Hi! 👋🏻 I’m a software engineer at heart and a curious Renaissance soul.

I’m into software, AI, writing, hiking, museum-surfing, and creating — whether it’s remixing music, making 약과, or AI art. I’m also always genuinely curious about people's stories and minds (= neuroscience, liberal arts, and history)

I’m currently building an AI agent for global freight — Forward, an SF-born startup (Why?). Find me in Seoul 🇰🇷, San Francisco 🌉, Toronto 🍁, or somewhere in between.

Non-linear things about me

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Civic Tech: Founded an international tech non-profit at 18 — which later got me working with US digital gov & civic tech orgs (e.g. USDR, Coding It Forward, Agency Fund)

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Hypergrowth startup: 1st engineer, 7th employee → grew YC backed Fintech in Berkeley from no product to unicorn 🦄 (-1 to 0 to $1B) — Xendit (YC S15, YC Growth // Stripe for emerging market // top YC startup list)

Immigrated to the US 🇺🇸 when I was young, on a visa that only < 0.5% (at that time) non-immigrants can get, which serendipitously led to working in Silicon Valley despite having no US education degrees. (also to reunite with long-lost family)
“Technically” a college dropout
Bootstrapped a software consulting business
NGO: Helped non-profits in Latin America (up-skilling for Latin American micro businesses), North America (credit score for New York prisoners), and Southeast Asia (teaching computers to kids in juvenile detention)
My 1st ever job was actually selling shirts, flowers, and donuts on the street

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Some random scrappy jobs

Fun facts

👨🏻‍💻 I coded too intensely until my hand bled 🤯
✈️ I launched a product MVP when living in an airport for weeks when I was a broke kid. Luckily, I survived.
🚚 Used to go to school by truck (my uncle is a truck driver)
I have more than 100 debit cards around the world. Its fun the understand the mechanics behind global money movement
Hacked a few system to expedite things for fun & friends — travel visa (months → weeks), bumble, school’s course management system

What I like (& don’t like) in people/friends

Inspired by Ava Bear’s masterpiece on genuine friendship, I figured and learned the hard way that its important to be self-aware and know your values are to form an authentic & long-lasting relationship (family, friendship, romantic, etc) — cuz it is gonna impact any aspects of your life later on (community, work, location, identity, etc).

Hence, this list 🙂 (but ofc this will vary depending on the context & circumstances)

Some things I like

Genuine curiosity about people (life stories, people’s thoughts, etc - not just asking questions about work)
Authenticity: not following anyone’s expectation. Living on your own terms
Open & sincere communication: not shying away from expressing how you really feel, sharing boundaries (though I’m trying to get better at reading subtle cues). Otherwise, without a symbiotic effort - it might slowly fizzle out.
Passionate / obsessed about something — Litmus test: I can see spark in your eyes
Consistent — your words = actions
Appreciative