About me

My work sits at the intersection of AI and design, but my fascination with combining different worlds started much earlier. At UCLA, I pursued an unconventional combination - studying architectural design while minoring in accounting. It wasn't the typical path, but it reflected my belief that the most interesting opportunities often emerge when we bridge seemingly separate domains.

This perspective has shaped my entire career in technology. After early roles at Google and Yahoo, I founded URX to explore new ways for people to discover and connect with mobile experiences. When Pinterest acquired the company, I had the opportunity to help shape how millions of people engage with visual content on their platform.

Being a two-time Y Combinator founder has taught me invaluable lessons about building technology that matters. My first time through the program, with URX, I learned the fundamentals of company building. By my second experience with Aesthetic, I was able to validate our core hypothesis within the first week - a process that had taken months the first time around. But more importantly, I gained a deeper appreciation for the delicate balance between computational efficiency and authentic human expression.

Today, as Head of GenAI Product at Canva, I'm working with an incredible team to reimagine the future of creative expression. We're focused on making sophisticated design capabilities accessible to over 200 million users worldwide, while ensuring we preserve the human element that makes creativity meaningful.

Throughout my journey, I've had the privilege of mentoring early-stage founders, particularly those navigating the space between technical innovation and genuine human needs. My thoughts on technology, entrepreneurship, and design thinking have been featured in The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, where I advocate for thoughtful integration of artificial intelligence into creative processes.

What continues to drive me is a fundamental belief that technology should enhance rather than replace human creativity. Whether I'm building companies, developing products, or leading teams, I'm exploring how we can use advanced technology to make creativity more accessible while keeping the human experience at the center of everything we do.