Episode 13. Microsoft, Entrepreneurship, and Life Wisdom with Maika Isogawa

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Marie (00:04.174)

Hello and welcome to the Spiritual 9 to 5 with your host, myself, Marie Groover of The Corporate Psychic. There are big things to talk about this week and I am so excited to talk about them with a dear friend, former colleague and mentee at Microsoft, Maika Isogawa.

Marie (00:27.096)

Maika is a former professional acrobat and performer for the Cirque du Soleil brand of shows. She is also a Stanford alum with a special concentration in symbolic systems, a program which combines the study of human computer interaction, software engineering, linguistics, philosophy, and more. Maika was most recently a cybersecurity engineer for Microsoft, and she has since founded Webacy, a platform for securing digital assets for the unexpected. Maika and Webacy have

been recently recognized as a member of the Forbes 30 under 30 list. Wow. Today we are talking about it all. Starting with Maika's story, diving into our experiences at Microsoft and beyond our experiences as entrepreneurs, when to leave the nine to five and so, so, so much more.

A good place to start, maybe from the beginning? How does that sound? Okay. It feels so weird talking about yourself, but I guess that's what you do. I was born in a suburb of Tokyo. It was called Musashikogane. It's about 40 minutes by train from Shinjuku Station, which is one of the busiest train stations in Tokyo.

Yeah, let's start from the beginning.

Maika (01:41.454)

And I grew up there until I was around four, four and five, and I was born to a Japanese father and an American mother. So that's actually quite rare. I think a lot of the times the mother is of Asian descent and the father is white for cultural reasons. But mine was flipped. And then I ended up coming to Minnesota around that young age for my father's job. And then I grew up going back and forth between Minnesota, very like...

white, nice, Minnesota nice is a phrase that is very true, coal and Japan. And so every summer I'd go back and go to school for the months that America had the summer break. And so I had a very cross-cultural education. And then around 10 or 11, I started getting more into like my hobbies in America. And so it was a little bit harder to get to Japan, plus like plane ticket prices were getting more expensive and stuff. So I stopped going so frequently, but maybe like once a year. And then in Minnesota, I kind of developed

really good solid friend group at the hobby that I ended up choosing long term. So that was circus arts. So I was starting to commit to going to this place called Circus Juventus. And it was a youth training school for circus arts. It's pretty cool. Like for any kid who's a little hyperactive and doesn't want to do traditional sports like soccer, like swimming is the place to go because you can just it's free reign for kids and they teach you all kinds of safety. You feel a lot of agency from a young age and

It's everything from like acrobatics to dance to theater and you make the closest friends and huge part of my life, but I started going there. And then briefly, I'll talk about high school, but I was always really into academics, kind of a nerd. I went to a music conservatory for high school and then I ended up transferring so I could go to spend some time at the University of Minnesota during my last two years of high school. That aside, I graduated.

I ended up going to Stanford in 2014 and then quickly time off so I had that opportunity to go work for a company called Spiegelworld for a called Absinthe and this is a circus show. Spiegelworld is a very well renowned company around the world.

Marie (03:50.35)

I've seen the show, the Absinthe show. That's so cool. I had no idea. Yeah, this is, yeah, that's amazing. I did. It was amazing. It's so raunchy. It's amazing. So what's really funny actually, like full circle tie back to Microsoft. My old team, we all went to the show together. During the week of like Microsoft ready or something. I think it was ready.

Do you like it?

It's raunchy.

Marie (04:18.541)

And we, like, it was a small team. was like Ryan. It was Ryan, my partner on the team. was his idea to do it. And he just like roped our manager in. And so she bought us all tickets and it was so good. Cause Ryden and I sat next to each other and my manager, and then a woman who worked with us, who actually worked with my manager previously, but from the UK was like over down the way with our manager. And Ryden and I were just giggling the whole time. We were actually like front, like front and center of the show. And we were like, Oh my God, we're like our managers.

Five feet, five feet away from us. this show, but it was so cool. was like such a fun. Yeah. I loved it. What? Yeah.

I like it.

So yeah, anytime you want to break the ice with your boss, take them to Absinthe in Las Vegas. It's still running. It's still one of the best shows on the strip. There's stripping and there's acrobatics and really hot bodies flying around. So go see it.

I highly recommend.

Maika (05:16.258)

But yeah, so was working for Absinthe in Australia. And then sometimes in these different tours that you go on globally, you'll cross over with other shows. And so that's when I first met Totem by Cirque du Soleil. And I got to know some of the cast, the artistic director. And then it just so happened that they were going to Japan next. They were looking for a female aerialist with a certain skill set, a certain look. And

they were going at a certain time of the year where my contract happened to be ending. And so it was kind of like star aligning moment. When I look back, I'm like, there's no way that all of that could have just happened randomly. So I feel very lucky. And I ended up moving to Totem for Cirque du Soleil. So that was another journey. A huge growing period for me. was 18.

moved to Montreal and trained in the middle of winter. That was a really rough time because it was really cold in Montreal. I didn't know anybody. It was really hard training. It every day, multiple hours a day, Monday through Friday. And then during the weekends, I didn't know anyone. sometimes trying to check out, but the snow was so bad that nothing was really running that much. And then everyone speaks French. And so I didn't speak French at the time. But I digress. So then they sent me to the tour. I toured.

the Japan tour, which is five different cities. did Russia. I did parts of Europe. And then I ended up leaving because after two years, that's when Stanford, that's the limit to Stanford's leave of absence. But you have to reapply. So I went back to school and then I graduated. I had some internships here and there, but I graduated and went straight to Microsoft. So that is the Microsoft store.

That is amazing. wait, I want to go back to like training. What was training like? I know you said it was like multiple hours a day, really difficult. Like what did you guys do? Yeah. I'm always really curious. Cause I feel like it's gotta be just like physically, emotionally, mentally exhausting. Yeah.

Maika (07:12.514)

Yeah, I think I was definitely an oddball when it came to joining Cirque du Soleil because most people have some sort of professional background. Like some of them are Olympians. Some of them have gone to Circus College and have done this through high school, through college, or they came from traditionally circus families. And so they were kind of from a young age, like built with these skills already, or it was as a part of their discipline already. And so for me, I was kind of at a major disadvantage because this was a hobby. was

I was not a traditional circus acrobat at all. So there's a long way for me to go. And I lacked a lot of the strength and skills and techniques that I needed for the role. And luckily Cirque du Soleil's training and coaching team is absolutely excellent, but it was a lot of work. Like there are definitely days when I would come home and just cry in my room alone. Training, was a quote unquote soloist. The act I performed was actually with three people, but

that it was just act alone for myself and it was the aerial range. So pretty rough for an aerialist, but I remember some days that my hands would be torn, like my whole palm would be torn and I have marks from my forearms of like the safety like mechanism just like on my arms ripping them up. So there would be days where I couldn't really train much without taping the entire hand and doing that. So that was kind of brutal. But I still look back on it very fondly because it was such a growth.

