In 2013, Lauri Hynynen was convinced to send an application to Startuplifers. His startup had recently ran out of funding and he was about to start writing his bachelor thesis while working at Slush. When an opportunity at Backlift opened in San Francisco, he thought: why not? That was a turning point and a start for his inspirational journey to Silicon Valley. Being the first hire for a YC-startup Backlift, he got to wear many hats ranging from engineering and design to product strategy and marketing, and even steered the company together with the CEO through pivots.