Hi, I'm Lily.
I've never been
very good at leaving
interesting ideas
alone.

To be fair, it worked.

Looking back, the bathroom wasn't really an exception. More like the first data point.

There was the woodshop phase, where I had a habit of turning a simple assignment into a much more complicated one. (Shoutout Mr. More for putting up with that.) My backyard swim school. The student leadership role in my real estate program that turned into more responsibility than I expected. Each one started the same way: something seemed interesting, I didn't fully know what I was doing, and I decided that wasn't a good enough reason not to start.

The version of that pattern that surprised me most happened in Calgary.

I moved there for a co-op term without knowing the city or anyone in it. The plan was to do good work and figure the rest out.

At some point I decided to organize a CRE networking event with the support of my incredible team. Which, in hindsight, was an interesting call for someone who had been in the city a few months and was technically there as an intern.

We called it The Blueprint. It ended up being a fireside chat at Oxford Properties with two senior panelists, a full room of young CRE professionals, professional photography, and GREAT food and drinks.

What I remember most isn't the logistics. It's the conversations that kept going after the room cleared out. The relationships that stuck.

I've noticed this keeps happening. I get pulled in by the challenge, but I stay because of the people.

AI caught my attention for the same reason the bathroom did.

It felt like a new building material. I didn't really know what I was doing, but that wasn't exactly a new feeling.

I started lilyp.ai without knowing how to code, how to build a website, or what I was actually making. I'm a fifth-year Real Estate student with a co-op placement and a graduation date in April 2027. I built it anyway.

Because something seemed interesting. And I've learned that not knowing how to do something is usually just the starting condition, not a reason to wait.

I'll graduate from Guelph in April 2027.

I don't know exactly what comes next.

What I do know is that most of the things I'm proudest of started when I had significantly less experience than I thought I needed.

So for now, I'm building this.