In 2012, inspired by a painful sunburn and a lack of effective after-sun care products, my good friend Dave and I co-founded Maui Vera, a Hawaii-based organic skincare company. Fueled by the global rise of clean, organic products, we saw an opportunity to create something better, after-sun care rooted in Hawaii, with clean ingredients, stunning packaging, and exceptional customer service.

Separated by an ocean but united by a shared vision, we self-funded Maui Vera and launched in 2013. The response was immediate: our first production run sold out within days, validating the demand for a superior, clean after-sun solution.

Taking the road less traveled, we forged direct partnerships with Hawaii’s biggest retailers and resorts, including ABC Stores, Whalers General, Walmart, Target, Safeway, Four Seasons Hotel, Fairmont, and Grand Wailea. These partnerships along with 250+ retailers established Maui Vera as a trusted brand throughout Hawaii.

Today, Maui Vera is a staple in every major retailer and hotel across Hawaii and has expanded nationwide. What began as a spark from personal experience has grown into a thriving company, redefining after-sun care with a commitment to clean, effective, and beautifully crafted products.

In 2020, as the pandemic disrupted the world, I joined Resolve, a B2B embedded finance provider spun out of Affirm, as Interim Head of Product and Design. Resolve’s mission was to tackle a critical challenge facing small businesses across America: cash flow problems. Accessing capital was often expensive and inefficient, and Resolve aimed to change that by combining the best of SaaS and embedded finance into a seamless, user-friendly solution.

My focus was on refining Resolve’s core value proposition and positioning it as the go-to platform for businesses to quickly and affordably access capital. I spearheaded efforts to define a new SaaS go-to-market pricing strategy, crafted impactful sales collateral, and recruited a talented product and design team to scale the company’s vision.

In 2020, during the global pandemic, I had the opportunity to support Chevron in migrating its internal applications to the cloud while reimagining the user experience to enhance global collaboration. Partnering with a talented team, we built a comprehensive design system and UX library to standardize and modernize interfaces across applications.

The focus was on creating web-based experiences that were intuitive, faster, and streamlined, enabling users to navigate complex workflows with ease. This effort not only improved efficiency but also set a new standard for usability across Chevron’s cloud-based ecosystem.

In 2013, I partnered with Montage Ventures, a Series A VC firm, as an advisor to portfolio companies, focusing on refining product-market fit and experience design. One standout project was Olset, a travel IaaS provider with a groundbreaking machine learning platform that analyzed hundreds of millions of travel reviews to help travelers make faster booking decisions.

The challenge was translating this sophisticated technology into a simple, intuitive experience that resonated with users. Through strategic refinement, we streamlined their offering and clarified their value proposition. This work played a key role in Olset’s growth and eventual acquisition by Deem.