About

Hey! I'm Erik, a software engineer and designer based in Larkspur, California.

Growing up on shows like Mythbusters sparked my interest in engineering. I got really into robotics, and spent many after-school nights tearing apart toys for parts to build robots. I first started programming at 11, learning to build simple games on Scratch (my first ever program is still up there). And at 12, I became interested in iOS development. I had looked up tutorials and taught myself Objective-C, which was quite the leap in complexity from Scratch in hindsight, but I figured it out. Using what I learned, I shipped a tag-based social platform called TagThis and an arcade game called Color Smash.

In high school, I took CS classes and joined my school's competitive programming team. After my fourth attempt, I finally won Apple's WWDC scholarship in 2018. It gave me the opportunity to attend their developer conference and my first real exposure to the industry outside of just a hobby. After winning the scholarship again the following year, I knew I wanted to grow up to be a software engineer.

Around this time is also when I started exploring my creative side. I began with drawing and painting, gradually shifting toward digital art and graphic design. I was developing my taste in music at the same time, falling deep into electronic genres, picking up DJing as a hobby, and becoming active in online music communities.

In the summer of 2018, a friend invited me into an online art and music community called FORM, just days after it was founded. I immediately felt at home. I got involved quickly, volunteering to organize a charity livestream for the second installment of All Nighter, our 24-hour music and art hackathon, which has since become a staple of the event. In early 2019 I was offered a spot on the team, helping with everything from branding to event planning. When the pandemic sent everyone online, we were ready. We grew fast, gaining real notoriety in the underground electronic music scene and doubled down on running even more events. Today, FORM is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit that has raised $120,000 for charity. We have over 500 songs in our discography with more than 25 million plays on streaming platforms. We continue to run events that inspire artists and musicians to create, giving them a platform to share their work and meet new people.

After graduating from Sonoma State University in late 2023 with a B.S. in Computer Science, I joined Teleport, a cybersecurity startup, as a full-stack engineer on the growth team. It was my first opportunity to work with real enterprise systems, and I learned a ton.

Right now I'm working double-duty at FORM, as both a software engineer building solutions to keep up with the scale of our events while simultaneously planning and running new events as a member of the board of directors.

To me, engineering and design have stopped feeling like separate interests. My experiences across both fields have given me a strong sense of what makes software not just functional, but genuinely good to use. I am currently pursuing design engineering positions that let me use my skills in both software and design.

Outside of work, I spend time on personal art, competitive speedcubing, and listening to music. I also collect records and am a bit of a hi-fi audio nerd.