I think some of you do that. It's it's fun or something like fun. That's like really dangerous or unsafe or terrible, but you like that. It was a great time.

my gosh, it's so true. think, what's funny is like even, I look back even at my time in Microsoft, like the worst two years of my life at Microsoft, I still look back on them I'm like, yeah, I'm really glad actually that I went through that, right? Like I'm really glad I experienced that. But like when you're in the moment of it, you're like, what's like, what is happening?

Maika (09:03.138)

Yeah, that's something in the human psyche about the ability to just pretend like it was fine.

I know it's like you look back at it and you're so proud to like even hearing you speak. I'm like, I'm so proud of you for putting in on that all that work. And then it's just so I think what's so amazing is like you're like, yeah, it was a hobby for me. I didn't have this like really strong skill set or training in the background, but like you were still there, which is so cool. And it's like, I don't know. It's just amazing how possible it was for you how possible you made it. And like, yeah, it's a dedication that goes behind that. It's really beautiful.

Despite the pain.

the pain, pain makes us stronger.

Totally. That's like such an well it might not be like totally an Asian thing but I totally think it's an Asian thing. Like I feel like I feel that same way like for my mom. Just like, just push through it, just push through it. be fine, you're gonna be better for it.

Maika (09:57.262)

100 % yes.

that's amazing. Okay. So then when you join Microsoft, how old are you when you joined Microsoft?

I was trying to think 22. Yeah, 22.

Yeah. Epic. And you started as an engineer. Yeah. What was your, what was your technology? I feel like I should know this by the way.

Yes.

Maika (10:23.522)

We really had talked about work that much when we were talking. I was in a cybersecurity group.

Yes, I did know that. That's amazing. like, how was your start at Microsoft? And like, when did you start to know that it wasn't going to be your forever home?

Yeah, I think maybe Microsoft got unlucky in the sense that, well, the world got unlucky because COVID happened. And that's when I graduated and that's when I joined for the first time. And I was part of this thing called the Aspire program, which is the college program for new hires. So this was supposed to be kind of like a second college, right? It was supposed to be that you all move to the same city. You're all living together. It's a lot of fun. you grow, like you do the journey together. And we missed out on all of that. It was all remote.

So number one, like that didn't get to happen. So I didn't get to have that bombing experience with my peers. And the remote training was good. They did a really, really good job. And I think the people who were in charge of running the program and the materials and kind of helping us get on board did a really excellent job. So there's nothing bad to say there, but it was mostly just eight hours a day of training. So you'd be in meetings, presentations, and then you'd do some group work and so on. And that was for about a month.

And then for the two months after that, kind of continued to train into your solution area and then they set you free. So I would say onboarding was great. They did a good job. The part after that, I think when I realized what my job was actually going to entail and the impact I didn't have, as well as the lack of freedom I had, I started to think like, okay, what else can I do to actually improve my skillset?

Marie (12:06.322)

Yeah, I think actually that's around the time we met because I feel like I think that I spoke at like a women's leadership panel or something like that for the incoming like college hire class that we had. And I remember you reaching out to me afterwards and we were like a lot of a couple of our first conversations were really about just like getting started, digging into the career and like how do we make it the thing that we want and a lot of

This is really funny, but like the majority of people that I talk to at Microsoft, especially coming out of the Aspire program, like I am talking literally to like five or six, six of the Aspire's from the August cohort now. And a lot of them, like a lot of our work is like, how do I switch roles? Like I was literally talking to someone yesterday and they were like, you're like the queen of moving around at Microsoft. And I'm like, I don't know if that's a good thing, but like, I know I am.

I was like, yes, so let's talk about it. I feel like that was initially how we began talking, which is like the same thing for you of like, how can I get into something that feels more impactful? I will say to you, not to like say anything negative about Microsoft or the Microsoft experience and starting out, but there is this thing that happens, I think, especially for Aspires, because I came in as an Aspires while seven years ago, and I did come in from industry like,

industry, was like in the industry, I got my masters and I came in that way. And I remember everyone joining and having this expectation of making this massive impact at the company and like with our customers. And like, I think part of it is there's this really big hype in the Aspire training of how important we all are as Aspires, like how important like being a part of the new generation at Microsoft is and having that new and different perspective is. And

It's like, really feel that for the first couple of months. And then you go off into the business and you're like, I'm basically a glorified intern. Not that we're really glorified interns, know, but we're like, like, what is the impact that I'm really able to make here? And like, how do I navigate this new place? And, how do I make people take me seriously? Like, I remember the first three years I worked at Microsoft and I still, this still happens occasionally. Like I work with our, one of our executive leadership teams, but

Marie 2 (14:27.598)

I'll come across someone else, especially if they see me on camera. They're like, you're very junior. I feel like that was like my big issue. The first, like the beginning of Microsoft was just like, how do I get over this coming in as an Aspire thing? And how do get people to take me seriously? And how do I work on the things that I want to work on? So, um, I don't think you're alone necessarily in that.

Yeah, that definitely resonates. And I think it resonates with my whole class too. And if I look back in my class, the majority of people have switched out of their roles, but you're doing great work helping the kids there now.

my gosh, well thank you, thank you, thank you. So yeah, so tell me when did you, yeah, tell me your path to leaving Microsoft. I know you were doing like, you were helping someone with a startup. I remember we talked about this, but like, yeah, give me the whole rundown of what you started doing and creating and building alongside your job and how that kind of cascaded out.

Yeah, so at Microsoft, think it took me a while to really realize what my role entailed. And then once I realized that, I was kind of looking, I realized that it wasn't going to be enough for me. So I'm always someone who's like trying to grow as a person. And if the role I'm doing, like I'm still going to do it well.

but I'm going to look for other avenues to expand my knowledge and challenge myself. And so that's what happened with this other company. So a friend of mine that I had since Stanford days had started a company and it was a startup. They were awesome. They had a small team and they wanted some help in like the product and like research analytics and data space. And that's kind of where I fit well. And so I did some work for them and that gave me some product knowledge. It gave me some growth and a lot of insight into an early stage startup, which is very exciting.

Maika (16:08.494)

And then eventually with Microsoft, I kind of got to the point where I thought maybe I should move to a different role within Microsoft. And that would be encompassing for all of my needs. So I started looking around and I had a lot of interviews and for some reason I did very well in the interview process, but never ever got the actual like offer at all. So I went through a couple of different full round interviews, never got the offer. No one would ever give me a reason why they'd usually ghost me. Unfortunately, I don't know why that happened.

Because I know you can find people in Microsoft. You know they're active. They're in other people can find you. What do they do? They're so nice to me on the interview. So it's not funny. It's not like the real world where you can actually go somewhere. like can see you in my network.

