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■ SUBJECT UNDER REVIEW
Aly Rajan/Archive files
Role:Two Oceans Ventures
Role:Aga Khan Foundation Canada
GRB
Active engagement:Grants and Review Board
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RETRIEVE PERSONNEL FILE // RAJAN, A.
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ALYRAJAN
Aly RajanVAN · 49.28N
RESTRICTED // FOR REVIEW ONLYSHEET 1 OF 1
FILE
0447-A
NAME
RAJAN, ALY
POSTING
FOUNDER, NOTTE. // SEARCH FUND INTERN, 2026
BASE
VANCOUVER, CAN
STATUS
ACTIVE
SUMMARY — PARTIALLY REDACTED
I’m a business student interested in how companies are found, built, and improved. At Two Oceans Ventures, I researched and evaluated private companies for a search fund, while building tools that made the work faster and clearer.
My path started five years ago, when I launched a watch business at seventeen. It has since reached more than 350 transactions across Vancouver and Toronto. I’ve also mentored young people in Mombasa, Toronto, and Vancouver, and started the Langara to SFU Beedie transfer pathway. I learn by doing, take ownership early, and enjoy turning ideas into things people can actually use.
ASSOCIATIONS
PROGRAMS
AKFC · HARBOUR LIGHT · SFU
BUILDS
ARCA · BETTERD2L · PARLAX
PRIOR
NOTTE., EST. 2021
FIRST BUSINESS AT SEVENTEEN · 350+ TRANSACTIONS SINCE
DECLASSIFIED ON REQUEST · --:-- PT
CLICK OR SCROLL TO OPEN THE FILE
EXPERIENCE / CANADA / GRANTS AND REVIEW BOARD
ENGAGEMENT FILE 11-GRB
Grants and Review Board
ACTIVE · FROM OCT 2026
In October 2026 I joined the Grants and Review Board as an intern on its Objectives, Strategies and Budget portfolio. Established by the Aga Khan in 1986, the Board holds the institutions that draw support from him or from the Jamat to a standard of financial discipline, accountability, and cost and management effectiveness, across its national jurisdictions. This file is newly opened, and it will fill in as the work does.
SUBJECT RAJAN, A. ROLE INTERN PORTFOLIO OBJECTIVES, STRATEGIES & BUDGET
DATA ROOM // INTERNAL DOCUMENT
SECTION 01 // THE MANDATE
Does the money follow the plan?
The Board asks that question of every institution it reviews. It evaluates budgets against the objectives and strategies they are meant to serve, checks that resources are applied properly and that systems are followed, and carries out periodic audits.
I applied to its volunteer internship program in the summer of 2026 and was placed on Objectives, Strategies and Budget: the part of the Board's work concerned with what an institution says it will do, and what that will cost.
01EvaluateBUDGETS AGAINST OBJECTIVES & STRATEGIES
02EnsureRESOURCES APPLIED PROPERLY · SYSTEMS FOLLOWED
03AuditFINANCIAL · MANAGEMENT · SOCIAL
DATA ROOM // INTERNAL DOCUMENT
SECTION 02 // THE STANDARD
What the work is held to.
The Board reviews budgets, but the standard it reviews them against was set long before any of them was written. One line from the Aga Khan, on the public record, says what that standard is.
“A healthy Civil Society is a meritocratic one, where ethics are honored, and excellence is valued.”
THE AGA KHAN, IN HIS ADDRESS AT THE AGA KHAN UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION, KAMPALA, 26 FEBRUARY 2015
At Two Oceans Ventures, I worked on the search for a privately held company to acquire and operate. I mapped industries, sourced and screened businesses, researched owners, drafted outreach, and built analytical tools for active opportunities. It gave me a close view of how a broad market becomes a short list, and how a short list becomes a company worth pursuing.
SUBJECT RAJAN, A. STATION VANCOUVER, BC COMMENCED APRIL 2026
TOTwo Oceans Ventures
DATA ROOM // INTERNAL DOCUMENT
SECTION 01 // THE FIRM
What the search demanded.
Two Oceans Ventures was looking for one established company to acquire and operate for the long term. That made the screen practical. A promising business needed more than attractive numbers. It needed recurring demand, healthy cash flow, a genuine succession need, and a future an incoming operator could responsibly carry forward. I built those requirements into a scoring model and ranked the whole market against it, so the best-fit companies rose to the top instead of being read one at a time.
An owner was not just considering a transaction. They were deciding what would happen to something they had spent years building. Preparation, discretion, and respect mattered from the first contact.
THE MODEL // 0–100 ACROSS 315 TARGETS
01Size fitCASH FLOW IN THE FUND'S RANGE · 50 PTS
02GeographyPROXIMITY TO THE LOWER MAINLAND · 30 PTS
03ProfessionalizationMATURE OWNER-OPERATORS WITH UPSIDE · 10 PTS
04ReachabilityA NAMED OWNER AND A WAY IN · 10 PTS
WHAT IS A SEARCH FUND? ▸
SEARCH FUND // BRIEFING CARD
A search fund gives one or two entrepreneurs the capital and time to find an established company, acquire it, and take over its day-to-day leadership.
Unlike a traditional investment fund, the search is focused on a single company. Investors are backing both the opportunity and the person who will eventually operate it.
I worked one market: industrial and facility services in British Columbia. I mapped it, built the target list, researched ownership, and screened each business against the fund's criteria. Most companies were ruled out early. The real skill was knowing what deserved a closer look and being able to explain why.
I ran the prioritized targets through the outreach pipeline and tracked each one from first research to the principals’ send and the reply. For every owner we approached, I researched the company first and drafted the email around its specifics instead of a generic template; Zahid and Jade sent them. That made the outreach more credible and gave the team a stronger starting point when a conversation opened.
