Product Manager at Inamoto & Co.  

What’s your historical NYC and SF connection?
I lived in NYC for several years, then SF for the last 4 years, and I just moved back to NYC.

Describe your experience in SF and your experience in NYC.
SF is a beautiful city with a high quality of life. I moved there for a job, which improved my career path. I also moved there for some adventure. In exploring California, I was lucky to find some true friends. Overall, my time there became focused around those two points – work and friends. NYC is home. A place of extremes, I’m reminded that the it can feel loud and tree-less, but its people and the things they create bring a lot of warmth, intrique and fun into it. For me, NYC is associated with being in my band, trying on different jobs, and meandering towards adulthood.

What was the biggest challenge of moving between NYC and SF?
Each city will prepare you well enough for moving to the other (in my view), so it’s down to the normal relocation stuff. Moving creates many big logistical challenges which all come at once – finding a home, creating a routine, building a network, etc. It’s inherently a growth period that requires you to be alone and figure things out.

How can NYC and SF best engage with each other?
As a Knicks fan, I’d love to say the NBA finals.

More seriously, though, these places posses different skill sets. The whole world seems to live in NYC, so its understanding of the challenges humanity faces are acute. SF is of course well positioned via technology to solve many these problems. A stronger handshake between them could help many people throughout the world.

Favorite SF secret spot
Hiding in plain sight on Mission St. near the 24th street Bart station is an amazing restaurant called Mr. Pollo.

Favorite NY secret spot
Eisenberg’s Sandwich Shop near the Flatiron building. An authentic New York City diner that’s also a time machine back to the 1930s.

If you were not working at where you are now, what would you be doing?

I always thought being an architect might be cool.

What song/album, show, or podcast have you been consuming lately?  

A Tribe Called Quest – We Got it From Here…