Hey — I'm Yash Godiwala.
Born and raised in the Bay Area to first-generation immigrants.
I grew up as a Boy Scout, “physically strong, mentally awake, morally straight”, and the outdoors taught me more than school did. High school wanted high GPAs and advanced courses and had no real interest in why or how to think. I didn’t love it. Three months into college in upstate New York, I dropped out and moved to San Francisco.
Five years of work since: wildfire detection, financial software, batteries to strengthen the American power grid. Growth, product, data, bizops, mostly whatever needed doing. As of the summer of 2026, I took some time off from tech.
Outside of work, I’m spending more time on the parts of that oath I let slip. Body, hands, and mind in the same day. Slowing down, doing things by hand, given that so much of my work is speed and efficiency at all costs. Running, yoga, cricket, bouldering, learning my Fujifilm.
I have an appreciation for design and beautiful things: natural materials, let to breathe and shown off. Natural fibers, live edge wood, exposed machinery that shows off its fasteners and bolts. What I’m drawn to is the discipline behind it. Someone who has agreed to do the same hard thing again and again.
More than most things, though, I love stories. Hearing about the lives of strangers, why they did the things they did and why they are the way they are. It’s why I like introducing people: two friends from different worlds finding each other, or helping someone land a job.
These days I’m thinking about where adults go to become known, and to be needed, outside of their occupation. Most of that community infrastructure is gone. I’m interested in what replaces it, and in what the attention economy and AI are doing to the odds.