Who I learned from · 2015–now
Eli Cavan
Eli was the first person to put money into something I built, and has believed in me and my ideas through the bad times and the good ever since. He has been in the room for most of what came after: hackathons, my first engineering hire, Limelight’s machine-learning model. The closest thing I have to a big brother in this work.
Who I learned from
- Who
- Eli Cavan
- Role
- Data scientist
- To me
- My first shareholder, at $100 for 10%, and the friend who has believed in me through the bad times and the good.
- When
- 2015–now
Who Eli is
Elijah Cavan is a data scientist who studied physics at the University of Waterloo and worked on Waterloop, the university’s Hyperloop team. Eli’s work centres on machine learning and real-time data pipelines.
How we met
At Waterloo in 2015. That December Eli bought 10% of Insomniac Developments, my first company, for $100, and talked me into staying the course when quitting looked easier. The next September Eli signed me up for Hack the North.
What I learned
The importance of saving, and what it means to have someone who believes in you. Eli has backed me and my ideas from the start, and stood by me through the bad times as well as the good. A hundred dollars for 10% was never the point; someone betting on me was.
In the room
Eli got me into the rooms where builders were, vouched for me when LockDocs hired me as its first engineer, and when Limelight needed a way to rank artists, built the machine-learning model that does it.