Ok, so what are we doing here? In October 2025, I started prototyping an app called Heard for making civic discourse fun, and with encouraging early feedback, I have made the decision to commit to this project for the next 6 months, until America’s 250th birthday on July 4th, 2026. So this manifesto (Heardifesto) is my public declaration and commitment to this project. 🤝🏻 Below I share a little about who I am, how I’m thinking about this platform, what I would do with funding, and how it makes money.
Lastly, I always want to be building in public, and I think letting others in on the goals, strategies, roadmaps, and people behind the product is a big part of that. This is far from a complete business plan and will continue to evolve as I continue down this road less traveled.
So let’s get started 👍
Due to a series of personal events in the past year, I found myself starting life over with a blank slate. And I began asking myself what I wanted to work on next. I thought about a lot of the challenges humanity is facing right now but the one recurring thought I kept coming back to was that all of these problems were made 10x worse by the lack of cooperation around addressing them. We could kick climate change’s butt in a second if we could all just get on the same page about it being a problem and ways to address it (without abandoning towns and states still economically centered on fossil fuels.)
What came to mind was a project called Polis that was used in Taiwan about 10 years ago and successfully brought thousands of citizens to voice their opinions on how Uber would be regulated in Taiwan. I had been intrigued by the project for years but always been bothered by the lack of broader take off. Why didn’t the US have this? Why didn’t it become more broadly used even within Taiwan?
My thesis in a nutshell is that Polis is just too nerdy. For hardcore activists and techies it’s fine but for most people it’s a overly-utilitarian disaster of a user experience. So I set out to prototype a version of Polis that applied modern UX ideas around frictionless flows, user retention, virality, and yes, even addictiveness. It was a choice to fight fire with fire: Can we make democracy as addictive as TikTok? Or in the words of Taiwan’s digital minister, can we make democracy fast, fun, and fair?
The platform I’m making, called Heard, functions like a cross between Tinder, Tiktok, and Polis. Users swipe on statements to voice agreement and scroll through conversations as fluidly as they scroll through their Instagram feed. I wanted to take the idea of a civic engagement platform and POWER WASH it with fun. 🏄🏻 Similarly to social media platforms, it needs to have a casual and fun vibe, where you come and hang out on a Thursday evening when you’re bored. It needs to be a place to talk about the next episode of the latest Netflix series, who’s taking out the trash this weekend, or who the next president should be. It’s gotta appeal to the guy or gal sitting at the bar watching the game, the high schoolers deciding what to do for prom, and the retiree organizing their community garden. By becoming a platform for conversation both small and large, it becomes part of your daily life to be heard on issues in your local communities and beyond.
This is the path most social media platforms follow and it maps well to human psychology. When we’re entering a new space, we like to have “low-stakes” pointlessly casual interactions. Once we build familiarity, competency, and a sense of community, we feel more willing to tackle serious subjects. When Tiktok launched, no one could have predicted an app for watching dumb dance trends would eventually become a prominent news source on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Speed resume time: I’ve been programming since I was 10, a founding engineer for over 5 startups in the past 7 years, and I cofounded a consumer app startup last year. I also had a 5 year stint prior to that doing cybersecurity research for the US government and for some larger corporations, so I’ve had a good mix of professional experiences. I previously served as a volunteer firefighter for 4 years and have had a few paid gigs playing music so I guess I get to say I’m a semi-professional musician. I’m currently 39 years old, grew up in Northern Virginia, and am now living in Washington, D.C.
In summary, I’ve had experience building solid scalable tech products, leading the launches of numerous products, putting in those long startup hours when needed, working under pressure, and responding to fires (sometimes literally 🧑🏻🚒). Also thanks to my hippy of a father I just love humans and have spent way too much time learning about communication, psychology, and self improvement.
Ok, so here’s the skinny:
I am all-in on this project, whatever it may evolve and pivot into, for the next 6 months. On July 1st, 2026, I will evaluate how I’m doing on my goals and metrics and make a Go / No-Go decision. 6 months is enough time to know that I gave it the ol’ college try; to know that I didn’t quit too soon but to give me a wake up call so I don’t hang on to a bad idea too long.
I have the personal financial runway to do this (with a little contracting work on the side, although I’d love to drop that and focus on Heard 100% with some funding!)
Here are the specific goals and metrics I’m committing to: