Satellite route replay of the Santa Monica coast run. Muted looping video. Click, tap, or press Space or Enter to pause or play. The route cannot be rotated in this view.

this is one of my actual runs. i turned the GPX route into the 3D miniature above and paired it with a video replay. the route endpoints are filtered for privacy, and the distance here comes from that same route.this week’s run count and mileage come from the Strava API, with a 30-minute cache. my week starts on monday, Los Angeles time. i update the featured replay by hand.

explorer of the universe

i design, build, and bring ambitious ideas to life.

currently building products and growing the founder community at sidequest ventures. previously at apple, sap, imgur, and manhattan venture partners. i also co-founded gattaka inc., where i built recurpal and bankroll, reimagining virtual cards and subscription spending.

philosophy, writing, running, and building art cars in the desert with friends.

Play Doom

data for nerds

Re-reading Mindset by Carol Dweck: books
Strava miles this week: Strava stats unavailable
Places checked in on Swarm: 142
Total website page views: 7.1k page views
Current deployed Git commit: 79b3dde
Current site version: v.2026.10.22

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data for nerds

Re-reading Mindset by Carol Dweck: books
Strava miles this week: Strava stats unavailable
Places checked in on Swarm: 142
Total website page views: 7.1k page views
Current deployed Git commit: 79b3dde
Current site version: v.2026.10.22

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builds

Currently growing korpus.app, tinkering, exploring software factories, and reading Inspired & Continuous Discovery.

Showing 9 of 12 projects

BankrollA credit card experience designed to teach teenagers good spending habits.12,000+ downloads · $150k seed funding#startups#mobile#product-design

Moonrise A wellness marketplace and community built around calmer technology.3,300+ sign ups · 150+ interviews#startups#mobile#landing-page

Sidequest Ventures Building products, advising founders, and growing a builder community.1,200+ founders in Slack · 200+ WhatsApp members#startups#sidequest#design-partner#investor#advisor

GenzrA Gen Z translator for the workplace, built as a Slack integration.50+ testers · 100+ translations#sidequest#startups#ai

RecurPalSubscription management software for growing startups.200+ daily signups · $650k seed funding#startups#b2b

fastn.ai Infrastructure provider in the AI agent stack.#startups#product-design#ai#design-partner

Paragon Embedded integration platform designed for software developers.#startups#product-design#design-partner#investor

2026

Founding Designer • Product Strategy · AI Safety

Korpus

After both of my parents were targeted by scams, I built Korpus to help families identify suspicious messages before they act.

2.2K
Scans Completed: 83%
Detection Accuracy: 72+
Weekly Beta Signups: 29+
User Interviews

Philip’s parents standing together outdoors, the personal motivation behind Korpus

Why This Matters

A suspicious message creates a decision before it creates a loss.

Scams increasingly arrive as ordinary texts, emails, links, and QR codes, often when someone is busy, anxious, or unsure who to trust.

Research pointed to adults 55+ as a particularly exposed group. The challenge wasn’t simply detecting malicious content. It was helping someone understand the risk and make a safer decision in the moment.

A suspicious text beside an older couple reviewing a phone, with elder-fraud statistics

Product

One screenshot. A clear explanation. A safer next action.

Korpus turns a suspicious screenshot into a Safe, Suspicious, or Confirmed Scam result. It explains what triggered the result, shows supporting evidence, and recommends what to do next.

Familiar input
Explainable result
Actionable guidance

Korpus upload, analysis, and safe-result screens

1/4 • Value Before Questions

I asked for context before I had earned the user’s trust.

Our first MVP attempted to collect detailed family profiles to customize risk reports. Instead, this questionnaire acted as a barrier, causing over 40% of signups to bounce before completing their first scan.

Finding: The original onboarding required 6–7 configuration questions before users could verify a message.
Decision: Remove all pre-onboarding questions. Give users immediate value, then learn from usage patterns and measure behavior with Mixpanel analytics.
Tradeoff: I surrendered early demographic segmentation data in exchange for lower friction and much faster iteration.
Outcome: Onboarding steps fell from 7 to 0. Direct scan engagement surged instantly.