Yeah, you're like, wait, I know that you're online. I know what you're doing right now. Like I know you're working hours. You're not that far away from me actually. No, this is really funny. So I love this. I had the same experience. And then through my, even though I've shifted a lot at Microsoft, I actually, there was a team that I only look back on this and still laugh. There's a team that gave me the indication that they really wanted to bring me onto the team. The hiring manager was like, I really want to hire you. And like, I have the last day. like,

I just need you to go through the interview rounds. And I went through the interviews and it was so funny. It was for a team that was working in AI. And there was an interview, one of my loops, one of the guys that I interviewed with was like really deeply technical and like had a lot of experience with like AI and ML. And was asking me all of these really deep design questions, but it was like this really vague, vague design question. there was like nothing really like solid there. Like I could tell he was making up as he went.

And he was like, I'm not looking for a particular answer. You know, I just want to know how you're thinking about this. And I'm like, okay. And I think very differently. Like, it's the best way that I can put this. Like I'm not, I don't know. And so we were talking through some things and I was asking him a bunch of questions and I could tell that I wasn't giving him what he wanted.

Marie (18:12.728)

But like, he was like, but I'm not looking for anything in particular. But I was like, but he is, like, he's trying to guide me to this one very specific answer in place, even though there's no specific answer. Like, there was no right answer for this. And it was really fascinating because I was like, I don't know where you're trying to guide me. know, like, let's, like, help me out here, which I don't think I said, but, know, was asking a ton of questions and we were going back and forth. And then at the end of the interview,

A couple of days later, I reached back out to the team because the hiring manager is out of office. And it was like his skip that ended up his manager that ended up manager's manager that ended up reaching back out and was like, yeah, you we don't think you're the best person for the role. And I was like, could you provide me some feedback? And I think I forget exactly what the feedback was, but I actually, I went back to them and I was like, I was like, look, if you're truly looking for someone that has like a diverse way of thinking, you cannot be guiding them.

to one specific answer and to like think in the one exact way that the whole rest of your team thinks. And I remember like sending this really long, not terrible message, but I look back on it I'm still laughing that I did it. And I'm glad that I did it because I think this happens a lot in products and product groups, especially at places like Microsoft, but really probably all over the industry where we say we want something different, but like really we want someone that looks different, but like thinks the same exact way, right? And I was just like, what are you?

I was like, know, I like, I know the rest of the interview loop and I know nobody thinks like I think, right? And it's like, it's a pro until it's not a pro, right? And if it's not the exact thing that you want. And so there's that, like, I always think back on that and I'm like, man, I hope I never do this. Cause it feels very like hypocritical and wrong. And then how the ghosting thing is like, especially internally, you're like, hello, I'm just down the hall from you. Can you just like...

Like I actually see you coming into the office every day. Like, can you just let me know what's going on? But I feel like the thing that happens oftentimes, because I work with people now, like outside of Microsoft, not necessarily landing jobs in Microsoft, but across the industry and industries is like oftentimes, especially with bigger companies, teams will have pre-identified their person and like you will just have no idea about it. And so then you'll go through a loop and no matter how well you do, it's like.

Marie (20:33.624)

sometimes not even going to matter. Like even in the case of the team that I interviewed for, like they didn't choose me, right? But the hiring manager was like, we want you, we're going to hire you, just go through the loops. So that thing told like, it's something that totally happens that no one really talks about. And I think it's like, it's a little bit, it's a little bit unfair. Because you're like wasting everybody's time. So that's unfortunate. I'm sorry that you have that experience.

Thank you for sharing your experience too. makes me feel less alone. I know this happens a lot and I do feel for the hiring side as well because I get it that it's hard. you know, it's one of those things that so many companies have popped up to try to fix hiring because it's a messed up system. you know, it's going to take a long time before we figure out something better.

For sure. Yeah, yeah. So okay, hold on. So you were applying for interviewing for a ton of other jobs internally. And what else?

That was mostly it. was still working for the startup. The startup wanted to, was actually trying to offer me a position. So then that transition started to happen. Like, okay, I could jump ship and then move to this startup, which is awesome. And they're still awesome and doing really well. But then I had another idea about potentially doing my own thing. Cause I've always wanted to do my own thing. It was just, I've always had a bunch of ideas. I have the like energy and the execution to be able to do my own thing. But there was no idea that I couldn't.

get out of my head, know, something would come, I'd work on it for like a week and it'd be like kind of fizzle out. But I had the idea for Webasee or what became Webasee and that stayed in my head. I was up at night, I was calling my friends. I called my then, like my now co-founder and him being willing to join me made us, made me feel like, okay, this is like, I can do this. So there's a little bit of a confidence boost in doing things with other people that you trust. But that was kind of the moment for me.

Marie (22:25.398)

I love that. Okay. okay. This is so good. So like, let's go back to like the very beginnings of WebISY. So like what inspired this idea? And then like talk to me a little bit more about just this, this concept of like the idea didn't leave you. I love this so much because I work with a lot of people as well who want to start a business.

or start their own thing. And they're like, they say the exact same thing actually that you said. And I resonate with this a lot of like, I have a lot of ideas. I know I can follow through and execute on them, but like nothing really sticks for all of that long, right? And then it's like, until you find the thing. So it's like, how do you find the thing? It's like such a big question. And then like, what do you, like, how do know that you found the thing? So yeah, if you could give, give a little bit of insight into what that looked like for you in terms of like this idea dropping in, like what was it inspired by?

How did that unravel?

Yeah, totally. there is like a founding story of Webasee that is publicized and I've talked about before, but I'll give you some more backstory because there is more backstory and then I'll tell you the founding story. But I think one thing is that I've always grown up, as you know, like Asian cultures are a little bit more

Okay, and comfortable with talking about death, ancestry being connected to life and death, the circle of life, that sort of thing. So Japan's the same. I grew up going to like, great grandmother's funeral or be going to temples and shrines and walk like there's cemeteries spread out randomly throughout Japan so that you'll just walk through school and walk to school and you'll walk through cemetery. It's just normal. It's just part of everyday life. So that's number one.

Maika (23:57.814)

And then number two, actually working for Cirque, a couple people have passed away while I've been working for Cirque du Soleil. And it hasn't been like on, like when I was performing, that kind of thing, but people very close to the act I was performing or the show I was performing or the community have passed away on the job. So this is something that's very serious and isn't really talked about very much because, you know, the whole point is entertainment and happiness and professionalism, but it has happened because it's dangerous work.

And so I think working for CERC and working for circus arts in general, there have been moments where things have not been quite safe for me specifically. And that's moments where you kind of think about your own safety. And I think the moment when I, as an adult, first had to face my mortality was when I first joined CERC and I had to sign my life insurance, not life insurance papers, but my beneficiaries.

I'm sitting at the table, I'm 18, this woman sitting right next to me, signing all these papers, like getting paid, which is great. And then she's like, okay, who do you want to leave all your money to if you pass away? This is real. This is a real thing. So yeah, think death, mortality, kind of that memento mori, remember that you die, has been with me for a while.