01SourceMARKET MAPS · TARGET UNIVERSES
02Score0–100 MODEL · 315 COMPANIES
03OutreachRESEARCH-LED EMAILS · TRACKED PIPELINE
04EvaluateEXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST
DATA ROOM // INTERNAL DOCUMENT
SECTION 03 // FIELD METRICS
Turning raw records into a usable model.
One confidential opportunity came with thousands of records spread across raw financial files. I built an eleven-module Python pipeline to ingest the files row by row, validate and classify the records, analyze revenue and cost lines, and produce an Excel model the deal team could work from.
Automation made the process faster, but the more important improvement was traceability. Every output could be followed back to its source. The company and transaction remain confidential, so the figures shown here are sanitized totals from the workflow.
CO-FOUNDER · CPA, CFA EX-BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP · GROWTH CAPITAL, 15+ TRANSACTIONS
Before co-founding Two Oceans Ventures, Zahid worked in strategy consulting at BCG and in lower-middle-market growth capital, with experience across more than 15 transactions.
CO-FOUNDER CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT & M&A · PE-BACKED OPERATING EXPERIENCE
Jade brought experience in corporate development and M&A inside a private-equity-backed operating company, including the integration work that begins after a deal closes.
REFERENCE // JADE FESTER · PRINCIPAL, TWO OCEANS VENTURES · AUGUST 18, 2026
“Aly interned with our team at Two Oceans Ventures and made a genuine impact in a short period of time. Aly asked thoughtful questions throughout, and had a real interest in understanding the reasoning behind our decisions, not just the tasks at hand.
During a live deal, our team needed to sort through hundreds of inconsistent documents. Aly took the initiative to build a tool in Python that streamlined the process, saving the team meaningful time at a critical point in the transaction.”
The role made me more disciplined about how I form a view. A strong company story was not enough. I learned to compare opportunities against clear criteria, test what looked attractive, and keep digging until I could explain both the upside and the risk in plain language.
I also learned that sourcing is not separate from analysis. Good research improves the screen, sharpens the outreach, and makes the first conversation more useful. That connection between judgment, communication, and execution is what stayed with me.
DATA ROOM // INTERNAL DOCUMENT
SECTION 06 // STATUS
How it ended.
Analyst Intern
Market mapping, target screening, owner outreach, and analytical automation
COMPLETE
Diligence
Supported industrial and facility-services targets from first screen through to Letter of Intent
TO LOI
Engagement term
Vancouver, British Columbia
APR TO AUG 2026
Recognition
Cited in the firm’s public note on its Summer 2026 cohort; written reference from a principal, below
In 2021, two experiences began shaping the way I work. One taught me to be someone people could count on. The other taught me to build something people could trust.
SUBJECT RAJAN, ALY STATION VANCOUVER, BC STATUS ACTIVE
I started mentoring youth at the Edmonds Youth Education Centre in Burnaby. I spent two days a week showing up, listening, and helping young people work through the challenges in front of them.
Over time, I learned that mentorship comes down to being someone others can count on, perfect advice or not.
DATA ROOM // PERSONNEL FILE
2021 // THE BUSINESS
notte.
That same year, I started DB Watches because I wanted an excuse to spend more time around vintage watches. I had no team or formal playbook, so I learned by doing. I sourced pieces, studied the market, photographed inventory, built the brand, and worked directly with every client.
The business grew to more than 350 transactions across Vancouver and Toronto, with roughly one in three clients returning. That repeat business meant more to me than the transaction count because it showed that I had built something people trusted.
In August 2026, I rebranded the company as Notte Watches, beginning a new chapter for the business I started in 2021.
350+TRANSACTIONS · VAN & TOR
1 in 3CLIENTS RETURN
2021FOUNDED AS DB WATCHES
2026REBRANDED · AUGUST
DATA ROOM // PERSONNEL FILE
2023 // MOMBASA, KENYA
Read the room first.
I travelled to Kenya through the Global Encounters program, run by the Ismaili community’s institutions with the Aga Khan Academies, and taught English alongside local educators in Mombasa. Early on, peace signs did more work than words. By the final week, the classroom had developed its own rhythm.
The experience taught me to understand people and their environment before deciding how I could contribute.
DATA ROOM // PERSONNEL FILE
2023–2026 // AGA KHAN FOUNDATION CANADA
Scattered into usable.
My involvement with Aga Khan Foundation Canada continued through two terms on its Youth Advisory Committee. It later led to a data research contract, where I built the Python pipeline behind a public interactive map.
I researched and verified thousands of data points across more than 30 countries, turning scattered information into a resource people could use and trust.
01Countries covered30+
02Data pointsTHOUSANDS · RESEARCHED & VERIFIED
03Youth AdvisoryTWO TERMS · COMPLETED
04Built withPYTHON · PANDAS
DATA ROOM // PERSONNEL FILE
NOW // DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE
Steady when it matters.
At Salvation Army Harbour Light, I support men living in a Community Residential Facility as they move from federal custody into supervised life in the community.
Some shifts are routine. Others turn quickly. I might support an intake, complete facility checks, document an incident, or help de-escalate a crisis. The job has made me more observant, more precise, and more comfortable making calm decisions when the room is not calm.
DATA ROOM // PERSONNEL FILE
2026 // PRIVATE MARKETS
An owner’s view.
Running my own business made me curious about what separates an average company from one worth owning. That interest led me to Two Oceans Ventures, where I completed an internship focused on private-market research.
I mapped industries, screened companies, supported outreach, and learned to evaluate a business from an owner’s perspective.
DATA ROOM // PERSONNEL FILE
2026 // BUILDING TOWARD OWNERSHIP
Building toward it.
I am currently completing the Langara to SFU Beedie transfer pathway and building toward a career in investing, entrepreneurship, and business growth. I want to understand what makes strong companies work, help them become better, and eventually take on the responsibility of building and operating businesses myself.
