Rocket’s Post

I asked Papanii Okai what he does. He gave me the executive answer. So I asked again. I’m new to Rocket, and I’ve been spending time with leaders here to hear their stories. Papanii was first. We went for a drive, and I asked him to explain his job to a neighbor who doesn’t work in tech. He smiled and said, “I love building technology to make your life easier.” That stuck with me. So did everything that came after. We talked about what owning the dream means to him, which is achieving something you never thought possible. We talked about how few young Black men he saw in tech leadership growing up, and why being visible matters for the ones coming next. And we talked about the difference between a house and a home, and why that difference is the whole point of what we do at Rocket. Then we pulled up to a billboard in our city, San Francisco. Papanii, forty feet up, over the streets where he grew up. His advice to his younger self: always do the right thing, and never give up on your dreams. A huge thank you to our partners at Twilio for seeing what we see in Papanii, and for building something that honors where he came from as much as where he’s going. Also thank you to Jonathan Mildenhall and Peter Giorgi for the freedom to create, Kirsten Richey for putting this all together better than i could have imagined, and Nate Fong as always for the assist and second camera. Lastly Papanii, thank you for letting me ride along.