附近上门

As the co-founder of , led real estate website to a $2.5 billion dollar acquisition in 2014. Since then, he has shifted gears.

As the CEO and Founder of , Sami has endeavored to help diabetes patients get off medication and reverse their disease. Virta supplies patients with a through which they can improve their health by direct communication with medical professionals which monitor their progress. The San Francisco-based company gained attention after raising $37 million in 2017.

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A CEO with hefty, admirable goals, Sami is a meticulous, articulate, and adventurous individual. He opened up to 附近上门 News about what keeps him motivated, how he evaluates himself, and what has inspired him in this round of the Proust Goes Tech series.

What would you otherwise be doing right now?

Really nothing else. Almost everything I do, I do by choice. I consider myself a very聽lucky person to be able to do that.

What is your main fault?

My inability to give up. I become obsessed about completing things. I think that is my main fault. I think perseverance can be very helpful. But it can also be something I sometimes have to fight against.

What is your idea of misery?

Lack of emotional or physical discomfort.

What do you appreciate the most in your friends?

Vulnerability and authenticity.

What is your chief characteristic?

Energy.

What skill do you wish you possessed?

Actually this is easy. I don鈥檛 really regret anything in life, but there鈥檚 a tiny bit of me that wishes I had gotten into music. I鈥檇 love to be able to play a musical instrument very well.

What is your most impactful book?

written by Laura Hillenbrand. 聽It is not only an amazing story about forgiveness and kindness, but it also inspired my wife and I to row across the Pacific Ocean鈥擟alifornia to Hawaii鈥攊n a rowing boat, unsupported, in 2014.

It took 45 days and three hours.

What defines success for you?

I have written down an inner scorecard that has about a dozen different criteria. The scorecard doesn鈥檛 involve dollar signs or how many times I have been mentioned in the press.

I evaluate myself every year based on that on a scale from one to four. Four meaning I succeeded and one meaning I sucked. That literally defines success to me.

When is confidence lost?

Hmm鈥� it definitely relates to people.

I think it鈥檚 when I see that I have hurt someone or someone’s鈥� feelings or emotions because that鈥檚 really never my intention. So when that happens I lose confidence.

Which buzzword is exhausted?

Unicorn.

What virtues do others have that you don鈥檛?

The ability to be kinder and softer to myself [and] to be less self-critical.

What impact do you want to leave?

I鈥檒l answer this in two ways.

Right now I feel that I am allocating most of my hours awake in the most optimal way to have the impact in the world of reversing diabetes in 100 million people by 2025. That鈥檚 what I鈥檓 working on. It feels very meaningful and purposeful.

Jumping into the last day of my life, I would want others who knew me to say 鈥渉e was a good person.鈥�

What鈥檚 the biggest problem tech is failing to solve?

I鈥檓 a technologist and engineer and my education is in physics, so I think technological advancement will solve all problems. I think the question is really just about timing and urgency.

So what is a problem that we should be able to solve faster with technology? I would say the most important would be inequality. All types of inequality, but specifically economic inequality.

Editorial Note: Answers edited for brevity and clarity.

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