Founder & former CEO of ZeroCater. Maker of science & technology inspired art. Aspiring mad scientist. Lives in San Francisco. Pronounced Āh-rām. @arram

In 2009 I started ZeroCater. That story is here.

In 2015 we announced surpassing $100m total sales. I also gave a talk at HustleCon about how things go very wrong for most startups and the importance of not getting discouraged.

In 2016 some friends and I started The Archive –  a communal living house with ten sixteen residents. I now consider this one of the best decisions I ever made.

In 2017 I invested in Longevity Fund, which invests in early stage biotech companies working on increasing human healthspan. I was also (very incidentally) mentioned in a New Yorker article on Silicon Valley’s Quest to Live Forever.

In 2018 after nine years of running ZeroCater I handed over the reins to our amazing COO (now CEO). I remain involved as Chairman of the Board. I was also interviewed on The Morning Show about what it’s like to live at The Archive.

Interests

• Science & Engineering
• Solving Aging
  
• Making better decisions
• Effective Altruism
  
• Existential Risk Reduction
  
• Startup Investing
• Communal Living

Stuff That’s Happened to Me

• I took a photo that may now be one of the most reproduced images in history.
• I once came up with an idea with a friend that accidentally became a national TV ad featuring Nicki Minaj, Serena Williams, Usher, Kylie and Kendall Jenner.
• I once crashed a fashion show, pretended to be a model, and walked on-stage as dozens of photographers snapped pictures of me.
• I was paid in whiskey for a live harmonica performance at a jazz bar in Tokyo. I don’t play harmonica particularly well.
• I DJ’d for Chamillionaire. I don’t know how to DJ.
• I was yelled at for five minutes by the founder of Skye Vodka for taking his favorite table at a restaurant.
• I’ve discovered and excavated dinosaur bones in the Montana badlands.

Favorite essays and videos

• The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant – Nick Bostrom
  
• Astronomical Waste – Nick Bostrom
  
• Remedial Worldly Wisdom – Charlie Munger
  
• Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality
  
• Elon Musk on what it takes
  
• Ira Glass on how long it takes to get good
  
• Ben Horowitz on The Struggle
  
• What You’ll Wish You’d Known – Paul Graham
  
• Cargo Cult Science – Richard Feynman
  
• A Thinking Ape’s Critique of Trans-Simianism

The Most Important Graph in the World