Notte Watches gives me a place to practise that today. My education and professional experience are helping me develop the judgment to do it at a larger scale.
DATA ROOM // PERSONNEL FILE · RAJAN, ALY
OFF DUTY // THE REST OF IT
There has to be a better way.
Outside of work and school, I cook a lot of Italian food, train in boxing, and play piano and guitar. I also enjoy building small tools that solve problems in my daily life.
Most of my side projects begin with the same thought: there has to be a better way to do this.
DATA ROOM // PERSONNEL FILE
AHEAD // WHAT I AM WORKING TOWARD
Judgment first. Then scale.
Everything on this site is practice for the same thing: being someone people can count on, and building things that are useful. The next few years are about doing that with more responsibility, in businesses I help run or own.
I started DB Watches in 2021 because I was fascinated by vintage watches and wanted to understand the market from the inside. What began as a side project became a business spanning more than 350 transactions across Vancouver and Toronto. In August 2026, I rebranded it as Notte Watches. Roughly one in three clients returned, which remains the clearest sign that I built more than a storefront.
SUBJECT RAJAN, A. MARKETS VANCOUVER · TORONTO FOUNDED 2021
DATA ROOM // INTERNAL DOCUMENT
SECTION 01 // THE TRADE
Twice-earned trust.
Every watch arrived with a question: is it authentic, what condition is it really in, and what is it worth today? I learned to inspect movements, cases, dials, reference numbers, service history, and provenance before putting my name behind a piece.
Clients were often buying something personal, not simply a product. Trust came from being honest about condition, pricing clearly, and staying accountable after the sale. Roughly one in three clients returned.
01SourceESTATES · COLLECTORS · TRADES
02AuthenticateMOVEMENT · CASE · PAPERS
03PriceA NUMBER I CAN DEFEND
04PlaceTHE RIGHT WRIST, NOT THE FIRST
DATA ROOM // INTERNAL DOCUMENT
SECTION 02 // THE NUMBERS
The business, measured.
More than 350 transactions gave me a practical education in sourcing, pricing, negotiation, inventory, photography, customer service, and cash flow. Small decisions compounded. Buying well created margin, documenting well reduced doubt, and following up turned one transaction into a relationship.
350+TRANSACTIONS COMPLETED
30%+CLIENTS WHO RETURNED
2MARKETS SERVED
5YEARS OPERATING
DATA ROOM // INTERNAL DOCUMENT
SECTION 03 // THE HUNT
Found, not bought.
Finished product photos make the work look clean. The beginning rarely is. I found pieces through collectors, estate lots, trades, flea markets, and dealer trays, often before anyone had established exactly what was there. This Cartier came from a stall like that.
That is where attention creates value. Weight, dial printing, case condition, reference details, and the movement can change the entire decision. The work taught me to be curious before being confident.
AKFC asked me to help turn a scattered body of public information into a global interactive map. I built the Python research pipeline behind it, then researched, verified, structured, and geocoded thousands of data points across more than 30 countries. The public sees a map. Most of my work was making sure every point deserved to be there.
SUBJECT RAJAN, A. CLIENT AGA KHAN FOUNDATION CANADA DELIVERABLE GLOBAL INTERACTIVE MAP
DATA ROOM // INTERNAL DOCUMENT
SECTION 01 // THE PIPELINE
Thirty countries, one map.
The hard part of building the map was deciding what could be trusted, not collecting as much as possible. Sources used different languages, place names, formats, and levels of detail. I created a process to gather each record, verify it against another source, resolve the location, and reject claims that could not be confirmed. Automating the extraction, validation, and cross-source checks cut manual verification time by roughly half.
The result is a repeatable system another person can audit, update, and rely on.
30+COUNTRIES COVERED
1000sDATA POINTS VERIFIED
MAP PIPELINE // FOUR STAGES
COLLECTVERIFYGEOCODEPUBLISH
DATA ROOM // INTERNAL DOCUMENT
SECTION 02 // THE STATION
Run from Vancouver.
The contract connected an Ottawa-based foundation, public sources from around the world, and my work in Vancouver. Working remotely made documentation essential. Every transformation and source decision had to be clear enough for the next person to follow without asking me to explain it.
The final dataset now supports a public map containing thousands of verified points across more than 30 countries.
In September 2026 the map went live with Canadian Geographic and Aga Khan Foundation Canada. I spoke on the launch panel, Educating for Global Citizenship in an Interconnected World, alongside the Editor-in-Chief of Canadian Geographic and educators from across the country. The data pipeline I built sits behind the map on the screen.
EXPERIENCE / NATIONAL / AKFC YOUTH ADVISORY COMMITTEE
ENGAGEMENT FILE 03-YAC
Youth Advisory Committee
TWO TERMS · COMPLETED
Across two one-year terms on Aga Khan Foundation Canada's Youth Advisory Committee, I helped shape how the Foundation spoke to and involved young Canadians. I worked mainly in content creation, contributing to national campaigns, youth-facing brand work, and events. It was an advisory role with real output attached to it.
SUBJECT RAJAN, A. PILLAR CONTENT CREATION TERMS TWO · ONE YEAR EACH
DATA ROOM // INTERNAL DOCUMENT
SECTION 01 // THE COMMITTEE
Ideas that became real work.
AKFC brought together young people from across Canada to challenge, shape, and help deliver its youth engagement work. We worked across content, outreach, and research, bringing the perspective of the audience into decisions made before a campaign ever reached the public.
My contribution was practical. I designed content, helped refine ideas, planned events, and learned how to improve work through feedback from experienced communications teams.
I translated a complex story about mobile health clinics in Cabo Delgado into an Instagram carousel. AKFC's communications team helped sharpen the language and sequencing for a small screen, and the final piece ran on the Foundation's national channels. It taught me that good communication is knowing what the audience needs to remember, not fitting in more.
