Tell us about a time you built something awesome in code. How did you choose it? Why did you enjoy it?
Prior to college, I built a point of sale system usable on Android devices. The project stemmed from my time as a summer camp teacher - at the time, we sold food and snacks to kids throughout the day, but had no good way of tracking sales (we used an Excel spreadsheet for some time..!). I ended up spending part of the summer building out the product and validating its use cases with the camp owners and a few surrounding small businesses. Over time, I worked in more advanced use cases such as integrating flows for Square and PayPal, and product search/lookup using the Factual API. The process was great in having a small, weekly feedback loop on the needs and functions of the product.
Tell us about what you hope to learn this summer and why is HackNY right for you.
I'm interested in being at a startup that’s already had some success. Much of my experience has been in working on small-scale projects either independently, or for use in small, internal-use situations; I’d like experience in working in larger-scale deployments. Over the past year, I’ve helped run Hacker Lounge (http://hackerlounge.org) at UT Austin and understand the value in bringing smart people together under one roof in the way that HackNY does. Having met some of the previous HackNY fellows, I'd be excited in meeting some of the brightest young hackers and entrepreneurs.
Is there a particular technology or industry you're currently interested in? How come? Where do you see it heading in the future?
I particularly interested in industries related to information retrieval. My thesis is that as the internet is quickly becoming more personal, traditional search engines (e.g. Google) will become less useful in that people will want to search sources of information that they personally see as “high quality.” For example, instead of searching for “best places to eat in New York” on Google, I might instead ask a New York-based food guru on Quora, or find recommendations from an app like Ness. As everything becomes more targeted and contextual, concentrations such as machine learning and large data analysis become more important. Biz Stone's Jelly is a good example of how search and information gathering is becoming less “global” and more personal.
Discuss your technical skills/proficiencies/languages and experience
I have a good working knowledge of current visual web technologies (i.e. HTML/CSS/Javascript), having designed and built pages for various projects, including landing pages for http://hacktx.com/ and http://interactaustin.com.
Over the past summer, I worked at Coyote Logistics utilizing web technologies in production, enterprise web applications on both mobile and desktop; in production, we used the .NET framework (C#, MS SQL) on for a backend server and a Cordova/PhoneGap wrapped web application as a frontend. My work at Coyote also included writing unit and integration tests for my team’s code.
I consulted for an Austin-based startup, Azul, building some of their starting infrastructure backend API services using node.js and MongoDB, creating a frontend framework using angular.js, and creating in-house tools, including basic git workflows.
I’ve done contractual work on internally-used Android applications for small businesses, such as the point of sale system previously mentioned, and a “resort searching” app; these were written with the standard Android SDK and Java. Over the past couple years, I’ve written some technical pieces on Android development such as http://stephenwan.net/thoughts/2013/02/15/managing-sqlite-databases-in-android.html and http://stephenwan.net/thoughts/2012/07/05/analyzing-performance-in-android.html.
Currently, I'm reverse engineering the Apply AirPlay protocol and writing an equivalent server in node.js (https://github.com/stephencwan/nodetunes) in an attempt to bring AirPlay support to Sonos wireless speakers (https://github.com/stephencwan/airsonos).
When you're not coding, what do you like to do for fun? Photography has always been an interest to me. Recently, the rise of Instagram and smartphone filters has made making technically-impressive (i.e. good white balance, exposure levels, etc.) shots much easier. On the other side of the coin, I’m interested in getting better at artistically framing shots in interesting/unique/meaningful perspectives. Some samples at http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephencwan/
Anything else? I'm currently an associate VC at Alsop Louie Partners (http://www.alsop-louie.com/), which has given me access to different startups in the Austin-area through the lens of venture capital. My experiences so far have highlighted some of the processes and workings behind startups across a broad range of industries.