s these pivotal moments when you, the protagonist, have forks in the road. I know you mentioned a couple of those, like the experience with your professor at MIT…
In terms of those experiences, what did you learn about yourself, and what was your compass for making decisions?
Dilan: I would say the first such choice point was deciding to come to the US for a higher education. The compass really, at that point, was just basic better quality of life opportunities.
When it came to starting my first startup, the choice point had turned into, “Okay, what technology’s most exciting and where can I make the biggest difference?” I think even today, that’s what it is.
What do you do when you feel doubt about your direction or about your life choices?
Michael: It’s some combination of talking to Jedi Council — like talking to mentors and people I look up to and getting their perspectives — and some amount of really introspective work as well. For whatever reason, Bernal Heights Park in San Francisco is my go-to. I have many walks there at midnight.
Dilan: So, for me…I feel doubt in two ways. One way is, you know, “What’s the meaning of everything?” kind of doubt. It’s very existential.
The second way is the harder one to deal with, which is whenever I feel responsible. If you want to build a company or do something meaningful, you’re going to have to take money from people that you love and respect sometimes. Then, you end up hiring people or building a team where you promise this thing: that objective. But, you’re essentially willing it into existence, in a way. This thing doesn’t exist today and this is just your belief system. But then, internally, I wonder, “What if I’m wrong? So, that’s the kind of doubt that I find harder to deal with.
I think, like you mentioned, just talking to friends, talking to people that I respect and trust is probably the primary way of dealing with it. Also, I have found, just deriving inspiration from stories. One of my favorite things to do is just read biographies. The good thing is there’s an infinite number of biographies about awesome people.
What are the qualities of people you admire the most?
Dilan: I feel like people I look up to fall into two categories. There are people that I look up to that I don’t necessarily want to be like. A couple examples would be Buddha and Elon Musk.
Then, on the other hand, there are people like Richard Branson, who seems to have a great family life and has done all these really cool things. Then, people who just inspire, like Yuval Noah Harari.
Michael: I guess there’s similar different trenches or groups of people. There’s a group of people who are very activist who I really look up to. I think Malcolm X is one of those people. I think Bryan Stevenson, who wrote this book called “Just Mercy”; Equal Justice Initiative, this nonprofit that he has in Alabama.
I think Dr. Paul Farmer is one of those people. He’s essentially one of these indomitable people that you find in the tech world, too, like Elon Musk or whatever the case is, but he’s chosen to apply it to building health systems for the poorest neighborhoods in Haiti.
Dilan: It’s really interesting, the difference between these people, right? One thing I think about a lot is, “How do you become super driven, but also just a happy, good person?” A lot of us have these traumatic things that happened to us that are deep within us and make us who we are and I think, “Where can you change yourself or make yourself better, be more accepting and okay with what you have, but then wake up every morning and push really hard to do something awesome?”
Michael: Yeah, that’s a really good point.
Have you ever come across a philosophy or a train of thought that really shocked you and changed your worldview?
Michael: There was this course I took in college called Justice and it did a survey of lots of different types of ethical philosophies, and I think taking that class and being exposed to, in particular, Rawls’s Theory of Justice as fairness.
That really shocked me the same time that I was teaching eighth graders in south Boston who were, on average, three reading levels behind. What it came to for me was, “Wow. It is incredibly arbitrary that the genetic die happened to roll for me in this way and I was born with this family and these abilities and this privilege. Being male, being American, being all these different things.” So that’s probably the philosophy that grounds my thinking a little bit the most in the work that I do.
Dilan: I grew up in a country with strong cultural traditions and belief systems and also a very socialist way of thinking, so there are a lot of concepts that I idealized growing up that I found out were completely invalid later on in my life. Which was a terrifying experience, especially when you’re passionate about what you believe in and find out, “Oh, my Fod! None of that was really true.”
So you have your heroes. Einstein was one of those people. On the other hand, there was Bill Gates, who was almost looked down upon because he was this businessman and businessmen or merchants are not high class types of people in a socialist economy.
Your goal, your dream is to work for the government when you grow up. The concept that you could be a scientist or a researcher or an engineer and build a company, that’s just bizarre.
I remember when one of my professors at MIT literally one day told me, “Hey, Dilan, you seem to have good ideas. You should become an entrepreneur.” I went back to my dorm and looked up ‘entrepreneur’ in the dictionary because I didn’t know the word. It was such an alien concept to me that you could be a respectable person, doing business and entrepreneurship.
Imagine now it’s January 1st, 2019, and you look back on this year and you reflect, “2018 was an awesome year.” What happened?
Dilan: This year, for me, is very institution focused.
I think what would be awesome is if we had created a team of people that feel like a family, where I want to show up to work every morning just because I fucking love this group of people and hanging out with them and just building stuff with them.
“The concept that you could be a scientist or a researcher or an engineer and build a company — that was considered bizarre.”
So a year from now, if we had launched a couple products that people really love using that I’m proud of and then, on the team side, if we have a great team that I absolutely loved working with and on my personal front, if I have taken time for myself, self-care, been good at that while doing all this stuff. Then, I think that would be an awesome year.
Just to zoom out, could you give an overview of what you’re currently working on?
Dilan: I’m building on a company that makes it really easy to invest in cryptocurrencies.
I think access to crypto is going to be a huge factor in crypto being a force that will change in the world in many ways. So, a lot of people having at least a small stake in that is going to matter a lot. So, creating that access is the mission of the company.
Michael: I’m currently working on three roles: (1) Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Promise Venture Studio, a nonprofit that supports ventures improving early childhood development, funded by Omidyar Network; (2) Tiny, a startup focused on high quality childcare as an employer benefit; and (3) Volunteer preschool teacher.
What’s your ideal culture or organization?
Dilan: I think one thing you started at the Commons is the Thursday afternoon dance party, which I just love that because it’s just like a little fifteen minute thing. You just throw away your awkwardness and shyness and just be weird with each other, right?
That’s how you create a story. That’s how you create memories. It’s not talking about fucking weather, right? I just want more of those special moments, whether it’s dancing or laughing or sharing or just supporting each other through rough times and just feeling good.
Michael: Yeah. Moments of magic.
Dilan: Right. So, what about you? What is it for you?
Michael: This year is a huge execution year for me as well, and it’s funny because this year, I think for the first time, I’ve actually found something that … If I had ten million dollars, I’d be doing exactly what I’m doing.
So, I think similarly this year, it’s if I can get this early childhood venture off the ground and continue teaching while having good relationships and health, that would be an awesome year.
The biggest takeaway of this interview: community is important.
With the support of a community of ambitious entrepreneurs and a creative space to explore big ideas, Dilan Dane and Michael Lai are well on their way to making lasting impacts in the worlds of cryptocurrency and early childhood development.
South Park Commons welcomes creative scientists, researchers, developers and curious individuals of all types who are excited to bring big ideas to life. Join our mailing list to be the first to hear about exciting events and upcoming opportunities to participate in the community.
