History
Notes and thoughts on my work history, projects, and experiences. This is a collection of what I've done, ordered chronologically. For a more formal work history, check out my resume.
Triplit
Triplit is an open source query engine and sync engine for local first and collaborative applications. It was a successor to the CRDT syncing system we built for Aspen Spaces, and after trying to find something that worked for us. It gained popularity after a Hacker News launch and has grown to 2.8k+ stars on GitHub, 4k+ npm weekly downloads, and is serving hundreds of users building apps in a variety of use cases, from finance to farm management to games.
Aspen Spaces
After sunsetting the Aspen Browser, and inspired by what worked we tried to address what felt like a growing gap in social apps: as apps moved towards algorithmic content feeds, there weren't as many spaces to connect with your friends. So we built Aspen Spaces, a social platform that let you curate a space for the various groups in your life. Each space could install "mini apps" (polls, games, etc) to personalize the experience and the social graph was based on the members of the space - solving the network effect problem. The mini apps themselves were built with web technologies (ran in webviews), and there was an API for developers to build their own realtime, mobile friendly experiences. Although the app had daily usage within our own network, it failed to expand beyond that. This was a good lesson in stated preferences vs revealed preferences. It remains true however that my most meaningful interactions occur in "non broadcast" spaces like messaging apps. The developer API was also never released and we were a little too early for generative AI to help us bootstrap developers as we planned. It would have been very interesting to see this in the "vibe coding" era.
Aspen Browser
At a time when SaaS and productivity software were popular, we built the Aspen Browser - a "web browser for work". This materialized in an always-on "dock" that provided quick access to your most used web apps, along with a slick window manager for multitasking. As well we had a "spaces" feature that allowed you to create and switch between different workspaces, all of which could be shared and edited collaboratively. Although we had a generally positive reception, particularly from power users, there is A LOT that people expect from a browser and we didnt feel we had enough of an edge to compete with Chrome, etc and separately OSs and window managers in the long run. As well, the browser was built with electron and electron apps being heavy was a concern. What felt most compelling to us and other users in the product was the collaborative nature of the workspaces - this would go on to inspire our later work.
Accepted to YC W21
After reconnecting with my future co-founder, we applied and interviewed for Y Combinator and were accepted into the Winter 2021 batch. I quit my job and started working on the Aspen Browser. This would go on to become Triplit, as you'll see.
Worked at a hedge fund
After graduating from Middlebury, I moved to New York and worked at a hedge fund for a few years. As a part of a small (6-7) team of engineers, I worked on a variety of internal tools and applications for data scientists, traders, analysts, and portfolio managers. Although not everything I worked on was a web application, I learned about building performant web applications and it got me excited about the browser as a platform.
Started MOHO - Middlebury's off campus housing hub
Before the start of my senior year I was approved by the school to live off-campus. During the process of applying, I got all my housing leads through word of mouth from older friends and after trying to get in touch those landlords, ended up with only one lease to choose from. This inspired me to create Middlebury Off-Campus Housing (or MOHO), a platform connecting students with local landlords to provide off-campus housing. This was the first web app I ever built, and was where I earned my first dollar on the internet. After a successful first season connecting landlords with students, and even processing a vacation rental, we shut down the service after graduation (since my co founder and I both moved away from Middlebury). We had an offer to purchase the domain and codebase, but that fizzled out after some back and forth.
Attended Middlebury College
In 2013 I started my undergraduate studies at Middlebury College, where I separately majored in Computer Science and Economics. I was also a member of the lacrosse team, captaining the team my senior year.