Brian Schardt

Summary

He was 24, eating at Michelin-star restaurants in New York. He'd never been more miserable. Brian Schardt was Director of Engineering at Warner Music Group; parties, money, everything he thought he wanted. Then he flew to Argentina for a wedding and watched people with nothing laugh harder than anyone he knew in Manhattan. He quit from a dinner table that night. No two weeks notice. Just an email: "This is my last day." He came home and built a stock trading app with his brother. Then in one week, everything collapsed: the market crashed, his investor threatened to sue, his girlfriend left, his dad passed away, and his faith went quiet. He fired everyone. Reduced his salary to zero. Took three months off. When he came back, he did the thing his entire team told him was insane, killing a 250,000-user app to bet everything on four words: Invest Like Nancy Pelosi. It hit number one in the App Store. Craft Ventures wrote a million-dollar check without a pitch. Autopilot now manages $1.7 billion. His dad once texted him: "There's no doubt in my mind you will change the world." His dad never saw Autopilot.