I'm also very into philosophy and so stoicism has a lot to do with like talking about, know, like accepting your death and so on. So that has always been a cool part that I like to like reflect on, talk about and so on. So that's the backstory. I'll pause there if you have any like points that you want to bring up because the founding story is pretty much this like, you know, something I've repeated a couple times.

No, I love this. This is amazing. Actually, it's like this realization of, well, like one, this almost like total acceptance and celebration of death and the circle of life, as well as the realization of like your own mortality, right? Cause I think it's one thing to accept the death around us. It's another thing to come and realize like, shit, like at any moment I too can die. Right? I think this is really cool. think it's really beautiful. And it's, yeah, it's something I want to circle back to, but continue please.

Maika (26:06.816)

Okay, yeah, it's a big topic. I think everyone should spend some time thinking about it, even though it's scary. so, you know, the real catalyst for what the sea was during the pandemic, my cousin, my cousin, unfortunately, passed away is my older cousin, but he wasn't that much older. And so you I think it was like, another moment where I realized that that's eventually something that we'll all experience. But I also got to firsthand see what it's like for someone or like, when people don't have a will when people don't have a plan.

and you have assets to deal with. And then I spoke to my now co-founder and he had a really similar situation with his best friend's sister and she had a lot of crypto. So both in Coinbase and both in non-custodial accounts and the next eight months they spent trying to know gain access back to it or recover it and we saw all kinds of things with social media and the digital lives and digital legacy we have online.

So we knew that there was a huge opportunity here to first of all help people and then second of all use software to solve this new problem that isn't handled by traditional stuff. So that's how WebSE was born.

So amazing. my gosh. I could totally see how this could be something that would drop into your mind that you couldn't get off of your mind. think too. So similarly, a really close friend of mine, her dad passed a few years ago and she like will still to that. She actually wrote this beautiful essay about like all the paperwork that comes with death, right? Like, and how almost like the processes that we have to go through overshadow the actual like.

grieving and the actual like experience of death and the acceptance and the celebration of someone's life. Because if you're the person that has to deal with the paperwork and like the stuff that comes with death, it's like where and when do you actually get to grieve and like actually get to experience the death itself, right? Celebrate it, pay homage to it, respect it, celebrate yourself, like take the time for yourself, which is like impossible, I think. this is such a cool.

Marie (28:05.664)

necessary, just like beautiful concept, I think, a beautiful like idea. Yeah, and was there like a particular moment for you where everything came together and you were like, this is really happening and you were feeling it?

Yeah, I think when I started building the product and iterating through the concept and when I realized the opportunity for it, I think was when I was like, okay, this is worth leaving Microsoft for.

First of all, looking at the space, there weren't many companies actually tackling the digital asset side. There's some wonderful, wonderful companies that are tackling getting people to create wills, putting together paperwork ahead of time. And that's not something we're working on. So it's like, these companies are doing great. I want to do and create the solution for the next thing that we're moving to. We're all moving online. All of our assets are going be presented online, and we have no way to fix that. the excitement of the I'm still excited. Even six months later, I'm like, there's so much to do.

Yeah, and I think every day I just woke up wanting to work on WebISy instead of wanting to do my Microsoft work. like, okay, so that's the change because I'm not doing Microsoft justice at all.

Okay, I love this. This is amazing. So the moment that you realize this, like, did you start planning like an exit plan? Did you just decide you were gonna jump ship? Like, what does it look like? And then specifically, like, because you're working in a startup and tech space, like, what did it look like for you? Did you guys get funding? What was that process? Yeah, walk me through all of it.

Maika (29:38.284)

Yeah, so I'm a little bit of a risk adverse person, which is funny because of the jobs I've had and my decision to leave like a very stable job. But I was deciding between this startup, my friend's startup that I was working for and was stable and was offering a great position, staying at Microsoft, maybe continuing to find another position or doing WebSE. And I think my interest and preference towards startup style work where I'm like clearly just everything I do impacts the business was more my speed, but then it was just between the two.

And then I realized that I will always like, you will always work harder on something that you're more interested in. And that was WebSE. And so as soon as I knew that I told my manager that I was putting in my notice and for some reason, everything went really well. Like she told me congratulations more than anything. You told me congratulations. You were so happy for me. And everything was really smooth after that. And this is funny because they had just gone through the paperwork of moving me to San Francisco.

Yeah, that was just kind of funny timing. But after that, it was pretty smooth. And then I did two more weeks and that was it.

That's amazing. I didn't even realize that you put in just, just did two weeks and then you were out.

think it was two weeks, it could have been four, I can't really remember.

Marie (30:48.198)

Yeah, I feel like maybe you might have told me like pre, yeah, you might have told me that before you told your manager, because I feel like you told me four weeks before. And yeah, I was so excited. I'm still so excited. Like, it's, I think it's so amazing. It's really funny. Actually, I was just in like a mentor call yesterday with one of the Aspires from the August class that came in. And he was talking to me about

another Aspire who joined around that timeframe who I don't know this person who's like, do you know this person? I think he's like kind of famous. And I was like, I don't think I know him. And he's like, yeah, I recognized him. And then a few days later, I realized like, he's like TikTok famous. And he's all over social media. And he's like monetized it. I think because of like his dog or something. I was like, that's pretty cool. And he was like, yeah, he just quit Microsoft actually. And it was really amazing because this conversation was like,

I mean, I think he's kind of crazy because he's leaving like benefits and like, you never know what's going to happen. And like in the back of my head, I was like, my God, I'm about to tell him that I'm leaving too. And like, and I'm like, is it really that crazy? Like, is this crazy?

I have so many questions about what you're doing right now, like what has happened.

We can totally go into it. I'm like, I'm here for it. I'm ready for it. But it's funny. I don't think to me, like you are your safest asset. And so when you're like, I'm leaving and I'm going to go do this thing that I want to do. I was like, fuck yes. Because you can always come back to Microsoft, right? You can always go to like any like, let's say safe, high paying, epically benefited.

Marie (32:23.074)

tech company that you want to go to, like at any point in time, it's always an option for you. But stepping out and doing something for yourself, like, I mean, that's always also an option by the way, it's never not an option, but at the end of the day, like you are your safest asset, right? And like doing the thing that your heart is telling you to do, I think is the most, to me is the most important thing. and so despite your like, I know considering the jobs I've had, seemed very risk averse, but to me, I'm like, actually, no, it doesn't seem risky at all. feels, it seems like the safest and the surest thing that you can do. So.

Yeah. Oh, that's so cool. And also I to say, I'm so, like, for some reason I was like, she gave four weeks. Like what were your last couple of weeks? Like were you even, were you checked in? Were you checked out?

I was kind of checked out. It's not great. I did wrap things up with my customers and like did a couple of things and I still put in my hours. I spent more of the last two weeks kind of mentoring like the community that the next group coming in. So that was more fun. I did like a brunch and brew coffee thing and spend more time with the Nexus fires because I felt like the best use of what I could give. Yeah, I was kind of checked out. It was not great.