Our Potential Our Purpose
I contributed to the phrase, logo, colours, and visual direction behind Our Potential Our Purpose, AKFC's youth-facing platform. Seeing the identity move from early discussion to a public brand showed me how many small decisions sit behind something that eventually feels simple.
For International Development Week 2026, I helped plan and host “Where Dreams Meet Real Opportunities,” a fireside chat with Ziyaan Virji, founder of Leaders of Today. Preparing for the conversation meant researching his work, shaping questions that would be useful to a young audience, rehearsing the flow, and then making the live exchange feel natural.
The Youth Leadership Academy brought young leaders to Toronto for five days of learning, reflection, and community. In 2025, I helped facilitate connection activities and learning modules and supported the less visible work that turns a group of strangers into a community.
The formal sessions mattered, but the conversations after them were often where people became honest about what they were trying to build. Facilitation, I learned, is creating the conditions for people to contribute, not commanding a room.
Project Destined's Summer 2026 Real Estate Private Equity Virtual Internship is a five-week program built around multifamily deals. I worked through rent rolls, trailing financials, debt sizing, valuation, and levered returns, and finished with an individual investment case. I then completed its Commercial Real Estate Fundamentals Certificate, covering market analysis, valuation, and deal financing.
SUBJECT RAJAN, A. PROGRAM REAL ESTATE PRIVATE EQUITY FORMAT REMOTE · COHORT
THE MARKET, FOGGED IN · FRAME 01 / 03
DATA ROOM // INTERNAL DOCUMENT
SECTION 01 // THE REPS
Three deals, five weeks.
The curriculum used three multifamily cases to move from property-level information to an investment recommendation. Some models were built with a team and one independently. Each required the same discipline: understand the operating story, test the assumptions, and know which variables could change the answer.
The final case turned the analysis into a one-page investment summary. If I could not explain why the deal worked, the model was not finished.
01UnderwriteTHREE MULTIFAMILY DEALS · TEAM & SOLO
02ModelRENT ROLLS · T-12S · RETURNS
03PitchINVESTMENT COMMITTEE FORMAT
DATA ROOM // INTERNAL DOCUMENT
SECTION 02 // THE CURRICULUM
Five weeks, one model.
Pro forma
Rent roll and T-12 to a projected income statement
WEEK 1
Debt sizing
Loan size from coverage and leverage constraints
WEEK 3
Levered returns
IRR and equity multiple, levered and unlevered
WEEK 4
Individual case
Full underwriting and a one-page investment summary
WEEK 5
SUMMER 2026 COHORT · CREDENTIAL ISSUED AUG 2026
DATA ROOM // INTERNAL DOCUMENT
SECTION 03 // STATUS
Certified.
Real Estate Private Equity Virtual Internship
Project Destined · Summer 2026 · five weeks, remote
As Marketing Executive for ISA SFU, I turn the organization's plans into campaigns students notice and events they choose to attend. I manage content, promotional design, social media, and the marketing calendar while coordinating with a large executive team to keep the work consistent and on time.
SUBJECT RAJAN, A. ROLE MARKETING EXECUTIVE STATION BURNABY, BC
DATA ROOM // INTERNAL DOCUMENT
SECTION 01 // THE FUNCTION
Content that fills rooms.
The role sits between creative work and execution. I translate event goals into campaign concepts, produce the content, schedule the rollout, and adjust based on what the audience responds to.
I also host events on stage. Moving between the analytics and the room has made me a better marketer because I can see both the numbers and the people behind them.
01ContentSOCIAL · DESIGN · REELS
02CampaignsLAUNCHES · EVENT PUSHES
03CalendarCADENCE · TEAM ALIGNMENT
DATA ROOM // INTERNAL DOCUMENT
SECTION 02 // THE NUMBERS
Read the room, then the data.
I track reach, engagement, and attendance because the work is supposed to move people from seeing an event to showing up. Since September, our campaigns have reached more than 850 students across more than 80 posts.
The process is simple but demanding: publish consistently, measure honestly, learn quickly, and make the next campaign stronger.
855+STUDENTS REACHED
80+POSTS SHIPPED
SEASON OVER SEASON
FRIDAY ATTENDANCE
400%
POST ENGAGEMENT
1,500%
GALA TURNOUT
50%
DATA ROOM // INTERNAL DOCUMENT
SECTION 03 // THE COMMUNITY
The house behind the club.
ISA SFU gives Ismaili students a place to carry culture, faith, and community into university life. My job is to make that sense of belonging visible before someone ever walks into the room.
It reflects a wider tradition of gathering, service, and mutual support. The marketing may begin with a post, but the goal is always a stronger community in person.
EXPERIENCE / BURNABY / EDMONDS YOUTH EDUCATION CENTRE
ENGAGEMENT FILE 09-EDM
Edmonds Youth
COMPLETED · AUG 2021 – JAN 2024
From August 2021 to January 2024, I mentored the same group of 11- to 14-year-olds at Edmonds Youth Education Centre two days a week. I planned weekly sessions, facilitated workshops, and helped young people turn ideas into service and leadership projects. The length of the commitment mattered. Trust grew because I kept showing up.
SUBJECT RAJAN, A. ROLE YOUTH MENTOR INTERN STATION BURNABY, BC
The work was listening, preparing a session that met the group where they were, and returning the next week with the same patience. Over time, that consistency made room for more honest conversations and more responsibility from the group.
One workshop brought parents and young people together to talk about phones, attention, and family dynamics. We used research and discussion instead of lectures, which made the conversation feel shared rather than imposed.
01PlanWEEKLY SESSION PLANS
02FacilitateWEEKLY SESSIONS · AGES 11–14
03BridgePARENT & YOUTH WORKSHOPS
DATA ROOM // INTERNAL DOCUMENT
SECTION 02 // WORKSHOP REGISTER
On the record.
