About

TGIL is a play on TGIF. It stands for Thank God It’s Laide...because Laide rhymes with Friday!

I’m Laide. I’m a product leader, an entrepreneur, a former engineer, and someone with a lot of tabs open.

Today I lead product at Parallel, where we’re building autonomous battery-electric freight vehicles for rail. Prior to that, I led product at Slabstack, a construction tech company, joining as the first product hire and helping grow revenue 22x before it was acquired.

I started my career as an RF engineer. I was supposed to start in firmware but got pulled onto a different team, and eventually made my way into firmware anyway. From there I moved into product, building consumer hardware at Sonos, Ring (Amazon), and Syng.

On the side, I founded and still run Pickytarian, a consumer product brand I took from a design patent through manufacturing to a profitable business.

I have a dual BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Cal Poly Pomona, an MS in Electrical Engineering from UCLA, and an MBA from MIT.

Outside of work, I’m usually on a golf course, working on my Spanish, or trying something new just to see what it’s like.

What I write about

How things get built. Careers that don’t fit in a box. Money, learning, AI, and identity. Golf and whatever else I can’t stop thinking about. The through line is the same lens: curiosity, systems, and what actually works.

When

A new post every other Friday, straight to your inbox if you subscribe.

Say hi

Reply to any email or write to hello@tgil.io.

Views are my own and don’t represent my employer or any company I’m affiliated with.