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Product lead · New York

I build the platforms other people build on. Lately, the ones AI agents build on too.

I make the safe path the easy path: a browser's extension ecosystem through a security overhaul, now agent access inside a regulated bank. Based in New York.

  • Developer platforms
  • AI agents & MCP
  • Marketplaces & ecosystems

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David Li

A decade on developer platforms

  1. MicrosoftWindows graphics & UI APIs
  2. LobCore Platform API
  3. GoogleChrome extensions platform
  4. Capital OneEnterprise MCP platform

B.S. Computer Science, Yale

Work I'd point to first

03 projects

Capital One · 2025-now

A governed MCP platform for developers and AI agents

A gateway, a registry, and a governance process serving two customers at once: engineers in coding agents, and the agents themselves. Built with security and risk as partners, so the approved path is the fast path.

  • Multi-division adoption
  • Gateway + registry
  • Vision, strategy & roadmap

Google · 2020-25

Making Chrome extensions worth building on again

The developer base had been shrinking for years. Getting it back to growth meant cutting friction before adding ambition: submission and review got faster, the Side Panel API gave extensions a real surface, and generative AI gave developers a reason to show up.

  • +30% YoY new developers
  • Faster submission & review
  • Side Panel API
  • On-device AI APIs

Lob · 2018-20

Launching a new product line on a print-and-mail API

Owned the core API platform at a startup where one API call becomes a letter in someone's mailbox. Launched custom envelopes, a new product line that was generating revenue in its first month.

  • Revenue in month one
  • Core API platform
  • 0-to-1 launch

Before that

the graphics and UI layer of WindowsPowerPoint for the webFull history

On agentic AI, developer ecosystems, and marketplaces. Mostly about making the safe path the easy path.

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About

Computer science at Yale, shipped code before managing products, a decade building the things other people build on. The thread through all of it: making the safe path the easy path.

  • Reading
  • Cooking
  • Travel
  • Language learning

More about me

David plating a dish at a cooking class