Sign In

Zack Brown

Co-founder & CEO at PaxCorp, Entrepreneur in Technology

Zack Brown is the Co-founder and CEO of PaxCorp, a company he established in February 2023 based in the San Francisco Bay Area.1 With a background in computer science and engineering from the University of Washington, Brown has a history of entrepreneurship and leadership in the tech industry.1

Professional Experience

Prior to founding PaxCorp, Brown's career highlights include:

  • Independent Researcher for the Pax Open Source Project (September 2021 - January 2023)1
  • Co-founder and CEO of Haiku® (June 2016 - August 2021)1
  • Vice President of Product at Famo.us (December 2014 - July 2015)1
  • Co-founder and Partner at Thomas Street (December 2011 - November 2014)1
  • Founder, Designer & Developer at BitLaunch (2006 - December 2011)1

Education and Achievements

  • Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Computer Engineering from the University of Washington (2006-2011)1
  • Participated in Y Combinator (2017-2018)1
  • High school valedictorian with a perfect SAT score of 1600/16001

Current Focus

At PaxCorp, Brown is working on pax.dev, a project that aims to create a world where developers, designers, and no-coders can collaborate to create software together.1 This builds on his previous work with the Pax Open Source Project, where he designed and built the initial versions of Pax, including its language, compiler, rendering engine, and native runtimes for WebAssembly and LLVM-macOS.1

Brown's entrepreneurial journey reflects a consistent theme of innovation in software development tools and platforms, with a particular focus on bridging the gap between design and code to enhance creativity in software creation.2

Highlights

Jun 18 · linkedin

A lot of people have asked "Why are you building Pax?" What motivates us to do something so difficult?

The answer is impact. Imagine the lift to the wellbeing of humanity if we could grease the gears of our interface with machines. To make ourselves more creative, to empower more creators, and to enrich our lives with more art and personality.

Read why we're building Pax in my latest essay, "Let's Fix User Interfaces"

Aug 22 · linkedin

I’m working on my writing muscles and gathered some thoughts that may interest folks working around design, code, and graphical user interfaces.

This started as a “manifesto” about why we’re building Pax, but I decided to separate this exercise of envisioning a utopian future from describing what we’re building to get there. I hope you'll find this a worthwhile read if you’re interested in the above topics.

The essay: https://lnkd.in/gXQQxhH8

Please share any feedback, criticism, or ideas!

Related Questions

What inspired Zack Brown to start PaxCorp?
How did Zack Brown's experience at Y Combinator influence his career?
What are the main goals of the Pax Open Source Project?
How did Zack Brown's role at Haiku differ from his role at PaxCorp?
What challenges did Zack Brown face while building Pax?
Zack Brown
Zack Brown, photo 1
Zack Brown, photo 2
Add to my network

Experience

Co-founder & CEO at PaxCorp since February 2023
Independent Researcher at Pax Open Source Project (Sep 2021 - Jan 2023), Co-founder & CEO at Haiku (Jun 2016 - Aug 2021), Vice President, Product at Famo.us (Dec 2014 - Jul 2015)

Education

Y Combinator (2017 - 2018), Bachelor of Science in Computer Science & Engineering from University of Washington (2006 - 2011)

Location

San Francisco, California, United States