THE BANNER OVER THE DOOR · EDMONDS JUNIOR YOUTH
Science Junior Youth Camp
Supported the summer 2021 camp and appeared in the program's video feature.
In 2023, I joined young people from around the world in Kenya through the Global Encounters program, run by the Ismaili community's institutions with the Aga Khan Academies. In Nairobi, we studied global health, media, and leadership. In Mombasa, I taught English alongside local educators. The experience challenged me to enter a new environment with curiosity before deciding how I could contribute.
SUBJECT RAJAN, A. DEPLOYMENT NAIROBI & MOMBASA COHORT INTERNATIONAL
AT THE CHALKBOARD · LESSON HOURS · MOMBASA · FRAME 01 / 03
DATA ROOM // INTERNAL DOCUMENT
SECTION 01 // THE CLASSROOM
Listen before leading.
At first, the room moved faster than our shared vocabulary. We relied on pictures, gestures, call and response, and more than a few peace signs. By the final week, the classroom had found its rhythm.
Working beside local teachers reminded me that good facilitation begins with observation. I had to understand how the classroom already worked before adding anything of my own.
DATA ROOM // INTERNAL DOCUMENT
SECTION 02 // THE PROGRAM
Citizenship, practiced.
The program brought together participants from different countries to study how institutions respond to the communities they serve. At Aga Khan University Hospital, we looked at culturally responsive care. In service projects and team exercises, we had to turn those ideas into decisions with real people in front of us.
What stayed with me was not a single lesson. It was a habit: listen first, adapt quickly, and never mistake being new to a place for seeing it clearly.
01TeachENGLISH · PRIMARY SCHOOL · MOMBASA
02StudyAKU HOSPITAL · HEALTH SYSTEMS
03ServeCOMMUNITY PROJECTS · COHORT
DATA ROOM // INTERNAL DOCUMENT
SECTION 03 // DEPLOYMENT LOG
Logged in the field.
01EDUCATOR WORKSHOP · WITH MOMBASA'S TEACHERS02ON AIR · MEDIA TRAINING, NAIROBI03THE STUDIO FLOOR · COHORT TAPING04ENGLISH INSTRUCTION · MOMBASA05BETWEEN LESSONS06THE READING CIRCLE07WITH THE COHORT
English instruction
Primary classroom, Mombasa. Daily lessons with early learners.
MOMBASA
Media training
A working news studio: on camera, mic in hand, lower third and all. Composure is a skill you rehearse.
NAIROBI
Educator workshops
Sessions built and delivered alongside local women educators, learning their classroom before presuming to add to it.
MOMBASA
AKU Hospital
Global health systems and culturally responsive care, studied up close.
NAIROBI
Peace activity
The classroom's shared symbol: connection before common language.
MOMBASA
DATA ROOM // INTERNAL DOCUMENT
SECTION 04 // STATUS
Deployment closed.
Youth Leadership Participant
Global Encounters · Aga Khan Academy Mombasa
COMPLETE
Deployment
August to September 2023 · Nairobi & Mombasa
CLOSED
CAPABILITIES EXERCISED
CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATIONPUBLIC SPEAKINGFIELD RESEARCH
DATA ROOM // INTERNAL DOCUMENT · FILE 10-GE
EXPERIENCE / LONDON / CIRCL × LRQA
ENGAGEMENT FILE 12-CIR
Leader as a Coach
ACTIVE · SEP 2026 – PRESENT
Selected as a Future Leader on the Circl × LRQA Leader as a Coach programme. From September to December 2026 I work on inclusive leadership and coaching through six fortnightly sessions, pairing group workshops with one-to-one practice alongside an LRQA professional. In practice that means asking better questions, actually listening, and keeping the conversation on the other person's goal. I do it with people from different backgrounds and career stages.
SUBJECT RAJAN, A. PROGRAMME CIRCL × LRQA · LEADER AS A COACH FORMAT REMOTE · LONDON, UK
DATA ROOM // INTERNAL DOCUMENT
SECTION 01 // THE METHOD
Ask, don't tell.
The programme trades command for coaching. The idea is to draw the answer out of the person in front of you rather than hand it over. The skills are simple to name and hard to do well under pressure. Listen fully. Ask the question that opens the problem. Keep the goal in view.
Theory is paired with practice. Group workshops led by a professional coach are matched with one-to-one sessions, where the same skills are rehearsed with a partner from a different background and career stage. The programme is accredited by the Association for Coaching.
01ListenACTIVE LISTENING · BUILDING EMPATHY
02QuestionEFFECTIVE, GOAL-FOCUSED COACHING
03EmpowerPEOPLE DECIDE FOR THEMSELVES
DATA ROOM // INTERNAL DOCUMENT
SECTION 02 // STATUS
In progress.
Future Leader
Circl × LRQA · Leader as a Coach programme
ACTIVE
Cohort
Sep – Dec 2026 · six fortnightly sessions · remote, London, UK
From September 2022 to September 2023, I volunteered with Mission Possible's Power Breakfast Program on Powell Street, in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Saturday mornings meant setting up, welcoming guests, keeping the room calm and respectful, and helping coordinate the volunteer team so that more than a hundred people were served with dignity each session.
I also helped with outreach that grew participation by about 30 percent, gathered feedback from guests for the program team, and helped distribute essential donations to neighbours living with housing insecurity. It was a weekly reminder of the value of showing up, listening, and contributing where help is needed.
SUBJECT RAJAN, A. ROLE COMMUNITY VOLUNTEER · POWER BREAKFAST STATION POWELL STREET · DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE
Mission Possible
DATA ROOM // INTERNAL DOCUMENT
SECTION 01 // THE ORGANIZATION
Work as the way out.
Mission Possible has worked in the Downtown Eastside since 1992. It began as one woman serving sandwiches out of the back of her station wagon, and for its first decades it met basic needs: meals, clothing, a place to be welcomed. Over time it rebuilt itself around a single idea, that meaningful work is the surest bridge out of poverty.
