After serving nearly three years on the board of You Are Accountable, I recently stepped down. Instead of stepping away, I made a different decision: I’m joining the company full-time as Chief Strategy Officer.

Over the past several years, I’ve had the privilege of watching Matt, AJ, and the entire team build something truly special. From the board seat, I saw firsthand the impact this model can have—how accountability, peer support, and community can create real change in people’s lives.

But the mission has always been more than professional for me. It’s deeply personal.

Nearly six years ago, during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, I made a decision that changed my life: I stopped drinking.

Like many people, my relationship with alcohol started socially. In college it was a way to fit in and connect. Over time, though, it became something that quietly crept into more areas of my life.

In 2014, I attempted sobriety for the first time and made it 76 days before convincing myself I wasn’t someone who truly needed to stop. Over the next several years, I continued negotiating with the idea—sometimes questioning my relationship with alcohol, sometimes pushing those thoughts aside.

Eventually, while living in New York, things escalated and I found myself attending a 12-step meeting. That helped me reach 11 months of sobriety. But after relocating to Kentucky, I convinced myself that the only way to make friends in a new place was through drinking. Looking back, that belief wasn’t true, but at the time it felt very real.

Then the pandemic arrived.

At the time, I was responsible for leading a company through an incredibly uncertain moment. The pressure was immense, and I realized that continuing to rely on alcohol as a coping mechanism could eventually undermine everything I was responsible for building.

About three weeks into the pandemic, I sat on the balcony of my condo with a glass of wine and told myself this time would be different.

Deep down, I knew it had to be.

The early days of sobriety were incredibly difficult. But one unexpected blessing of the pandemic was that recovery communities moved online. I was able to reconnect with meetings in New York through Zoom and lean on that virtual community for support.

Around six months into my sobriety journey, I was introduced to Matt Serel during a Techstars mentor community call.

After the call, I sent him a message on LinkedIn.

“The first message Matt and I exchanged after meeting during a Techstars mentor session in 2020. Neither of us knew then how meaningful this connection would become.”

It was a simple message—but it opened the door to a relationship that would become incredibly meaningful. At the time, Matt was building something new: a company focused on accountability, peer support, and recovery.

What he and AJ were building immediately stood out to me.

Over the next several years, I watched the company grow from a distance and admired the impact the team was having on people’s lives.

Eventually our paths crossed professionally as well. While building a corporate venture function at G.E.H.A, I became increasingly focused on solutions addressing substance use disorder. The more I learned about the model behind You Are Accountable, the more convinced I became that Matt and AJ were building something truly meaningful.

That led me to join the board, where I spent the next three years watching the team execute, expand the platform, and most importantly, help individuals reclaim control of their lives.

During that time, my conviction in the mission only deepened.

So when I decided to step away from my investor role the decision felt clear: rather than stepping away, I wanted to lean in.

Joining You Are Accountable as Chief Strategy Officer gives me the opportunity to help build something that is not only meaningful professionally, but deeply aligned with my own journey.

Nearly six years into sobriety, I’m incredibly grateful—for the community that supported me, for the lessons along the way, and for the opportunity to help others find the same path forward.

And I couldn’t be more excited to build alongside Matt, AJ, and the entire team.