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Founders Bay Brief

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Hi Friends,

Today is a big day for our family! After five weeks in the hospital, Liam is finally coming home. ❤️ I'll be offline for a few days while we celebrate with trips to Great America, Chuck E. Cheese, the Chocolate Factory, and anywhere else that lets him be a kid again.

Tonight, we're hosting our AI Builders Pitch Night @ Brex! If you're in San Francisco, come meet some of the Bay Area's top AI founders, investors, and engineers. RSVP: AI Builders Night @ Brex

This summer, I'll also be helping my Burning Man camp, Titanic's End, build one of the largest art installations on the playa — a massive wooden Titanic. Watch the video below, and if you'd like to help bring it to life, we'd be grateful for your support ❤️: Donate Today

New Video

TITANIC 2026

For years, Titanic's End's Iceberg Art Car has brought thousands of people together on the playa—creating unforgettable nights, incredible music, and lifelong memories.

This year, we're taking on our biggest project yet.

A massive wooden Titanic ship rising from the desert.

Fire. Lights. Art. Music. Wonder.

Built by hundreds of volunteers—artists, engineers, welders, carpenters, designers, and dreamers—all united by one impossible idea.

Because the most extraordinary things are never built alone.

If our mission resonates with you, we'd love your support in bringing this vision to life. Every donation helps turn the impossible into reality.

▶ Watch on YouTube

Support the Mission →

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This Week's Journal

The Principles of Burning Man That Changed My Life

Before I ever stepped onto the playa, I thought Burning Man was about art.

Then I thought it was about music.
Then I thought it was about community.

I was wrong every time.

Burning Man isn’t a place.
It’s a mirror.

Every year it asks the same question:

Who are you when everything you’ve built your identity around disappears?

No titles.
No resumes.
No followers.
No algorithms.
No one asking what you do for work.

Just you.

Over the years, I realized the Ten Principles weren’t rules.
They were lessons for how to live.

⸻

Principal #1 - Radical Inclusion

Everyone belongs.

Not because they earned it.
Not because they’re successful.
Not because they fit in.

Just because they’re human.

As someone who grew up feeling different — an immigrant, a woman in engineering, a single mom — I spent years trying to prove I deserved a seat at the table.

Burning Man taught me something different.

Maybe we stop trying to earn belonging…
when we realize we belonged all along.

⸻

Principal #2 - Gifting

Give without expecting anything back.

Not because it’s strategic.
Not because it builds your network.

Just because someone else’s smile is enough.

Some of the most meaningful gifts I’ve ever received weren’t things.

They were hugs.
Conversations.
A stranger helping me when I was lost.
A moment that reminded me I wasn’t alone.

⸻

Principal #3 - Decommodification

For one week…

Nobody is trying to sell you something.

And you begin to realize how much of the world is constantly asking for your attention.

Your money.
Your approval.
Your clicks.

It makes me wonder…

How often do we confuse someone’s value with their price?

⸻

Principal #4 - Radical Self-Reliance

Bring what you need.

Take responsibility for yourself.

Life eventually teaches us this principle whether we want it or not.

Divorce.
Loss.
Starting over.
Parenthood.
Hospital rooms.

There comes a day when no one can walk the path for you.

And somehow…

You discover you are stronger than you ever imagined.

⸻

Principal #5 - Radical Self-Expression

Wear what makes you feel alive.

Build what only you could build.

Dance like no one’s watching.

The world spends years teaching us how to fit in.

Burning Man spends a week reminding us who we were before that happened.

⸻

Principal #6 - Communal Effort

Nothing extraordinary is built alone.

Not cities.
Not companies.
Not art.
Not families.
Not healing.

Every masterpiece I’ve admired was built by hundreds of invisible hands.

We celebrate the person on stage.

We rarely celebrate the people who built it.

⸻

Principal #7 - Civic Responsibility

Freedom without responsibility doesn’t last.

Communities survive because people choose to care.

Choose to clean.
Choose to lead.
Choose to leave things better than they found them.

That’s true on the playa.

And it’s true everywhere else.

⸻

Principal #8 - Leaving No Trace

Leave every place better than you found it.

Not just the desert.

People too.

Leave conversations with more kindness.
Leave friendships with more gratitude.
Leave your children with more confidence.
Leave the world carrying a little more hope than before you arrived.

⸻

Principal #9 - Participation

Burning Man isn’t something you watch.

It’s something you create.

Life works the same way.

We spend so much time waiting.

Waiting until we’re ready.
Waiting until we’re confident.
Waiting until we’re successful.

Then one day we realize…

Life was never asking us to watch.

It was asking us to participate.

⸻

Principal #10 - Immediacy

This one means the most to me.

Especially this year.

After spending weeks in a children’s hospital with Liam, I learned something I wish hadn’t taken me 37 years to understand.

Tomorrow is a promise none of us were given.

The perfect moment doesn’t exist.
The perfect version of ourselves doesn’t exist.

All we really have…

is this conversation.

This sunset.
This dance.
This hug.
This moment.

⸻

Maybe that’s why Burning Man keeps calling people back.

Not because of the art.
Not because of the music.
Not even because of the desert.

But because, for one week, we remember the people we were before the world told us who we should become.

And maybe…

The real journey isn’t bringing Burning Man to the playa.
It’s bringing those principles home.

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📓 Founders Bay Journal — The Principles of Burning Man That Changed My Life | Jul 29

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