About Elias

I grew up in Queens,NY loving to read books and learn about the world around me. My passion for Technology was cemented with the help of video games, designing and redesigning my Tumblr, and exposure to design & engineering @ Millennium Brooklyn High School. After I graduated from Case Western Reserve University with a Bachelor in Computer Science in Spring 2021, I moved to Los Angeles in the Summer of 2021. Still in the midst of the pandemic, I started my full time role completely remote.

 

Starting out in LA at the tail end of the pandemic was an interesting experience. I had never been to the West Coast before and only had a few pre-existing friends. Going out to socialize in Fall 2021, I could sense people were wary but excited to be back outside. For me, it just felt great to be able to be in the presence of more than 3 people at once. 

However, I recognized that the pandemic had impacted the way I interacted with people. For the first time in my life, I had anxiety about being to crowded areas - a daily reality of taking the subway back home. 

I also realized that when you meet someone while you're outside, there was friction to exchanging information in real life. If you're at a party, it can be loud. If you're in church, you may want to be quiet. If you're under the influence of legal intoxicants, you might type your number wrong. If you're sober, you might be excruciatingly sensitive to the thought of the germs on another person's phone after touching it. 

That's why I created ZAP. When I would find myself in a variety of spaces where I'd like to meet and exchange information with people, all I had to do was ZAP. It resolved all of the friction that I previously described, in a form factor that I could easily carry around, that was end-to-end designed, manufactured, and sold by me (with the exception of the actual chip inside carrying the data). 

What excited me was the ability to build a product that worked out-of-the box for iOS and Android, equally well. As a lifelong Android user, I know all too well what it felt like to be left out of the Apple ecosystem. However as a Technologist, I always appreciated that Android truly allowed you to use your device as you please, whereas in most of the 2010's Apple was very strict about how you could use their devices. 

In 2025 however, the differences between the two are more minor than they've ever been. In today's world, most people access the internet from a mobile device or tablet, rather than desktop. Unfortunately, this means that building software takes more effort if you want them to be good on both Android and iOS. Some companies avoid this altogether by releasing only on iOS, especially in North America. This is bad for the customer, as sometimes the features of products you buy can be limited by the mobile device you're using. In 2025, that doesn't make a ton of sense.

I'm going to build products that meet you where you're at, rather than forcing you to buy into an ecosystem. I aim to build thoughtfully designed, useful hardware and software tools that are accessible regardless of your age or tech proficiency. That's why my intent with Zoomer Tech is to build products for every generation and ecosystem.