Oh, that's amazing. No, yeah, no, I love it. yeah. So for me, I, can, we can dive into all of this stuff. I, as we talked about, I don't know if I have this in the recording or not at the beginning, but just had like the craziest last couple of months of the year of 2022. But last year around like May, June, actually when you were exiting, I feel like that's like when I was just getting things started with my own business. Cause I was like, Oh, Hey, follow me on social media at the Corpse Psychic.

And you were like, what is this? You were like, wait a second, you have a business? what, like, what is this? yeah. And so it started out really just as like, super similar and that it was an idea that came to my mind that I couldn't stop thinking about. And I was like, Hmm. And it wasn't even just like, couldn't stop thinking about it. Like there's a problem that needs to be solved. It was just like, I can't not.

Marie (34:20.558)

Like I can't not do something with this idea, I guess. Like that's what was kind of like happening. was like, oh, you can't not do something with this. And I felt so compelled to just start working on it. And so for me, it just, it's like literally the corporate psychic was a union or like an integration of two very opposing things. so hence the name corporate psychic, like corporate is a super triggering word in the spiritual space we could say. In like,

almost any space actually outside of corporate. Like anyone that I talk to every time I meet, like every time I, every time I meet someone and I'm traveling, they're always like, oh, corporate, like, the 95. And what's fascinating is like just the other day I was talking to my best friend who works at a non-profit, but she worked in government before. And I sent her this, was like, actually I think it was an excerpt of a podcast talking about

just how low women and women with children are ranked in the appreciation of the corporate ladder. Like women with children are like at the bottom. It's awful. Whereas like fathers, like men with children were like at the top and they like make the most money and women with children make like the least amount of money. And I sent it to her and she's like, I'm so glad that I'm not in corporate, right? Like this is why we're for nonprofit. And I was just like, what is going on? Like everybody hates on corporate, but I'm also like, but you totally are like in my mind, I'm like, even though you're for a nonprofit, like you totally.

are still like a nine to five person that like works like to me, that's all corporate, right? Like all businesses are corporate. And I think about this too, like not that corporate's bad, obviously it's in my name. Like I work for a massive corporate company right now. And I truly don't like have anything at all against corporations. I think like people are the things that suck your souls, not factual business, right? Like it's not the business itself, but it's this really fascinating thing where it's so easy, like the word corporate, corporation.

that even the energy behind it, so easy to hate on. And then the same thing is true almost at psychic where it's like the space that is like stereotypically just like really mystical and out there. Also like back in the day, people with any type of like known abilities would be literally killed or like excommunicated. And it's still a space where it's so triggering that even in the spiritual community or world, like when I told my mentor and coach that I was gonna...

Marie (36:40.468)

use the name, the corporate psychic for my business. Like her first reaction was, you sure you want to use the word psychic? Like that's a very triggering word. Like, what are you, you know, are you like, what is it? What's that about? Like, what's the thing? And I'm like, that is the thing. And the idea behind it is not to really identify with either space, but it's like, how can we bring together all parts of self? How can we integrate all parts of self, all parts of human beings, each of us, all parts of like energy.

together into one and like grow from that space, right? And like use that as expansion as opposed to like this thing that we do in life where we categorize ourselves, like I'm a corporate person or like I'm a psychic or like I'm a swimmer, I'm a surfer, I'm a climber, right? Like all of these different things that we have for ourselves and almost all these different personalities we use when we like are in different situations, right? Like when we're with our group of people.

So I was like, how can we just, and for so many years I've been thinking like, how can I show up fully in myself?

and make money doing that. That was a thought that I had for so long. was like, how can I just be myself and not necessarily make money for being me, right? But how can I just show up in one place 100 %? And I had been working over the past seven years to really get to that place even at Microsoft and in the corporate space, which I feel like, by the way, it's so much easier to do when you're a remote person versus when you have to go into the office, right? Things are different when you see someone every single day and you feel like you have to dress a certain way or.

act a certain way or like eat a certain thing or like all of the little subconscious things that happen with us. And so I was like, oh, I think I'm going to lean into this idea. And at the same time I was going through this spiritual awakening. And so the word psychic felt just like so, so good. Cause I was experimenting with like practicing tarot and like reading the Akashic records and like really diving into the cold space. And so was like, I can totally like, I've been mentoring people forever. I've been like helping people like move into the

Marie (38:40.012)

the career of their dreams for forever also. Why am I not charging people money for this? Like that like thought came across my head. I was like, and I also am doing readings. Like, why do I not charge people money for this? And so when I started the corporate psychic, was like this fun side project that I couldn't get out of my head. And then now it has just like totally unraveled into something completely different. But essentially like this year, like my personal life got so crazy. So much was happening.

Like death is one of those things that came up in the past couple of months, like multiple, many deaths actually, not in a bad way. And at the same time, my business was like flourishing. It was doing so well. So was like all this contraction and expansion at one time. And really similar to you, Microsoft was the last thing on my list. Like every single time. It was just the last thing that like, even though it was the thing that was paying me my money, even though it was the thing that like gives me benefits, right?

it was the last thing that I would come to. And so from January until literally like maybe a week or two ago, I didn't even work a full week of work. I think for like seven or eight weeks, maybe even nine weeks, like almost every single day, something happened in my life where I had to step away from work. And I realized like I was deprioritizing work so much. Cause like, was like, maybe this is not really where I'm supposed to be anymore. You know, like maybe this isn't the thing that's really growing me. And I had said back in November to one of my coaches that

Cause I totally don't believe you have to quit your nine to five. Like this is a huge part of a lot of my work and work with people. Like I totally don't believe you have to quit your job. The thing that sustains you to like go do the thing that you want to do. Like a lot of times I think we can have both. And part of the idea behind my business was this realization that like I did my yoga teacher training 10 years ago and then I did another one maybe five years ago. And both times I went through this process of like learning this new aspect of myself.

and then not being sure how to integrate it into the other aspects of myself. And then having this full existential crisis of like, do I need to my job now? Like that happened multiple times. And I've seen it happen so often with people, especially people in the spiritual space, but like really people like in all sorts of different spaces that are not totally like, I don't know, fully seeing themselves as like the stereotypical type A person in corporate, right? And then there's this thing of like, do I quit my job?

Marie (40:59.65)

What do I do? How do I do it? And like the answer is I think you integrate all of yourself and then you see like what comes. And so yeah, back in November, I was talking to a coach and I was just like, look, I don't want to quit my job. And I don't want to sell the story of like, you need to quit your job to go do the thing that you want to do because I don't believe that. But so I don't want to quit my job until I have to choose until I'm so busy in both places that like I can't continue doing both because I love my life.

