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Phillip Young

Full-Stack Software Engineer

I build marketplaces, platforms, and polished web experiences — from scratch.

Film photo from April 1997: Phillip as a kid in an oversized white shirt, spraying a toy motorcycle with a garden hose on a wet driveway.est. 1997

About

Creative and pragmatic engineer with 14 years of experience. Specializes in full-stack web development and building complex interactive platforms from scratch. Passionate about creating performant, scalable products with clean architecture and thoughtful user experiences.

14 years of experience · now Founder & Full-Stack Developer at Boroboros

Experience

  • Mar 2025 – PresentRemoteCurrent

    Founder & Full-Stack DeveloperBoroboros

    Building a zero-fee, peer-to-peer men's fashion marketplace as sole engineer — a ~110k-line TypeScript monorepo (React PWA, ~70 Firebase Cloud Functions) with 550+ commits shipped over the last 18 months.

    • Pivoted the dormant Betaflops platform into a multi-brand architecture serving two storefronts from one codebase: domain-driven branding, per-brand Vite builds with env-injected PWA manifests, and Firebase multi-site hosting.
    • Designed a cross-marketplace listing engine for eBay, Grailed, and Depop — Cloud Functions build canonical payloads, a Firestore-backed queue tracks operations, and a Chrome (MV3) extension executes them through the seller's own logged-in sessions, with exactly-once posting via Web Locks leader election, sync tokens, and server-side claims.
    • Implemented marketplace payments on PayPal: partner-referral seller onboarding, instant-disbursement captures with platform fees, and binding offers backed by 48-hour authorizations that capture on acceptance or auto-void via Cloud Tasks; webhook-driven refund and dispute handling.
    7 more highlights
    • Automated listing creation with Gemini structured-output extraction (category, size, brand, color, material, condition from photos) using per-market dynamic schemas, plus voice dictation input.
    • Extended Typesense search with per-market facet schemas and semantic similar-item search via auto-embedded listing vectors.
    • Built bidirectional inventory sync (weekly/biweekly schedulers) with price mirroring, sold/deleted reconciliation across platforms, and Levenshtein-based relist detection.
    • Kept scraping-based importers alive against bot management by iterating from Chrome TLS-fingerprint impersonation to geo-pinned residential proxies, with scheduled per-marketplace health-check canaries.
    • Served Open Graph link previews for the SPA with a Cloudflare Worker + KV populated from Firestore triggers.
    • Modernized the 2020-era codebase: CRA → Vite 8, Firebase Functions v1 → v2 (Node 24), React Router 7, joi → zod, with 20+ production data-migration scripts.
    • Built a streaming image pipeline (busboy → sharp → WebP + thumbnails) with Cloud Vision SafeSearch moderation.
    • React
    • TypeScript
    • Vite
    • Firebase
    • Firestore
    • GCP
    • Typesense
    • PayPal
    • Gemini
    • Cloudflare Workers
    • Chrome Extensions
  • Mar 2023 – Mar 2025Remote

    Software EngineerOpenexus

    One of the first two employees at a venture-backed startup building a modular app and workflow platform.

    • Helped establish core engineering practices and technical direction using TypeScript and Solid.js.
    • Designed and implemented Postgres integration: schema architecture, frontend bindings with caching, and optimistic updates.
    • Built custom Vite plugins to compile user-written JavaScript and bundle Python code for in-browser execution.
    8 more highlights
    • Developed framework-specific libraries for React, Svelte, Vue, and Solid to integrate with the platform.
    • Architected a secure iframe-based sandbox for executing user modules with messaging and data syncing.
    • Created a granular permissions and sharing model for user-created apps.
    • Built modules for integrations including Airtable, Dropbox, Spotify, AI, and crypto APIs.
    • Implemented user onboarding with interactive tutorials and demo apps.
    • Wrote external developer documentation using Docusaurus.
    • Integrated analytics via OpenReplay, PostHog, Clarity, and Umami (with proxying for ad-block evasion).
    • Managed deployments with AWS Copilot, Fargate, ECS, and CodePipeline.
    • TypeScript
    • Solid.js
    • Postgres
    • Vite
    • AWS
  • 2018 – 2022Remote

    Founder & Full-Stack DeveloperBetaflops

    Solo-built a peer-to-peer marketplace for buying and selling mechanical keyboards.

    • Integrated PayPal Marketplaces API for order and payment handling.
    • Built an integrated chat app with support for image sharing, notifications, and tracking orders.
    • Developed a fast, full-text search and filtering experience using Typesense and InstantSearch.js.
    3 more highlights
    • Used Google Vision and AI tools to automate content moderation.
    • Designed a cost-efficient document-based database schema with built-in redundancy to optimize cloud resource usage.
    • Wrote responsive transactional and marketing emails using MJML, and handled delivery via Amazon SES and SendGrid.
    • React
    • TypeScript
    • Firebase
    • Firestore
    • GCP
    • Cloud Functions
    • Typesense
    • Elastic UI
  • Aug 2012 – Aug 2017Santa Clara, CA

    Senior Hardware EngineerOracle

    Contributed to SPARC processor development by building physical design tools and automation workflows.

    • Developed algorithms and visualization tools in Perl, Tcl/Tk, and C to optimize floorplanning and routing.
    • Created reusable, electromagnetically clean bus-routing patterns later adopted by Synopsys.
    • Designed congestion maps and GUIs to visualize ASIC layout constraints.
    3 more highlights
    • Built shape-aware data structures to avoid DRC errors across massive metal/via datasets.
    • Optimized tool runtime and memory use via parallelism for 7nm process nodes.
    • Led transition from 10nm to 7nm tooling process across the team.
    • Perl
    • Tcl/Tk
    • C

Projects

  • 2025 – PresentFounder, designer, and sole engineer

    Boroboroslive

    A zero-fee, peer-to-peer marketplace for men's fashion.

