Hey everyone, I'm Braden! 👋
I'm the founder of Epicenter, a collection of open-source tools to capture, refine, and ultimately export your ideas (YC S25). I started as a humanities student at Yale studying Ethics, Politics, and Economics, but I fell in love with coding in my first year.
Now, I seek to bridge the gaps between the two disciplines. I'm starting with open-source tools: transcription to capture raw ideas anywhere and a local-first, digital second brain to refine and export them to every platform—as text, as video, as audio—all in your unique voice.
The moonshot is a community of intellectuals, writers, and thinkers who share authentic, low-dopamine content, because the world needs more genuine voices, not more AI slop. Along the way, I want to prove that open-source software can thrive, disrupting some outdated business models along the way.
I've been on a resolution to make one commit a day for the past few years. Many of these commits are a combination of my various personal projects and a vault where I take all my notes.
While I've been fortunate to have wonderful industry jobs, open-source software has a special place in my heart. It is liberating to code without worrying about profits and temptations to monetize users or profit from their data. Thanks to Epicenter, I'm fortunate to be able pursue this full-time.
Your support through sponsorships is greatly appreciated, but please only contribute if you feel financially secure enough to do so. Your contributions enable me to pursue and develop projects like Whispering and other projects that I hope to help the community. That being said, if you're feeling generous and financially secure, consider supporting other open-source maintainers who are doing incredible work! The open-source ecosystem thrives when we support each other. Thank you for your time!