I'm the Founder of Tipping Point Partners, a public interest studio. Over the past twenty years, we developed a three-part "system": building the software products that people need, the organizations that sustain innovation, and the financial models that create freedom from venture capital.My past work includes Casebook, the first web-based child welfare system for state government, in production since 2012. NYC Votes, the nation's first mobile campaign contribution platform since 2012. Carina connecting home care workers to the families who need them since 2017.Our current focus is on the base of Maslow's hierarchy — food, shelter, health — in the belief that personal freedom is only possible when the most basic needs are met. Freedom is also only possible with justice, so we are finding ways to help there too.The political landscape makes this work urgent. One side is dismantling the systems people depend on. The other side avoids the hard decisions that could transform them.I want to meet others who share our convictions, are obsessed with a problem, and bring deep technical and product skills to the work.

I am an Adjunct Lecturer at the Columbia University School of Professional Studies, in the M.S. in Technology Management Program, where I have taught Digital Strategy & Leadership; Organizational Design, Strategy & Governance; and the three-semester Executive Seminar Series: Problem to Business.

I'm a political activist in New York City, aligned with the Working Families Party and New Kings Democrats. I support candidates who fight for working people and the poor, especially AAPI and LGBTQ communities. I am a technocrat who advocates for process and technology reforms to fix government dysfunction in addressing basic needs.I ran for Mayor of New York City in the 2021 Democratic Primary. Universal Childcare was my tentpole issue, and my policies included a Digital Bill of Rights and a plan to Reboot City Hall. See my mayoral campaign at this link.Prior to that I was a member of the NoIDC Coalition that flipped the NYS Senate, enabling foundational reforms blocked by Cuomo and the GOP. Before that, I served on the Board of the NYC Campaign Finance Board and helped to expand small-dollar democracy by co-creating NYC Votes.I have worked in over 20 industries including government, music, fashion, healthcare, enterprise software, finance, and legal, along the way helping to launch New York City's tech startup and civic tech communities.My first government role was at the NYC Corporation Counsel's Office in 1990. I served on nonprofit and government boards from 1996 through 2026: Safe Horizon, Brooklyn Public Library, NYC Campaign Finance Board, NYC Voter Assistance Advisory Committee, and CACF: Coalition for Asian American Children and Families.

My greatest achievement is finding a community, raising a healthy, loving family and building a heart-home in Brooklyn, forging a new path from my challenging background.I moved to New York City in 1985 without a job, only $400 in my pocket and hope and fear in abundance. My dreams came to life in ways I could not then imagine.When I abandoned pre-med for Women's Studies at Yale, my parents disowned me, so I worked full-time to pay my way through school. I was the first Yale man to graduate in Women's Studies. Later I earned an MBA in Finance and Competitive Marketing Strategy from NYU Stern.I was born in Jim Crow Atlanta to Korean students, who raised me and my brother and sister in a violent and abusive home in an all-white Ohio school district. This is the fuel that empowers me.

I am a writer. Thinking out loud about the America I believe in.Subscribe to my newsletter at "Start Making Sense."Read my essays on Medium.