About
Sean Yalda.

Designer · Engineer · Photographer · First-Gen Assyrian/Chaldean-American
seanyalda@pm.meLinkedInGitHubInstagram
Photography — Sean Yalda · Grand Teton, Wyoming
Practice

Making things
for the web
since 2002.

I started building websites in 2002 and went professional in 2011. Since then: startups, agencies, a science museum, a city government’s home-auction platform, an esports league through its Series A, B, and C. Hired as an engineer, usually doing the design too.

The work has touched education, sports, music, science, real estate, art, and retail. The constant is hybrid range — information architecture, interface design, front-end, back-end, data modeling — whichever the project actually needs.

Lately the center of gravity is agent systems: production AI orchestration at Sayari, self-hosted multi-agent infrastructure at home, and shipped tools like Breaking Changes and Board.

Selected Clients
Clients.
What I do
Services.
Engineering
  • Full Stack Development
  • AI Agent Orchestration
  • System Design
  • Information Architecture
  • Data & Content Modeling
Design
  • UX / UI Design
  • Prototype Design
  • Creative Direction
  • Pitch Deck Design
  • Photography
Strategy
  • Product Management
  • Technical Consulting
  • Process & Documentation
  • Cost/Value Analysis
  • Roadmap & Discovery
Where I'm strongest
Strengths.
Building from zero
  • Founding engineer experience
  • MVP design & delivery
  • Strategic vision
  • Scaling small teams
Understanding users
  • User research
  • Usability testing
  • Information architecture
  • Empathy-driven decision making
Telling the story
  • Presentations & pitch design
  • Technical writing
  • Editorial product thinking
  • Cross-functional translation
Going deep
  • Data structures & algorithms
  • Production AI orchestration
  • Schema & data modeling
  • Cost/value analysis
Icelandic farms
Suðurland · Iceland Photography — Sean Yalda
Approach
Narrative.

I work best where the lines blur — design reviews where I can read the code, architecture meetings where I can sketch. I can run the KPI conversation when it’s needed. But the products I’m proudest of came from watching one real person struggle with one real screen, and fixing that.

Most mornings start by resetting the workspace: clear the bench, then build. That’s a carpentry habit as much as an engineering one. I do both, and they teach each other.

The rest is photography on the road, music when the chance comes around, and a standing suspicion that the useful insight is sitting just outside the frame. Listen first. Then build.

Background
Notes.
Heritage
First-generation Assyrian/Chaldean-American
Originally from Detroit, now based in Los Angeles
Training
Majored in Graphic Design & Illustration
Self-taught engineer and startup founder
Reach
Built products used by hundreds of thousands
Including tools like The Cube & BreakingChanges.ai
Practice
Early adopter of AI for creative and technical workflows
LLMs are in the daily toolchain, not the pitch deck
Travel
47 U.S. states, 3 continents (so far)
Photographs the trips
Life
Fatherhood reshaped the creative perspective
The long game got personal
Music
Former touring musician and busker
Still jams when the chance comes around
Craft
Hands-on with both code and carpentry
Builds things that last
Patent
U.S. Patent holder & classified inventor
Augmented reality for printed books · USPTO · 2016
Community
Active contributor to open source
GraphQL Blueprint, Harness Engineering, and more
Fundraising
Helped raise over $100M through pitch design
PlayVS Series A, B, C — and several others
Range
Solo projects and embedded teams — both work
Reads people, fixes things, spots patterns