My story
I've spent my life around strategy games and the people who love them. I play chess seriously, I've given free chess lessons, and I once coached and managed a competitive esports team through a world-championship run. What I loved in all of it was the same thing: helping someone quiet the noise, see the position clearly, and find their next move.
Wallace & Friends is where that turned into a practice. I work two ways. With founders and teams, I design and build web and iOS apps end-to-end — every layer, from first sketch to launch, including all of the technology behind the site you're reading now. With individuals — including students and young people — I mentor one-to-one, building real, durable skill at each person's own pace. It's the same skill on different boards.
My whole approach is accessibility-first — designed around how each person sees, hears, and thinks — and I care especially about the people most tools quietly overlook. I think in systems, I explain things plainly, and I never lose sight of the person on the other side of the problem.
A builder's path through tech
My path through technology started in the games industry: quality engineering at Blizzard Entertainment on Overwatch and Heroes of the Storm, then at Respawn Entertainment on Apex Legends — years of learning how big, complex software really behaves, and how it fails. At Amazon Ring I coordinated alpha and beta trials for new hardware and software, supporting more than a hundred testers a month. Wanting to build rather than just test, I trained as a full-stack engineer at App Academy in San Francisco.
These days I ship end-to-end: Wallace & Friends' own site and tools — authentication, database, dashboards, and continuous integration included — and Wordathon, our daily word game with a global leaderboard. AI-assisted development is part of how I build, which is exactly why I can tell you plainly where it helps and where it doesn't.
Chess, and teaching people to think
Chess is the clearest form of the thing I care about most: strategic thinking, and the patience to learn it. I'm a rated rapid player — with a peak of 1857 on Chess.com — and I've been serious about the game for years. It taught me how to study, how to lose productively, and how to break a complicated position down into solvable problems.
What I enjoy even more is teaching it. I've given free chess lessons, and I love watching the moment a young player stops reacting and starts planning — sitting back, picturing a few moves ahead, choosing on purpose. That same skill is what I bring to coaching an adult through a career change or a team through building a product. The board changes; the thinking doesn't. It's why I work happily with kids and teens as well as professionals and companies.
Coaching under pressure
I also coached and managed a competitive esports team through a world-championship run — a crash course in helping people stay clear-headed when the stakes are high and the clock is running. That's the other half of the job: not just the strategy, but keeping the person calm enough to use it. When technology leaves someone anxious, the fix is usually more human, not more technical.
What I'm building toward
This fall, I'm beginning my graduate studies in Marriage and Family Therapy at the University of San Francisco — building on my B.A. in Psychology from San Francisco State. It's the next chapter of a long-term commitment: I plan to eventually pivot to private practice as my primary work, focusing on neurodiverse individuals and families. It's also a commitment I already practice around the city, volunteering as a barista at the Castro Country Club, helping UCSF medical students practice patient interviews, and supporting the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
Wallace & Friends is built with that future in mind. The apps I build and the mentorship I do today reflect the same underlying belief that will carry into therapy: that people thrive when they have the right support, the right tools, and someone who genuinely cares.
Based in San Francisco, I mentor students, young people, and adults, and advise teams across the Bay Area and beyond — in person locally, or over a call or screen-share wherever you are. Your first session is always free.