I love living my life. love surfing. love traveling. Like I want to have fun. And so to me, like working 80 hours a week is like never, ever, ever something I want to do. Even if I'm like in love with what I want to do, I want to again, enjoy my life. And so this past couple of months, it really came to that of like, okay, down to the line, what do I pick? I pick myself, right? Like I pick my business. And so that like that hit me and I was like, maybe it's to step away. and then on top of that, like,

I think similar to you just having encounters with death and close encounters with death, it's like this realization of life is really short. And so why not do the thing that you want, right? Like what if you were gonna die in a month from now, would you regret not leaving and like starting a business? Of course, probably, right? Or even like think about like imagine if you make it until you're like 95 and you're like.

hopefully not in a nursing home, but like walking around still feeling like really great in your body. But if you look back on your life, do you want to be like, I worked at Microsoft for 50 years? Probably not. Maybe, like, I don't know, maybe, right? Or do you want to be like, huh, I gave it my all at the thing that I really truly wanted to try, right? And then I tried the next thing and then I tried the next thing. And I learned and I grew and I expanded so much through all of these experiences. Not by the way that it's terrible to work.

at the same job for 50 years. Like that's not bad. So yeah, it was just this realization. then sometime around January as well, when my business started really picking up, I had this moment of, and I think you felt the same thing of like realizing that my impact even at Microsoft would be bigger if I left. And it was like this thing of like, like maybe if I stay here, I'm keeping myself small.

Marie(43:20.332)

And like, maybe it's like, love what you said when you were like, I knew that this role wasn't going to be big enough for me. Like I knew it wasn't enough for me. And that's such a beautiful realization because I think what happens, especially when you're young and you join like any big company, but really you start any kind of like entry level job. Not that where you started at Microsoft was entry level. Cause totally wasn't like people work their career to get there. But oftentimes I think what happens is when you're younger, you have like,

so much passion and energy and things to give and desire to give and make an impact. And then you join a company, almost any company, and you're almost just smacked down and told to get in line. And you're like, wait for your time. And we have this storyline in our society of work really hard, do the really tedious stuff, get good at it, and then move your way up. Be grateful for what you have.

And I think what's so beautiful about your story is you were like, no, like this isn't enough for me. I know I can do more and I'm not going to settle. I think that's so cool. It's it's yeah. I feel in a lot of ways, like I'm like, okay, I've done my time, right? Not even, not that we have to do our time anywhere, but I'm just like, it's, it's time now to move on and do something different.

Yeah, my gosh, there's so much in there that I appreciate you saying and that I feel like should be pulled and put on a mug to drink your coffee. I think the first thing that really stuck in my mind was the reasoning for the name of your company, right? And I like how you don't shy away from the challenge of the stigma that comes with the words and you're breathing new power into it. I think that's something that people, it just sticks in your head because of that, right? It's jarring and you're bringing positivity to it. So that's really cool.

I think the other thing I really agree with was that you don't have to leave your nine to five to do the things you want also. And I think that I did that for a really long time. And I just left because I wanted to. It's not because I necessarily had to. Right. And my father has been working at the same company for 30 years and he loves it. So there are people who just love to do that. And that's great. If you look at his LinkedIn, it's just the same company. I'm even half his age and it's just.

Maika (45:41.454)

Anyways, but yeah, no, yeah, I really, probably will just go back and listen to everything you just said because it was very powerful.

Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I don't know. It's such a cool time in realization. But I think the thing that's so cool about your story and also mine just in believing the thing that sustains you and that's safe and comfortable comes back to exactly what you just said, like the choice of it, right? Like doing it because you want to and because it felt good, like not because you're like,

my God, I have to get out of this. my God, I have no other options. Like, what the hell am I doing with my life? Like obviously the existential crisis comes like no matter what, but there's like this beautiful thing and recognizing that we have the power to choose and that you get to choose the thing that you want. Like, I think that's so cool. Okay. So when you were leaving though, so when you, when you put your notice in and you knew you were starting WebASy, how did you feel? Were you kind of scared?

No, I was so excited. Like I said, I woke up every day like so excited to work on the next big thing. I was just felt like I was chiseling away at my dream of making this a reality and a success. And yeah, it was, yeah, there was some scariness, but I think like you said, you can always go back to the things like, I think we're in a very lucky position that people in tech, especially if you've already had a job in tech, you can pretty much know that.

you can find another job at another company. And that's really, there's some security in that. But also it gives me that safety net that I can give it my all in this company, because there is a backup and it kind of felt the same way as Cirque. Like I can go do Cirque because I can always come back to school. And there is a beautiful freedom and knowing that there is that safety net. And I know some people do not have the ability to have that safety net or the luck to have that safety net. So I feel for that. But I do happen to have that and I'm making the most of it.

Marie (47:39.176)

my gosh. that's so wise too. Cause I think often it's so sad whenever there's something that we want to do and we have the full capability to do it, but we don't allow ourselves to do it because like we know other people wouldn't be able to, right? It's something that, I, so I don't know if you know this about me, but I'm also divorced. I got married when I was like 25, I think, and then divorced by like 27.

pretty short marriage, maybe 28. And I remember like, I remember having this distinct moment of realization of like, people would kill for my life. And I feel this way about Microsoft a little bit too, like leaving. I'm like, people would kill for my life. Like, especially, cause I think when I was married, like we had this like big beautiful house on the water, like.

I was in my like mid twenties. He was a little bit older than me. Like we both made really good money. We had like nice cars. We had like the dogs, the house, like we would travel all the time. Like everything on paper looked epic, right? I remember a couple of our friends came over and one of them was like, man, this is the house that, you know, I hope to buy one. I'm like 40. And it was just like this moment of like, man. And I, and for so long, actually like the entire marriage, I felt that

because I was in such a position of privilege that I should be grateful and then I should stay there. Like that I shouldn't make a change because I should be grateful for what I had. So I really love that you said that because when I did make like all of the change in my life, totally unraveled in such a great way, making the decision to leave, it's like this knowing and this realization of like, like, yes, you might have everything and people might kill like to work at Microsoft or to work in tech or to have this thing or.

to live the life that you live and the exact way that you live it. But like also realizing that if it's not for you, like you're not doing anyone else's service. Like no one, anybody who wants your life is not being served by you living the life that you don't want to live, right? And if anything, stepping out of the thing that's not doing it for you into the thing that is doing it for you is only going to grow and expand you more, which is only going to grow and expand all the people around you more, right? Which is only then kind of like.

Marie (49:57.162)

allow and hopefully inspire other people into the things that they actually want. So I think that's really cool. And that was a good call. A good call out.

Thank you. Yeah, no, I 100 % feel that. I think even attending university, I think there's Stanford in particular, there's this weird feeling that I think a lot of undergrads have. It's a little bit of guilt that they get to attend this. First of all, it's just the most beautiful school ever. It's like a paradise. But then you just feel this weird kind of like angsty privilege about being able to attend the university, whether it's through scholarship, whether it's not.

