Pressing Hard Refresh
On June 30, 2025, I resigned without a plan.
About eight months prior, my co-founders and I had sold the digital and data consulting business we’d spent a decade building. It’s the moment every business owner dreams of. The "Exit." The finish line.
But for me, it was surprisingly anti-climactic - like the resignation.
After I quit, the advice from friends and peers was unanimous - "You’ve earned this. Just take it easy. Do whatever you feel like doing."
So, I tried. I really did.
I did the travel. I sat on the couch in my underwear playing video games. I slept in until whenever, because why not? I tried to embrace the zen of doing nothing.
And for a little while, it was kind of great.
But then the silence hit.
I realized pretty quickly that I am not someone who does well with unstructured time. I discovered that for me, boredom is dangerous. Without a difficult problem to solve, my brain started looking for trouble. It convinced me that I needed to completely reinvent myself.
I went through a phase where I genuinely considered becoming a tradesperson - a carpenter, maybe a plumber. At one point, I even looked into joining the Australian Defence Force. There were a lot of other weird and wild ideas in between. I was grasping for anything tangible, structured, and completely divorced from a computer screen.
Eventually, I found some middle ground and joined Startmate. Diving into the AUNZ start-up ecosystem was incredible; the energy is infectious. But standing on the periphery as an advisor and investor didn't scratch the itch. I missed getting my hands dirty.
It took me a year of wandering, debating, and soul-searching to come to a very boring conclusion: I like data.
I’m good at it. I understand it. And, weirdly enough, I find comfort in the chaos of it.
That brings me to Hard Refresh.
You might notice that the blog you’re reading (hardrefresh.life) shares a name with the consulting business I just launched. That isn't a lazy branding exercise. It’s intentional.
Hard Refresh is an umbrella for the vision I’m trying to build. Whether I’m consulting on data, building products, or writing these posts, it’s all coming from the same place.
The name is a literal description of my last twelve months - I needed to reset my own system completely. But it’s also a philosophy I’m betting on.
Let’s be honest, the world is a bit fucked right now. The current trajectory feels like it’s leading toward a system failure. There are forces of good fighting to correct it, but it’s not enough. We need a hard refresh, but that doesn't happen globally until it happens individually - one person at a time.
This project is my way of bringing that vision to life. I’m finally back to doing what I believe I do best, with a clearer head and a renewed appreciation for the work.
If you feel the same - if you think you need a hard refresh in your life, whatever form that may take - then you’re in the right place.
Just press the buttons.