“In the end, it’s all about life.”—Le Corbusier

Professional Background 👔

Jinsoo An is a Korean American designer, researcher and technologist dedicated to enhancing human relations.

He leads visionary solutions around changing behaviors, emerging cultures and converging technologies by interweaving wellness, mobility and media.

His expertise lies in developing emotionally intelligent platforms which cultivate a symbiotic relationship between people, tools and spaces.

For over 13 years, he has been building, scaling, revamping and diversifying products through multidisciplinary practices—including product design, behavioral research, anthropology, sensory and food science, risk mitigation, and foresight.

Brief Bio 🧬

Prior to immigrating to California in 1995, Jinsoo was raised on a small family-owned farm in South Korea, just a few miles away from the DMZ. Surrounded by wet rice fields and unpaved roads where an endless chain of tanks roared, he often waved his arms and shouted, “M.R.E.!.” A friendly soldier in a clattering tank would pop out to throw him a bag of what seemed like a Happy Meal from outer space.

Through this curiosity-ridden environment juxtaposed with hanging fermented soybeans, neighborly farmers, home-brew games and gadget teardowns, he developed a deep fascination for human ingenuity and connection.

Decades later, his curiosity gradually expanded to crafting tools and services across 20 industries such as wellness, food, agriculture, gaming and consumer electronics—reaching hundreds of millions of people around the globe.

In 2013, he opened a hackerspace in a warehouse on the Skid Row of Los Angeles. The space provided a groundwork for Project Nourished to sprout and grow during the following year.

In 2019, he was invited to participate in Food Lab Accelerator at Google as a Product Owner for Supply Chain Management. With over 50 food-related industry leaders, partners and non-profits, he helped to develop an open-source framework for agrobiodiversity supply chain that facilitates exchange of value through trust, fairness and accountability.

During his spare time, he loves inspiring people of all ages by speaking to them and educating them about the human condition of today and tomorrow. His favorite themes include play, commensality, social isolation, aging, community reintegration, behavioral economics and philosophy.

Periodically, he engages with local and global communities to strengthen public–private partnership to improve the role of technology in people’s lives.