And that comes out in weird ways. Like people feel strange about what they need to be doing versus what they want to be doing. They maybe don't fulfill their full potential because they feel like it's like it's not like something they earned or whatever it may be. And these are high performing academic smart kids because they made it into Stanford. But yeah, that's definitely there. And I think it happens across many kinds of elite universities, elite places. Tech, think, has that a little bit too, depending on the kind of person you are.

Yeah, I think it's hard to say. think a lot of people haven't come to terms with like, you know, it's okay to put yourself first once in a while because you being a better person makes the world a better place. That's my personal opinion.

Yeah, no, I agree with that so much. this is, I think this is such an important topic, especially so like coming from a parent, both of us have parents who immigrated here, right? Like, did you ever feel that pressure that you had to fulfill a certain thing? Cause this is like exactly what happened that I feel like in my life. So for me, I was the first person that actually went to college like in like from my parents, know? And so I felt all this pressure to like become a doctor.

Marie (51:42.274)

like so difficult, but I was like, have to be a doctor or like a lawyer. And my mom, like, as a kid, she was like, you're going to be a lawyer, not because she like, well, I think a little bit stereotypically, like Asian wanted me to be like in the successful careers, but also because she's just she to say that I was really good at arguing and that I would always debate everything. She's like, you'd be such a great lawyer. But yeah. And I remember as an undergrad too, just feeling like that resonated so much, feeling this need.

to do something that I didn't wanna do so that I could like fill some shoes that were not my shoes, right? And like this thing of like, okay, I'm here now and college is really expensive. And like, I better do something really good with this. And similarly, I think when it came to joining Microsoft, that was in large part was in the back of my mind, which by the way, I totally threw that away in college. Like I was studying, I started out studying piano performance and chemistry and I ended up

taking a philosophy class, fellow philosopher and like following him up with it. And I like, was like, fuck everything else. And I just studied philosophy and I was like, that's what I'm going to study. And like everyone that I knew, I remember like fell off their chairs. Like my grandparents started inviting like all these female doctors over to the house to like have dinner with me, like all these women and these like really high paying powerful careers, like would invite them over and be like, come have dinner with our friend.

she wants to talk to you about your future. And I'd be like, what?

I don't know what she was doing.

Marie (53:14.88)

my gosh, that's so good. yeah. So that resonates so much. And even like joining Microsoft, for me, it was the thing that like at the time I felt like, when else am going to get the opportunity to join Microsoft? Right? Like that was totally, it wasn't my head because it wasn't on my radar. think until I, until I got the opportunity to be here and now that I'm here, I'm so grateful. And at the same time that desire, that internal need or drive to do the thing that we

think might be expected of us or like outwardly seems like would be better for us to do or make the most sense. That drive is like real. It's super powerful. It like keeps people in the positions and the lives that they live for the entire lifetimes, right? So I don't know, like, did you ever have those moments? I ask you this because your career is like,

like is risk averse as you mentioned earlier, right? Like you, think it's like one of my favorite things ever is hearing that you left Stanford for two years, like to go fulfill some dreams and like something that was a hobby of yours, right? And I think even like I almost took a year off at university to go to South Africa with a couple of my friends. And I decided not to cause my parents were like, you're never going to go back if you leave. But I loved hearing you be like Stanford's always going to be there. And I feel that so much now, like take yourself full.

always be there or like if it's not Microsoft, something will always be there. But I'm curious, like, did you always feel the freedom to explore the things that you wanted or did you ever feel a little bit of like push slash drive to fulfill something on behalf of your parents or on behalf of expectations around you?

I I got a little lucky for two reasons. So first, I'm a second child. So my older brother kind of took the blunt of that. like whatever he went through, the expectation was much less on me growing up. And then the second thing was that think my parents knew from a very young age that they would never be able to tell me what to do, which is like I wasn't a bad kid by any means. But if I wanted to do something, I was just going to do it. So I think.

Maika (55:25.422)

In that sense, I never really felt like pressure from them. I always felt some internal pressure to whether it was like succeed, be the best, you know, whatever, improve. And I remember starkly that the only fight I ever had with my father, so he's the Japanese one and you know, stereotype for Japanese dads is that they're really strict and they're like, oh, you need to be the one to be a doctor and get good grades. He's the anti-opposite of that. it's not anti-opposite, he is the opposite.

So cool. like, he's really, even as he's aged, become more lax and more chill and more about like, do whatever you want. But the only fight we ever had was I remember we were driving in the car, I think in Japan, and I had to tell him that I was taking another job. I was going to take the Cirque du Soleil job, which would extend my leave from Stanford. And this is the only time we ever fought because he was worried that he was worried at first when I first left school.

And then he thought, promised him I'd go straight back to school after that first job. And then this other job came up and I had to tell him that I wasn't going back yet. He just thought I was never going to go back. And I know from a parent's perspective, like circus acrobat versus Stanford degree, like from him, like I was making the stupidest choice ever. So that was a really tough car ride. And ever since then, we've still haven't had a single fight. And I think he knows that's the only fight we've ever had either, but I don't think he can complain now about what I'm doing. So all's good, but.

That was tough. That was really tough because you do feel you don't want to please the people that you care about. And that was a moment where I clearly was not, you know, but I believed in myself. Like you said, you have to you come to yourself and you're your own home and your own stability sometimes. So I had to do it.

that's so beautiful. my gosh, I love that too. Just in knowing that you were potentially going to disappoint your father, like so deeply at being like, Hey, I'm not going back to school, but I promise I am going back to school, but just like not yet. what like a, I don't know, just, I'm so proud of you. It's, it's really, I love that you've always allowed that internal compass to really guide you. I think in some ways I could relate to that because

Marie (57:28.736)

Well, my mom had two children, but I'm my dad's only child. so, and like the baby, obviously, if my mom's two children and so three children, I'm the third. In some ways, I think I was the same way. I remember when I was a kid, my mom would tell me to do something. And I used to be like, I'm doing this because I want to not because you told me to. So I was like very unruly and same, like not that I was bad, like not that I was misbehaved, but I did always do the things that I really wanted to do. And my parents

for years gave me this hard time about having to learn the hard way. Cause I was just one that I had to experience it. Like I didn't care if you told me, I just needed to experience it for myself. And so sometimes I learned things, definitely the hard way and sometimes I learned things really quickly. And so, I don't know, I think that's, oh my God, that's amazing. I'm like so, so, so excited that we could talk also.

Yeah, it would be awesome just to, I mean, I know we've like kind of stayed in touch here and there, but it would be amazing just to stay in touch more. Cause yeah, you're just such a like badass and incredible person and so inspiring and your life is such an inspiration and the way that you look at things is such an inspiration. I did want to ask you, and I do want to ask you, what are you, what are your days look like now compared to when you were working with the nine to five? Like what does your day to day entail? And

How often do you feel like you work and how happy and fulfilled you feel at the end of every day? I know it fluctuates with humans in its life, but yeah, where are you now?

