Founder, Director, Lead Architect & Engineer
Aaron founded Material Instinct in 2017 with the purpose of transforming urges into interactions.
Biography & Education
T-shaped individual: breadth & depth.
Sustaining contradictions since 1985.
15+ years software design & development experience.
7+ years technical & creative leadership experience.
Studied design & advertising at School of Visual Arts in Manhattan.
Studied Data Science & Visualization at Metis.
Background & Work Experience
He has hired and led engineering (and design) teams for Lucera.com, GaloreMag.com, SafetyWing.com, and over a dozen other startups and entrepreneurial efforts.
He created mobile app game All Rise! using React Native, a custom JWT-auth Rails API, a custom Rails admin CMS, implemented a TTS model (TorToiSe) behind a custom Flask API, integrated ElevenLabs & DeepAI APIs (for commercial use), while researching & developing multi-modal models (BakLLaVa).
He built chatbot & custom e-commerce platform for DirtyLemon.com, an influencer agency platform for KittenAgency.com, an editorial and video platform for GaloreMag.com, wholesale eCommerce platform for POLClothing.com, helped relaunch BabyPhat.com, and more.
Other recent projects include work on SafetyWing.com & mobile app for iOS & Android, lead developer (and designer) for Carvana.com/careers, Carvana.com/s1-racing, Carvana.com/spinner, and a jewelry configurator.
In 2016, Aaron started an electrolytic bottle tea company, Saltea.co.
Personal & Creative Life
He has lived and worked aboard 4 different boats in NYC, renovated and maintained historic Ellis Island ferry boat (Yankee Ferry) in Hoboken, built a recording studio on a 1986 Gibson Standard houseboat docked in Chelsea, built a community vegetable garden and outdoor concert venue in Brooklyn, The Garden Stage.
Aaron makes portraits and landscape paintings using oils and watercolors, Smulktis.art.
Aaron also publishes music under the moniker Sky Chase (SkyChase.org), distributed by his own NYC based record label Smokey Records (Smokey.FM).
“Forget logic, for it is caught in the conflict between truth and lies” – Michael Sugrue