Today it runs an Employment Readiness Program of coaching and training, and two social enterprises that give people facing homelessness, poverty, and addiction a transitional job and a reference: MP Maintenance, a certified social enterprise that cleans and maintains properties across the city, and MP Neighbours, whose community navigators walk regular routes through the neighbourhood with outreach, referrals, and needle pick-up. In the 2023 to 2024 year, more than 1,200 people signed up for its information sessions.
01Employment ReadinessCOACHING · TRAINING · JOB SEARCH SUPPORT
02MP MaintenanceSOCIAL ENTERPRISE · PROPERTY SERVICES · TRANSITIONAL JOBS
The Power Breakfast was Mission Possible's weekend meal service, run out of its Powell Street building. Volunteers served a hot breakfast and coffee made the way each guest liked it to Downtown Eastside residents, and before the pandemic it was a sit-down meal for about a hundred people. The organization described it as more than a meal: a platform for conversations, collaborations, and connections in the neighbourhood.
My year there was spent on the floor and at the door. I helped coordinate the volunteer shift, greeted guests by name where I could, and kept the room welcoming and respectful. Between services I worked on outreach to bring more neighbours in and collected feedback from guests so the program team could keep improving how it served them.
The Power Breakfast served its final morning on 26 October 2024, when the Powell Street building passed to another Downtown Eastside organization, Heart Tattoo Society. Mission Possible continues its food security work through daily lunches and a community pantry.
“We believe in the power of work to transform a life.”
MISSION POSSIBLE, ANNUAL REPORT 2023–2024
DATA ROOM // INTERNAL DOCUMENT
SECTION 03 // STATUS
Closed in 2023.
Community Volunteer, Power Breakfast Program
Mission Possible · Downtown Eastside, Vancouver
COMPLETE
Term
September 2022 to September 2023 · weekend service
CLOSED
The program
Final Power Breakfast served 26 October 2024 · the building passed to Heart Tattoo Society
In December 2022 I volunteered at The Salvation Army's Belkin House in downtown Vancouver, supporting the evening meal service alongside youth from Bethel Chinese Christian M.B. Church. We worked together in the kitchen to prepare and plate the meals, then served them to more than a hundred guests, keeping the dining room welcoming and respectful for everyone who came through the line.
It was a short engagement with a long lesson: good service is teamwork, and giving back is most real when it is hands-on.
SUBJECT RAJAN, A. ROLE MEAL SERVICE VOLUNTEER STATION 555 HOMER STREET · VANCOUVER
DATA ROOM // INTERNAL DOCUMENT
SECTION 01 // THE HOUSE
A home at 555 Homer.
Belkin House is The Salvation Army's multi-service residence in downtown Vancouver. It opened at 555 Homer Street in September 2004, taking over from Dunsmuir House, which the Army had run for men on Dunsmuir Street for more than 75 years. Today, as part of Belkin Communities of Hope, it houses up to 225 men, women, and children.
The building runs an emergency shelter for 84 adults in a drug- and alcohol-free setting, with three meals a day served in the dining room, and supported housing for people working through its three-stage Personal Development Plan: practical help, skills training, and mentorship for men and women trying to break cycles of poverty and move toward independent living. Its own words for the work: it “reaches out to help people whose lives are battered and broken.”
01Shelter84 ADULTS · THREE MEALS A DAY · YEAR-ROUND
02HousingSUPPORTED HOUSING · PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
03CommunityUP TO 225 MEN, WOMEN & CHILDREN · SINCE 2004
DATA ROOM // INTERNAL DOCUMENT
SECTION 02 // THE SERVICE
An evening in the kitchen.
THE SERVING LINE · BELKIN HOUSE KITCHEN · DECEMBER 2022
Prepare
Worked the kitchen with the Bethel Chinese Christian M.B. Church youth team: prep, portions, and plating for a full dining room.
KITCHEN
Serve
Ran the serving line and the floor so that more than 100 guests were fed warmly, at their own pace, with dignity.
SERVICE
Host
Kept the room welcoming and respectful: a greeting at the counter, a second plate where it was wanted, a clean table for the next guest.
HOSPITALITY
DATA ROOM // INTERNAL DOCUMENT
SECTION 03 // STATUS
Served, December 2022.
Meal Service Volunteer
The Salvation Army Belkin House · with Bethel Chinese Christian M.B. Church youth
COMPLETE
Engagement
December 2022 · evening meal service · more than 100 guests
Kenya was the first place where I had to learn how to be useful without the advantage of familiarity. I arrived through the Global Encounters program with a cohort from a dozen countries. We began in Nairobi, then travelled to Mombasa, where I taught English alongside local educators. I thought the experience would teach me how to lead. It taught me when to listen.
ROUTE YVR → NBO → MBA COHORT INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM GLOBAL ENCOUNTERS
FIELD NOTE // TRAVEL · RAJAN, A.
01 · ARRIVAL
The group met in Nairobi as strangers. We came from different countries and carried different ideas of what service and leadership looked like. Our days moved between global health, media, and leadership, including time at Aga Khan University Hospital and inside a working news studio. It gave us plenty to discuss. Mombasa gave us somewhere to put it into practice.
On my first day in the classroom, I wanted to contribute immediately. The local teachers already understood the students, the routines, and what held the room’s attention. I did not. So I watched, asked questions, and followed their lead. Only then could I support English lessons and activities that suited the children in front of us.
02 // THE CLASSROOM
Peace signs first. Grammar later.
FIELD NOTE // TRAVEL · RAJAN, A.
03 · WHAT STAYED
At the beginning, pictures, gestures, and call and response carried much of each lesson. Peace signs became a small language of their own. By the final week, the classroom felt different. We knew which students wanted to answer first, who needed a quiet nudge, and when to step back. That rhythm was earned, not brought with us.