    A men's fashion marketplace — "where clothes find new life" — built by pivoting the Betaflops platform into a multi-brand architecture: one ~110k-line TypeScript codebase serving two branded storefronts. The name blends ouroboros with boro, the Japanese tradition of textile repair and reuse.

    7 highlights
    • Crosslisting engine for eBay, Grailed, and Depop: Cloud Functions build canonical listing payloads, a Firestore-backed queue tracks operations, and a companion Chrome (MV3) extension posts through the seller's own logged-in sessions — exactly-once via Web Locks leader election, sync tokens, and server-side claims.
    • Binding offers on PayPal: buyer funds are authorized for 48 hours at offer time, captured on seller acceptance, and auto-voided via Cloud Tasks — plus webhook-driven refund and dispute handling.
    • AI listing autofill: Gemini structured-output extraction fills category, size, brand, color, material, and condition from item photos; voice dictation on the listing form.
    • Typesense search with per-market facet schemas and semantic similar-item search via auto-embedded vectors.
    • Bidirectional inventory sync with price mirroring, sold/deleted reconciliation, and fuzzy relist detection.
    • Open Graph link previews for the SPA via a Cloudflare Worker + KV populated from Firestore triggers.
    • 550+ commits in the last 18 months; toolchain modernized end-to-end (Vite 8, Functions v2 on Node 24, React Router 7, zod).
    • React
    • TypeScript
    • Vite
    • Firebase
    • Typesense
    • PayPal
    • Gemini
    • Cloud Tasks
    • Cloudflare Workers
    • Chrome Extension (MV3)
  • 2018 – 2022Founder, designer, and sole engineer

    Betaflopslive

    A peer-to-peer marketplace for mechanical keyboards.

    Solo-built marketplace where enthusiasts buy and sell mechanical keyboards, keycaps, and parts — with integrated payments, chat, search, and moderation.

    6 highlights
    • PayPal Marketplaces API integration for orders, payments, and seller onboarding.
    • Built-in buyer–seller chat with image sharing, notifications, and order tracking.
    • Full-text instant search and filtering with Typesense + InstantSearch.js.
    • Automated content moderation using Google Vision.
    • Cost-efficient Firestore schema design with built-in redundancy.
    • Transactional and marketing email via MJML, Amazon SES, and SendGrid.
    • React
    • TypeScript
    • Firebase
    • Firestore
    • Cloud Functions
    • Typesense
    • Elastic UI
    • GCP
  • 2023 – 2025Founding engineer (first two employees)

    Openexus Platformlive

    A modular app & workflow platform.

    Venture-backed platform where users build and share modular apps. Built the foundations: data layer, plugin compilation, sandboxing, permissions, and integrations.

    4 highlights
    • Postgres integration: schema architecture, frontend bindings with caching and optimistic updates.
    • Custom Vite plugins compiling user-written JavaScript and bundling Python for in-browser execution.
    • Secure iframe sandbox for user modules with messaging and data syncing.
    • Framework adapter libraries for React, Svelte, Vue, and Solid.
    • TypeScript
    • Solid.js
    • Postgres
    • Vite
    • AWS
  • 2026Designer & engineer

    This Websitein progress

    A personal archive of code, clothes, and things I've built.

    The site you're looking at — built with Next.js and TypeScript, statically exported, designed as a set of interchangeable themes ranging from album-cover editorial to a Windows-95 desktop.

    2 highlights
    • Multiple full design systems over one shared data layer.
    • Static export deployable to any free host.
    • Next.js
    • React
    • TypeScript
    • CSS Modules

Skills

Languages

  • TypeScript
  • JavaScript
  • Python
  • Perl
  • Tcl
  • VHDL
  • Verilog
  • HTML
  • CSS
  • x86 Assembly

Frameworks & Tools

  • React
  • Solid.js
  • Vue
  • Svelte
  • Next.js
  • Vite
  • Redux
  • React Router
  • Firebase
  • Django
  • Cloud Functions
  • Workbox / PWA

Infrastructure

  • Google Cloud Platform
  • AWS (Copilot, ECS, Fargate)
  • Docker
  • Cloudflare Workers & KV
  • Google Cloud Tasks

Search & Commerce

  • Typesense
  • Algolia
  • InstantSearch
  • PayPal APIs
  • Gemini API
  • Chrome Extensions (MV3)

UI Libraries

  • Elastic UI
  • Semantic UI
  • Material UI
  • Bootstrap

Other

  • Git
  • OpenReplay
  • PostHog
  • SendGrid
  • MJML
  • Docusaurus
  • Google Vision

Hobbies

Fashion

Menswear is the hobby that turned into a product — an appreciation for construction, fabric, and silhouette that eventually became Boroboros, a marketplace for it.

  • Interests — TODO: designers, eras, or styles you love
  • Grails — TODO: pieces you're hunting

Music

Always listening to something. This section is a rotating shelf of what's on repeat.

  • On rotation — TODO: current artists / albums
  • All-timers — TODO: the permanent collection

Sports

Playing, watching, and arguing about it.

  • Playing — TODO: what you play
  • Watching — TODO: teams / leagues you follow

Anime

A running watchlist, from seasonal picks to the canon.

  • Currently watching — TODO: this season's list
  • Favorites — TODO: all-time top picks

Mechanical Keyboards

The obsession that became Betaflops — switches, keycaps, group buys, and the perfect typing sound.

  • Daily driver — TODO: your current board
  • Collection — TODO: notable boards / switches

Education

California Institute of Technology — B.S., Electrical Engineering · Pasadena, CA · 2012