That's a great question. think there's this, I'm not on TikTok, but for some reason I see TikTok videos. It's like a TikTok and like a real thing that's going around that these people are saying, instead of, I quit my 40 hour work week to pursue what I wanted. And instead of 40 hours a week, now I work 24 seven, like all the time. And I kind of feel that because I do work for WebSE all the time, but for some, but because it's something I want to work on.

Maika (59:29.454)

Um, it doesn't feel like work, of course. Right. So everything I do, like I either have to do it for the company or I want to do it. And so it is spread out through the weekend and so on. So my days typically start with like morning meetings, um, whoever that might be meeting with, um, some core work in the afternoon. I always work out every single day, whether that be rock climbing, whether it be just in the gym, going for a run, just kidding. don't I do run a little bit. I don't like running. Um,

And then in the evening, I try to do something fun. Like I also really enjoy living my life too. So, you know, seeing friends, reading, it might be more WebASY work that I consider more fun than other parts of WebASY. It's all there, but that's my day to day nowadays.

I love it. I love it. Yeah. I feel that too, by the way, since I started TCP, there's not a moment that goes by where I'm not in some way thinking about TCP. there's just not, whereas the beautiful thing I think about working for Microsoft is, and I know this is not true for everyone in the corporate space or everyone with a job of any sort, but like I truly shut my laptop and I like do not think about work.

I'm like, once my laptop was closed, I'm like, I am done for the day. And I actually recently like took all of the apps off my phone too. So like, don't even respond to like Teams or Outlook on my phone anymore. Whereas I would never, I couldn't imagine a life in which I did that for TCP. Like not have the apps on my phone so that I can be like talking to people and checking on things and working on stuff as I wanted to. But for the same exact reason, cause it's like, it's fun, right? Like it feels really good.

So tell me like, where has WebSE gone? Like, where are you guys now as a company? Like you have this platform. So like if for the people listening, is there one thing that you would want them to do? Because I know like in thinking about death and what we want to do like post death or what we want to happen post death, like I'm sure you have some opinions, right? And some things that literally every single person on this planet right now could probably take action on. Yeah.

Maika (01:01:39.726)

100 % so right now, obviously, we're still in beta. So we're really developing the platform. And the reason we still haven't gone public yet is because we are developing the platform really

we're putting a lot of thought into it because we're as if you've gone to our website, you've seen maybe if you were with us in the beginning, it was kind of around death, the messaging, but we've moved on now more towards protection, being prepared, peace of mind, that sort of thing, because that's something that as a company to provide value and onboard people for what matters to them today. And that's not always mortality. People don't want to think about it. our, you know, our philosophy is still around being prepared and living life to the fullest, but

our tech stack and our features have expanded beyond that because we're just capable of more. So that's one reason we are releasing very soon publicly. I would say to get on the wait list now and then you'll be notified when we are public. But when it comes to just preparing in general, I would say the biggest thing, I'm going through the process of doing my will myself. And even if you don't have much, it's a good process to kind of take stock.

check in with yourself. And it's also really daunting too, because no one likes to do paperwork. It's kind of a pain, but start the process, just start thinking about it. But WebSEA as a company, we raised, we're six months old now. We raised a small pre-seed round in Q4 of last year, which one, which like we weren't planning to raise. I think the pure necessity of what we were building, just people threw in, their tickets in the hat. And then we're about to launch actually our crypto product.

probably next month, like early next month. That's been huge, super exciting. There's a huge, know, crypto security is like not easy and it's not, it's hard for people and it's the even the current solutions are like dumb. It's the current solution is writing down on a piece of paper. Like there's gotta be something better than that. So we built it, we're testing it for security and it's gonna be out there soon. That's pretty exciting. That's where they come in.

Marie (01:03:39.806)

Amazing! That's so cool. So tell me more about the crypto solution. Well, whatever you can tell. So if there things you can't share yet, that's totally okay. But what's the idea behind it and how can people use it? And then would the advice be the same thing? Just get on the wait list.

Yeah, pretty much. yeah, crypto, think it was still it started started with what happens to crypto when you die, because I think the numbers at this point are 100 billion and Bitcoin only have been lost due to either death or loss of access to the original wallet. Isn't that crazy? Bitcoin only. And now there's all kinds of other different stuff you have to like think about.

So that was the original problem we wanted to solve and all of the historical recommendations for wallet security are, like I mentioned, the first one is write it down, keep it off the wall, give half to your mom, give half to your sister and say, if I ever die, put them together. You know, it's just, it doesn't make any sense. It's a Horcrux model of, like we're not living in Harry Potter, but the other one is this multi-sig solutions, like multi-signature on a single wallet.

There's no safe and that no safe protocol that things are built upon that is great. It kind of makes more sense for like a business or a Dow or is there's multiple people have to sign, right? So if one of them dies or two of them die, what are you really going to do? It's not a long-term solution. So we landed on this pre-approval smart contract tech.

If you pre-approved assets to be transferred on a specific trigger and that trigger either being loss of access if you're using our backup wallet or death if you die. So we're, there's a lot you can imagine that could be built on that system as well. So we have a lot of stuff on the roadmap, which I'm excited about, but that's the philosophy behind it. It's a better solution. But yeah, that's, it's pretty exciting. If you, how into like web three stuff are you?

Marie (01:05:24.162)

my gosh, like not super into like not knowledgeable, but definitely like active, which I think is a lot of people, the way, like the majority of, especially like lately with the boom, like we have friends who are like not tech people, but like really into stuff, you know, that could definitely, I feel like all of us could brush up our skills, right? Like we could all know a little bit more about what it is that we're actually doing. And especially like when it comes to what we're investing in and then like what

Yeah, no, I would say yes. Active, knowledgeable, not very.

Yeah, you're ahead of the curve for most. So it's just funny because being in the space, you think that everyone is in Web3, but it's not. Like most of the world is curious, but doesn't actually own any or want to know about it. And we're seeing a huge wave of it's going to become just more pertinent in our lives. And so that's kind of what we're preparing for. But for our launch, we're actually giving a thousand access tokens away for free. So you should. Yeah, it's there's a sign up on our crypto landing page, but we can, I can also just send that to you.

Thank

put your name on, but we're, yeah, we're doing access tokens first again to like iterate on our product, make sure it's ready for like the general use and so on.

Marie (01:06:35.566)

Yeah, I would love an access token. That would be so amazing. Yeah. I can't wait for it to come out. I literally, when you were talking about it, got chills. So yeah, I'm so pumped for you. I'm so freaking proud of you. I'm like so honored to know you. Um, yeah. Thank you for taking the time.

you

Marie (01:06:56.446)

Thank you for listening to this special episode of the Spiritual 9-5 with Maika Isogawa. I can't close without inviting you into my next offering, the Quantum Leap. Side hustle to profitable, soul aligned, sustainable, and life giving business. It's everything that I've learned through my own development inside and outside of corporate. The Quantum Leap will run from June 7th to July 7th, my last four weeks of Microsoft. I would love for you to join me to celebrate

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