I spent most of college doing what I believed I should be doing, not what I wanted to do. I obsessed over grades, filled my life with noise, thought I needed a good job to be happy. Then I let go of that.
I went to Barcelona, and somewhere along the way my perception of success changed and how I felt before no longer made any sense.
I saw my lifelong club Barça play at the Camp Nou, spoke Greek, Spanish, English (and very poor Catalan), and, more unexpectedly, spent so much time alone. That's what forced me to look at my life and understand what it means to live a good one.
I came back to Rice with a completely different idea of how I want to live.
I'm a senior computer science student at Rice from Boston, but what I study is not what I care about. I'm writing movies, books, and philosophy, and building technology as a means to help people know themselves and live well.
I grew up watching my parents build Veson Nautical from the ground up, and I learned young how to build software, talk with people, and understand problems. I believe we're at a unique point in history: we'll either converge toward more autonomy and freedom than ever before, or toward the opposite, and I'm building products, among other things, to help make sure it's the former as the world moves toward AI.
If anything here interests you, ask or reach out.
Experience
FounderFounder
Building a Public Benefit Corporation dedicated to helping people live well. We are at a crucial point in history: AI is either going to give us more freedom than we've ever had, or take it away from more people than ever. My mission is to help people regain their own lives and live better, without shying away from the technology driving the new world. I'm creating solutions to reach people through every medium, including technology, books, films, apps, and music.
Software Engineering InternSWE Intern
Built a new section of AI Inbox, the Gemini-powered inbox in Gmail that surfaces to-dos, catches you up, and resurfaces relevant mail. Shipped it in iOS.
FounderFounder
Building a Public Benefit Corporation dedicated to helping people live well. We are at a crucial point in history: AI is either going to give us more freedom than we've ever had, or take it away from more people than ever. My mission is to help people regain their own lives and live better, without shying away from the technology driving the new world. I'm creating solutions to reach people through every medium, including technology, books, films, apps, and music.
Software Engineering InternSWE Intern
Built a new section of AI Inbox, the Gemini-powered inbox in Gmail that surfaces to-dos, catches you up, and resurfaces relevant mail. Shipped it in iOS.
Software Engineer InternSWE Intern
Learned C# and .NET on the job, shipped production features for Air Force infrastructure systems within weeks, and got a return offer.
Software Engineer in ResidenceSWE in Residence
Embedded in Rice's startup ecosystem doing user research, prototyping, and helping shape what the entrepreneurship program could become.
Software Engineering Intern (Automation)SWE Intern
Built a document parsing system in one week that turned a three day manual process into eight minutes, earning a long term strategic partnership.
Data Science InternData Science Intern
Built NLP pipelines that turned 600k+ messy prospect data into a clean, searchable system and cut the sales team's outreach cycle by 70%.
Software Development Intern (Mobile)SWE Intern (Mobile)
One of three iOS devs building how Veson's enterprise clients experienced mobile, from initial app to React platform transition.
Projects
Iris
An agent running on Claude, prompted against a structured layer of my own data, built to help me understand myself. The same prompting runs on every surface from one agent on my machine, so what I learn about myself accumulates into a single picture instead of scattering across four.
The Lantern
A field guide to the patterns you'll meet between 16 and 35, inspired by How I Met Your Mother: relationships, decisions, traps. Split into Rules and Theories. Currently on v2.0, distributed to over 20 readers whose feedback shapes each rewrite. An Evda Piece.
Iris
An agent running on Claude, prompted against a structured layer of my own data, built to help me understand myself. The same prompting runs on every surface from one agent on my machine, so what I learn about myself accumulates into a single picture instead of scattering across four.
The Lantern
A field guide to the patterns you'll meet between 16 and 35, inspired by How I Met Your Mother: relationships, decisions, traps. Split into Rules and Theories. Currently on v2.0, distributed to over 20 readers whose feedback shapes each rewrite. An Evda Piece.
The Harlequin
Media
research, reactions, and thinking, all connected through a blog on mikeveson.com.
Written for my freshman-year entrepreneurship class. I reflect on the spiral in my life caused by the intersection of my family's legacy and my own personal drive for innovation and technology.
research, reactions, and thinking, all connected through a blog on mikeveson.com.
Written for my freshman-year entrepreneurship class. I reflect on the spiral in my life caused by the intersection of my family's legacy and my own personal drive for innovation and technology.
Blueprints
The Tavern
BlueprintI love the vibes of taverns. Inspired by McLaren's from How I Met Your Mother, Greek kafeneia, and European pubs, I'm designing the tavern I want to have someday. Custom drinks named after my friends, my favorite foods, a spot to hang out with your friends and have a good time.
The Green Room
BlueprintMy environment is super important for being creative and having ideas, so I'm designing the Green Room: a space of things that help me be creative. Since I move around a lot, I try to create a Green Room wherever I'm staying with specific things that remind me of myself and help me think. Even having a couch matters because I tend to have more creative ideas lying down, which there's research on.
The Tavern
BlueprintI love the vibes of taverns. Inspired by McLaren's from How I Met Your Mother, Greek kafeneia, and European pubs, I'm designing the tavern I want to have someday. Custom drinks named after my friends, my favorite foods, a spot to hang out with your friends and have a good time.
The Green Room
BlueprintMy environment is super important for being creative and having ideas, so I'm designing the Green Room: a space of things that help me be creative. Since I move around a lot, I try to create a Green Room wherever I'm staying with specific things that remind me of myself and help me think. Even having a couch matters because I tend to have more creative ideas lying down, which there's research on.