Outside the daily lessons, our cohort completed a field study on how values and ethics are taught in Mombasa’s pre-primary settings. The work drew on 100 interviews and asked what children were learning, who they learned it from, and what helped those lessons stay with them. It was my first experience turning a large set of conversations into organized findings, a skill I would later use in research and analysis.
I arrived believing that contribution began with action. I left understanding that it begins with attention. That lesson has followed me into every classroom, workplace, and community role since.
01STORY TIME · MOMBASA02LESSON HOURS03THE COHORT · NAIROBI
FIELD NOTES / BUILDS / ARCA
FIELD NOTE 02 // BUILDS · SOFTWARE
Arca.
FILED · RAJAN, A. · JUL 2026
Arca began with a personal frustration: I wanted a clear view of my finances, but I did not want to connect every account to a third-party service. I decided to build the tool I was looking for. This is the story of the product, the decisions behind it, and the bugs that changed how I built it.
STACK LOCAL APP · ENCRYPTED STORE NETWORK OFFLINE BY DESIGN BUILT FOR ONE USER
FIELD NOTE // BUILD LOG · RAJAN, A.
01 · THE PROBLEM
I was tracking accounts, credit cards, savings, and pay in separate places. The information existed, but the complete picture did not. Most of the tools that could bring it together asked me to connect my bank accounts and move sensitive financial data onto someone else's servers.
I wanted the convenience without giving up control. That became the product brief: one private place for my finances, running entirely on my computer, with encrypted data and no account, cloud service, or telemetry.
Once the privacy model was clear, I set the visual direction. Most budgeting software felt either clinical or crowded. I wanted Arca to feel calm and exact, borrowing the restraint of a private banking statement and the precision of the Hitman interfaces I admire. I chose the name Arca, Latin for a chest or strongbox.
THE MARK · ONE RED SQUARE, ONE VAULT
FIELD NOTE // BUILD LOG · RAJAN, A.
03 · THE CONSTRAINT
Privacy was not a feature I added at the end. It was the first constraint. Arca stores its data locally in encrypted form and works without an internet connection. That ruled out automatic bank syncing, shared accounts, and cloud access, but it made ownership simple: the data stays with me.
The app opens behind a two-factor lock screen and seals itself after inactivity. I keep the implementation details off the public site, but the design principle is straightforward: access should be explicit, local, and difficult to bypass.
04 · THE PRODUCT
I built the first version around the questions I was already asking: What do I own? What do I owe? What was I paid? Which bills are next? What can I safely move toward a goal?
The dashboard brings together net worth, liquid cash, upcoming bills, and trends. Account views include statements and reconciliation. A work and pay tracker estimates earnings from my shifts and compares them with the deposits that actually arrive. Goal projections show how contributions and growth affect the date I can reach a target. Notifications stay quiet and clear themselves when the underlying issue is resolved.
The allocation engine is the centre of the product. It takes a paycheque and creates a prioritized plan for essentials, bills, reserves, high-interest debt, goals, and investing. The plan changes with my financial position, and every recommendation includes the reasoning behind it. I wanted a decision tool, not a black box.
I kept the front end framework-free and put automated tests around the core financial calculations before polishing the interface. The visual system, Obsidian and Swiss Red, uses near-black surfaces, warm white type, fine rules, and one red accent. Hide Balances scrambles every figure when I use the app in public. It is the most playful feature, but it solves a real problem.
OPEN FULL SIZE ↗04FINANCIAL HEALTH · FIVE AREAS, ONE CLEAR PRIORITYOPEN FULL SIZE ↗05HIDE BALANCES · THE INTERFACE WITHOUT THE NUMBERSOPEN FULL SIZE ↗06AUTO-LOCK CONTROLS · PRIVACY IN THE EVERYDAY DETAILS
05 · THE BUGS THAT MATTERED
The most useful work came from numbers that looked wrong. At one point, Arca calculated an after-tax hourly rate above my gross rate. The code was doing what I had asked, but the model was incomplete. My cheques included vacation and premium pay that the shift data did not, and deposits did not align perfectly with a single pay period. I fixed it by anchoring the calculation to a real payslip and using several periods to smooth the timing differences.
Another bug appeared on the first day of a new month. With almost no current-month activity, the dashboard compared a single day against all of the previous month and reported a dramatic decline. The arithmetic was correct and the conclusion was useless. Arca now compares equivalent slices of time.
The most serious issue involved navigation history. A locked app could still expose a cached page through the browser's back button. I changed the navigation flow so access is checked every time a protected view appears. That bug made the difference between a polished demo and a product I could trust very clear.
06 · WHAT IT TAUGHT ME
Building Arca changed how I approach product work. A strong constraint can make decisions easier. Correctness matters more than visual polish when someone relies on the output. Security has to be tested at the edges, not assumed from the happy path. Most importantly, the best product feedback came from using the app as part of my own routine.
Arca is still evolving, but it already does the job I built it for. It brings my accounts, pay, goals, and planning into one private system that I understand and control.
FIGURES CHANGED FOR PRIVACY · BUILT FOR ONE USER
STATUS // THE FILE
In daily use.
Arca
Private financial planning, pay reconciliation, and goal tracking · encrypted on the device, no account, no cloud
LIVE
Build
HTML, CSS, and vanilla JavaScript · two-factor lock, auto-seal, encrypted at rest
A résumé is a sheet of paper that everyone's looks the same on. I wanted the first thing a person saw of me to feel like it was made by the person they were about to read about. So I built this site: a portfolio shaped like a mission briefing, where every role and project is a file you open. This is how it came together, and why it works the way it does.
STACK ONE HTML FILE · NO FRAMEWORK BUILT BY RAJAN, A. RUNS ON ANY MACHINE
FIELD NOTE // BUILD LOG · RAJAN, A.
