About Me

I got my first taste of building communities through a dial-up modem in the 90s. Back then I was helping people make virtual LEGO® models with open source software. That project, LDraw, is still going strong today.

The LEGO Group noticed what we were doing and brought me on to build LEGO IDEAS, their crowdsourcing platform. We grew it from 20,000 beta users to over a million people, turned dozens of fan ideas into real LEGO products, and helped The LEGO Group figure out what adults actually wanted to build. It was a crash course in balancing community authenticity with the goals of a rapidly growing global brand.

All those trips to Denmark showed me what cities could be–places built for people, not just cars. Coming home to American stroads got old fast. So I started working with my neighbors to make our streets safer. Turns out the skills that build online communities work pretty well for local organizing, too. We got the city of Oakland, California to install one mile of speed humps and traffic circles, transforming a high-speed cut through street into a calm place to walk and bike. My efforts helped save the Telegraph Ave protected bike lanes from NIMBY backlash and built unanimous support for traffic calming across a divided Oakland City Council.

These days I split my time between Treasury where we're building the "Getty Images of spatial computing" and advocating for better, safer city streets. Whether it's a product launch or getting concrete in the ground, I'm into projects that make life better for everyday people.

I believe in bringing people together. Sometimes that's a park hang or a cocktail hour, other times it's connecting founders with first customers or neighbors with city leaders. The magic happens when you get the right people together over a shared purpose.

When I'm not working, you might find me biking out to Ocean Beach Park, dreaming about a return to the sky as an instrument-rated pilot, or finding golden retrievers to pet.