About Me

(in about 1074 words)

Intro

I am the co-founder and CTO of Promptfoo, where we're building open-source tools to evaluate, find, and fix vulnerabilities in LLMs. Before Promptfoo, I was the VP of Engineering at SmileID, where I led the development of tools that have helped over 170 million people in Africa gain access to financial services. I also co-founded Arthena and Matroid.

In my spare time, I enjoy investing in people and ideas through a small venture fund, focusing on projects with high social impact. If you think I can be helpful to you or your cause, or if you're interested in collaborating, feel free to get in touch.

Some History

  • My parents put a computer in my bedroom in 1993 when I was 3. It was an old Tandy that ran MS-DOS. My favorite games were Street Rod 2, Wolfenstein 3D, and Tom and Jerry. It had a mechanical keyboard and a turbo button. To this day, I still don't know what pressing the turbo button really did.
  • We subscribed to AOL in 1995. I still remember installing it from a floppy disk onto our brand-new Packard Bell. It took years for me to send my first email.
  • In the summer of 1996, my uncle purchased MegaRace from Media Play and installed it on my mom's work computer. I might have endangered her business by using her computer too much.
  • At 7, I discovered the mini-games hidden in Microsoft Office. I also beat Minesweeper on expert for the first time.
  • At 8, my parents bought me a Sony Mavica MVC-FD71 digital camera after I stole their SLR one too many times. It could fit 10 images to a floppy disk at a 0.3MP resolution. I still have it, and it still works. I've been taking photographs ever since, now with a Nikon D750, D800, and occasionally with a Mamiya 6II.
  • At 10, I built my first website with Microsoft FrontPage on our Pentium III Gateway. My website was terrible.
  • I was 11 when I built my first Tesla Coil (without my parents' permission). Over the next few years, I built several more, including one of the first audio modulated coils and one of the first DRSSTCs.
  • When I was 12, I set the all-time high record at my local laser tag facility by reverse engineering the charging station and weapon protocols with a photo-resistor, micro-cassette recorder, and a lot of patience. I was unstoppable.
  • At 13, I went to space camp and fell in love. I went back two more times and promised myself that I'd work in space. I've since helped build three generations of satellites and have contributed to two more.
  • At 14, I was almost expelled for finding a backdoor into my high school's file server and telling everyone but the faculty members about it. Later that year, I figured out how to turn off the internet firewall by editing system registry keys. I anonymously shared my work months later.
  • At 16, I participated in a foreign exchange program in Dortmund, Germany. Since then, I've gone back almost every year.
  • 14 - 17, I played a lot of video games. My favorites included Counter-Strike Source, Command and Conquer 3, Halo 2, and Age of Empires II.
  • At 18, in the summer before college, my friends and I started playing Muggle Quidditch. We went on to start over 8 teams in the International Quidditch Association, including the Buffalo Quidditch Society. At our height, we were ranked third in the IQA. Although I don't play anymore, you can still see pictures of me holding a broom while wearing a chess camp t-shirt on Facebook.
  • At 19, I took my first graduate course and published my first academic paper.
  • At 20, I co-authored a grant to build a satellite and managed a 60+ person team for the next two years. You can read more about that here.

Ask me in person for other stories that I'm afraid to share with the internet.

I Like

Travel / Geography

  • I am originally from Buffalo, New York. I have since lived in Palo Alto, Mountain View, San Francisco, Seattle, and New York City.
  • I've been to approximately 50 countries, some of which I have forgotten, many of which I would like to revisit.
  • In 2016, I visited Canada, Ethiopia, Austria, Germany, Belgium, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Italy, Romania, Sweden, Norway, Svalbard, Panama, Costa Rica, Uganda, Japan, and the UAE, mostly in that order.
  • In 2017, I visited Canada, Japan, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Estonia, Russia, the Netherlands, Belgium, the U.K., Spain, Iceland, France, Switzerland, Ethiopia, and Luxembourg.
  • In 2018, I visited Canada, France, Italy, Israel, and the U.K.
  • In 2019, I visited Canada, England, France, and Switzerland.
  • In 2020, I traveled barely 20 blocks. I stayed in New York and remodeled an apartment.
  • In 2021, I continued remodeling an apartment.
  • In 2022, I switched jobs and visited the UK, France, Greece, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, and Kenya.
  • In 2023, I visited France, the UK, Ireland, and Rwanda.
  • I am an Oregon Trail II enthusiast.

Fun Facts

  • I have a list of thousands of ideas, like creating matching bow ties for cats and humans.
  • I almost always have a sketchbook with me and a 01 Sakura Pigma Micron Pen.
  • I can't locate every country on a map.
  • I operate a small angel fund with terrible returns.
  • I break about 30 traffic laws on a skateboard or bicycle every single day.
  • I stack-rank coffee shops, restaurants, and every dog I see in New York.
  • I added this page because many people complained that my site was just my resume.

I Dream Of

  • Inspiring and feeling inspired.
  • Enabling a brighter future for everyone, regardless of political or socioeconomic status.
  • Treating every individual with genuine kindness and respect.
  • Staying curious.
  • Continually improving.
  • You not checking the commit history for earlier drafts of this file.

Websites from People I Admire

If we are friends and you feel like you belong on this list, you're probably right. Submit a PR, or ask me, and I'll add you.