Building, tinkering, thinking. Based in San Francisco.
I'm building a new company called Parallel, evolving the web as it should exist for AI.
I started my career at McKinsey in San Francisco, focusing on payments, growth strategy for marketplace tech companies, and technology research at the McKinsey Global Institute (including reports here and here). I had the privilge to work with with some of the most interesting companies of our time and build many slides in the process.
Later, I joined Chime, where I drove our strategy and commercial relationships with our bank partners, led our savings product, and worked with investors and policymakers.
In my late teens, I interned at SeatGeek and worked at Kleverbeast, a (now defunct) no-code web startup.
I'm also a Fellow at The Institute of Advanced Studies in Culture, where I think and write about progress.
I've always had a passion for side projects that bridge art, data, and tech:
More recently, I've been working on The Paradox of Progress, a personal research project that might always be a work in progress. The Leaning Tower of Progress is an essay published in The Hedgehog Review, meant to be a seed to the broader thesis. I published an essay in November 2024 focused on intuition, compression, and reason. Sporadically, I also publish essays here.
Areas where I'm an inch deep, but deeply curious.
E: traversnisbet [at] gmail [dot] com
T: @travers00