This page isn't about the case or the startup—it's about me, after all of it. There's no shiny redemption story, and will not be a manifesto. Just an honest look at what's changed, what hasn't, and what I've learned about myself.

Prison was weird for me and my own growth cycle. Spoiler: I didn't become a different person—just one who understands himself better.

Did you learn anything in prison?

Not in a memoir-worthy way. I learned that I'm far more socially capable than I gave myself credit for—better at blending in, and certainly better at adapting. I'm also more tolerant of different people, and a lot more worried about incarcerated individuals than I was before.

Those incarcerated aren't set up for success in the free world. I'm an outlier, and I know that. The problem-solver in me has no idea how to fix it, or if it can be fixed within our current system.

Inmates—absolutely regardless of crime—need real opportunities while incarcerated that actually prepare them for life afterward.

Right now, we fail at that completely.

What was finding employment like after getting out?

Surprisingly effortless, considering the job market in late summer 2025. I had six offers within a few weeks. Naturally, I took the one were the founder turned up in a sports jersey to our chat, knowing what I went to prison for. That was a nice touch.

It's been a good fit, and I'm genuinely happy with my decision.

Are you still active in the piracy community?

No.

Have you ever been active in the past?

Active as a consumer.

I grew up in a household that couldn't really support my interests. So I pirated Photoshop 6 and Macromedia Dreamweaver, collected gigabytes of TemplateMonster templates, and spent hours breaking and rebuilding HTML.

And despite the questionable licensing with my meager stack at the time—cPanel, mod_php—it set me on a path I'm still on.

What are you doing now?

Turning website visitors into sales using far too much data. Different playground, same product instincts.

What "rehabilitation" really means

This self-reflection is hard. I fall back to Robert Sapolsky's Determined a lot internally, so I can't exactly put a mark on what is because of our lack of true free will—nothing comes from nothing because nothing ever could; a neuron fires because of all the events that proceeded before it, none of which we had true control over.

Contrast what society says rehabilitation is versus what it actually feels like. How much of it depends on luck, personality, or privilege?

The myth of transformation

We're all just a codebase that needs constant refactoring. I've known this for a while but I've never had enough of a drive to be self-reflective of what that looks like for me. Here and now, it's more about honing whatever ideas I have and finding a safe space to explore them.

Why redemption arcs make bad UX

Philosophical tangent: people want linear redemption stories, but real self-improvement is messy, nonlinear, and impossible to A/B test.

About reform

I don't see myself as "reformed" but refactored. The same curiosity that got me in trouble still drives me—I've just learned to point it somewhere safer.

Life after

I don't think of it as "life after prison." It's just... life again. Same problems, different points of view. The same ingredients, rearranged.

I still get up, make coffee, write code, and overthink. The difference is that I'm a little more deliberate about the things I say yes to. I try to build stuff that doesn't just work, but feels aligned with society: the kind of alignment you only start to care about after things go way off track once.

I've learned that curiosity is neutral. It's what you point it at that matters. That's both empowering and terrifying—especially when your curiosity once built something that landed you federal charges.

On the ethics of being curious and building stuff

I haven't lost the impulse that got me here. The same instinct that made me want to take apart systems and rebuild them is the one that drove HeheStreams, and it's the same one that makes me good at my job now. I just decide to not work on things that could ever get me near a courtroom and have a clear picture of the hell it was for me and for those who know me.

I used to think ethics were a set of rules to follow. Now I think they're more like tests—constant ones—that you run against your own motivations.

I still question what makes something "ethical" in tech. Is it legality? Impact? Intent? Profit? A notable one that sticks in my brain is how Uber gave the finger to regulations. Don't get me started on politics.

Building trust again

Reputation is a weird currency. Some people will never "buy" from you again, and that's okay. You learn to trade in different economies—honesty, consistency, transparency. Integrity is an interesting word to associate with yourself when you've been convicted of fraud.

There's a certain freedom in owning your story publicly. People can't weaponize what you've already made peace with. I think that's what I'm motivated to do here.

Curiosity as both feature and bug

I don't want to be known for what I did wrong. I also don't want to pretend it didn't teach me something valuable. The important part is figuring out how to use that knowledge responsibly and still keep the part of me that made me want to build in the first place. I think we all just want to be our most true, most unapologetic self.