Early Korpus onboarding with several questions required before the first scan

Streamlined Korpus web experience that takes users directly to their first scan

2/4 • Screenshot Confusion

Some of the people who needed Korpus most did not know how to take a screenshot.

Shocking, I know. But it’s true.

Finding: The product treated screenshot capture as an obvious skill. Interviews showed that this assumption created a hidden barrier, particularly for older users.
Decision: I added a short instructional GIF after registration showing how to capture and upload a screenshot.
Tradeoff: The additional guidance made onboarding slightly longer, but it helped users reach the core action without requiring outside assistance.
Outcome: The product began teaching the prerequisite behavior instead of assuming it.

Korpus dashboard and screenshot tutorial shown side by side

3/4 • The App Store Dilemma

The App Store was adding friction to a product people needed immediately.

While 90% of older adults own a phone, younger users drive 65% of all downloads. Once seniors set up their essential apps, their new downloads drop to zero.

Finding: Many prospective users did not want to download another app. Family members also needed an easy way to share Korpus with someone after receiving a suspicious message.
Decision: I moved the MVP back to the web and added one-tap Google login. Game changer.
Tradeoff: The web MVP gave up some native notifications and device integration.
In return, it offered broader access, easier sharing, faster iteration, and a shorter path to the first scan.

Native Direction

App Store installation
More device capabilities
Slow release cycle
Individual acquisition

Web MVP

Open from a link
Lower adoption friction
Faster experimentation
Easier family sharing

The Korpus App Store listing compared with the lower-friction web registration experience

4/4 • Clarity Always Wins

A verdict without reasoning was fast, but it was not trustworthy.

Finding: A confidence score could sound authoritative without helping someone understand the risk.
This was especially dangerous when the model was uncertain.
Decision: I designed Safe, Suspicious, and Confirmed Scam states around four questions:
1. What is the result? 2. Why did Korpus reach it? 3. How confident is the system? 4. What should the user do next?
Tradeoff: The result requires more reading and can feel less decisive than a single score.
That additional explanation gives users more agency and reduces the risk of blind trust.

Korpus combines visual analysis, risk signals, and explainable AI to turn suspicious messages into clear next steps.

Screenshot → OCR → risk signals → classification → explanation → action

Korpus Safe, Confirmed Scam, and Suspicious result states

Impact

The strongest signal was people returning with real messages.

The beta validated that people wanted a fast second opinion when something felt wrong.

It also showed that detection accuracy alone was not the full product. Access, technical confidence, explanation, and family support all shaped whether someone could benefit from the result.

Dozens of heartfelt emails from users sharing how Korpus helped protect them or their parents.

24K+
Scams Analyzed: 72+
Weekly Beta Signups: 6.4%
Free-to-Paid Conversion Rate: 2.5K
Users: 113+
User Interviews: 98%
Customer Satisfaction

A beta tester using Korpus on a mobile phone

“I sent a screenshot of a suspicious text my dad got, and Korpus flagged it right away. I was stunned how fast it was to be honest.”
Malina S.Beta tester

Reflection

Korpus changed how I think about AI products.

I learned that good design in high-stress moments is less about adding features and more about reducing uncertainty.

Personalization delayed value. Screenshots weren’t obvious to everyone. Native added friction. And an AI verdict alone wasn’t enough to create trust.

Korpus taught me to design for clarity, explain the reasoning, and always give people a clear next step.

What I’d Ship Next

The larger vision is to evolve Korpus from screenshot analysis into a trust layer for digital communication.

One-tap scanning from Messages and Mail
Family mode for sharing results with someone you trust
Alerts for active brand impersonation and breaches
Community signals for scams trending nearby

What I Learned

Trust comes from clarity, not certainty.

The goal isn’t to make AI appear smarter or more confident. It’s to help people understand what’s happening and make a safer decision.

And because Korpus started with protecting my own family, that principle has stayed at the center of the product.

NEXT PROJECTImgurEvolving a beloved internet product without losing what made it Imgur.→

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