childhood
I never planned on being a designer. As a kid I wanted to be a CEO.
From 4th grade, I knew I wanted to be in the world of business. At summer camp, I’d convince my camp counselors to run a carnival just so I could sell snacks to other kids. In middle school, I started selling Jolly Ranchers to classmates. I bought them for 2¢ each and sold them for 25¢. The business took off so quickly that every Sunday I had to clear out the Walmart candy aisle. People started calling me “The Candy Man.” I made $3,000 in profit in under six months. Not too bad for a pre-teen.
Growing up in Silicon Valley put me at the center of new tech from day one.
Trying new ideas was normal for me. Being in the Bay Area set a high bar for what it meant to be a founder. By the end of high school, I realized I hadn’t seen enough different perspectives. The Bay Area has its own energy, but it can also feel like an echo chamber. I chose to go to college in the Midwest so I could meet people who thought differently.
purdue
I studied sales and marketing, but something was missing.
I joined Purdue in Fall 2020. We were one of the few universities open during peak COVID. I jumped into every startup club I could find. But I kept running into the same wall. Most entrepreneurship opportunities were clunky and overwhelmingly unhelpful. People cared about what looked good on paper, not how it actually helped others. I got tired of waiting for someone else to fix things, so I started fixing them myself.
What started as tweaking slides, posters, and running events turned into building brands, web apps, and products. My frustration with bad design was my best teacher. Now, design is how I solve problems. Along the way, I met my first co-founder and some of my best friends.
Design + AI
I got access to GPT-2 a year before ChatGPT was released.
My first co-founder introduced me to a research project from a small company called OpenAI. The early demos of generative text and GAN images were rough, but I could see it was something new. Soon, I realized we were at the start of a major shift in tech. Building that startup (Quasi) forced me to learn how to design for and with AI. I saw that good design wasn’t just about how things looked. It was about shaping how people use technology that keeps changing.
Present Day
I design products that turn complex tech into something people actually want to use on the regular.
I focus on interfaces that feel alive and get out of the way. I want software to work for the user, not the other way around. Whether I’m building tools for startups or experimenting with new AI features, my goal is always the same. I want to create experiences that make sense, feel good, and save people time.