Little known fact: @evanEvan Prodromou and I worked at a startup in 2020 that never launched. It wasn't a great experience for me, but I loved the team we had hired, including Evan. I didn't know much then about #activitypub or the social web.

I went back to @Flipboard in 2021 and in 2023 I started to learn about #federation because of @mikeMike McCue's vision. Fast forward to 2025, Flipboard + @surf are organizing #SXSW's first #FediverseHouse. Evan was one of the first people to sign on, which created a snowball from there, which helped the event be a success.

This week, we got to meet IRL for the first time! So when I think about "the purpose" of that hard 10 months at that startup, I now know what it was.