01 · THE BRIEF
I kept coming back to the same problem. The work I was proud of did not survive the format it was stuck in. A bullet point cannot show how a product feels, or what a field placement in Mombasa was actually like, or why I care about any of it. The medium was flattening the message.
So I set a brief for myself. Make the portfolio feel like an experience, not a document. Make it clear who I am in the first ten seconds, before a single word is read. And make it something I would want to click through even if it were not mine.
I love the HITMAN games, and the thing I love most is the mission briefing: the calm voice, the dossier, the sense that you are being handed something classified. That became the frame. The visitor is the handler. I am the subject. Each experience is a file that unseals when you open it.
THE GATE · ONE NAME, ONE INSTRUCTION
FIELD NOTE // BUILD LOG · RAJAN, A.
03 · THE OPENING
The site does not start on a wall of text. It starts the way a mission does. A clock ticks over a map, the view pushes in on Vancouver, a target card builds, and my file is pulled out of an archive of names. Classical music carries it: the Dance of the Knights when the target is named, Swan Lake when the last photo clears and my own face is the one left on screen. The score is timed to the picture like a game, not played underneath it.
None of this is decoration for its own sake. The sequence does a job. By the time it ends and the profile opens, you already know the tone, you know what the site is about, and you have been given a reason to keep going. If you scroll past it, you lose nothing. If you watch it, you understand me quicker than a paragraph about me would manage.
04 · THE BUILD
The whole site is a single HTML file. The styles and the logic live inside it, with no framework and no build step. That sounds old-fashioned, and it is a deliberate choice. One file loads fast, it has nothing to go out of date, and I can open it in ten years and still understand every line. For a portfolio that has to outlive a trend, that matters.
Underneath the cinema, the engineering is where most of the time went. The intro runs on its own clock, so a fast scroll wheel cannot tear the animation apart, and a skip button sits on the gate for anyone who would rather go straight to the file. The score is a small cue engine that fades tracks in and out and hands off between them cleanly. The sound effects are a separate layer, each one a short sample chosen to feel tactile rather than loud, closer to a camera shutter than a beep. Every beat on screen has a sound, and none of them get in the way.
05 · MADE TO RUN ANYWHERE
A thing that only looks good on my machine is not finished. Most people would open this on Windows, on a laptop, on hardware I would never see. So I spent real time making the experience the same everywhere without cutting anything out of it.
The fonts are self-hosted and swapped for close matches on non-Apple systems, so the title cards read the same on Windows as they do on a Mac. The heavy animation layers are kept on a short leash so a laptop's graphics do not run out of memory and drop a card mid-scroll. The experience row scrolls with the mouse wheel and with a drag, and it always reaches both ends. When the device is genuinely slow, a lighter mode trims the load without removing a single section. The audio stops when the window is not in view, so nobody gets ambushed by music from a background tab.
06 · WHAT I TOOK FROM IT
The site taught me a few things I did not expect. I learned to cut, because a sequence that runs a second too long stops feeling cinematic and just gets in the way. I learned nobody notices performance until it is bad. And I learned the hard part of a solo project is stopping, because no one else tells you when the idea is done.
It is still a work in progress, the way a portfolio should be. New files get added as the work does. But the shape is set, and it does the one thing I asked of it: it feels like me before I have said a word.
FIELD NOTE // BUILD LOG · RAJAN, A.
STATUS // THE FILE
Live.
This site
Portfolio built as a mission briefing, live at alyrajan.com · one HTML file, no framework, no build step
At Salvation Army Harbour Light, I support men living in a Community Residential Facility as they move from federal custody into supervised life in the community. My responsibility is to help maintain a safe, accountable environment while treating each resident with dignity. No two shifts unfold the same way, but the standard stays the same: be alert, be fair, and treat the person in front of you with respect.
SUBJECT RAJAN, A. PROGRAM SALVATION ARMY · REINTEGRATION STATION DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE
DATA ROOM // PERSONNEL FILE
SECTION 01 // THE DOOR
What progress looks like.
Reintegration is built through ordinary decisions repeated every day. Residents may be rebuilding routines, looking for work, managing appointments, reconnecting with family, or simply trying to get through a difficult week without losing progress.
My role is to listen carefully, enforce expectations consistently, and help keep the environment stable enough for progress to happen. The choices stay with the resident.
“All of us are part of that effort, all of us are invited to encourage, help and enable your rehabilitation.”
POPE FRANCIS, IN HIS ADDRESS TO INMATES AT CURRAN-FROMHOLD CORRECTIONAL FACILITY, PHILADELPHIA, 27 SEPTEMBER 2015
DATA ROOM // PERSONNEL FILE
SECTION 02 // THE MANDATE
What a shift requires.
Harbour Light's Community Residential Facility supports up to 50 men on forms of conditional release or long-term supervision. Staff work with the Correctional Service of Canada and other professionals to maintain a structured, 24-hour environment while residents rebuild their lives in the community.
On shift, I support intakes, complete counts and facility checks, document significant events, maintain logs used in progress reporting, and respond to crises using de-escalation and trauma-informed practice.
The job demands clear judgment: knowing when to listen, when to hold a boundary, when to ask for help, and how to stay calm enough for other people to regain theirs.
A fitness tracker I am building for myself. It is a concept with a working prototype, not a product yet, so there is nothing to show here that would survive contact with a real user.
This file fills in when there is something worth your time.
STATUS CONCEPT · PROTOTYPE SHOWING NOTHING YET, ON PURPOSE REVISIT LATER IN 2026
DATA ROOM // SEALED CONTRACT · 09-FRM
WORK / BROWSER EXTENSION / BETTERD2L
PROJECT NOTE 12-BDL
LIVE · OPEN SOURCE · V2.5
Langara's D2L has no dark mode. BetterD2L is a free Chrome extension I built in October 2026 that adds one, then keeps going: nine themes and a theme maker, exam and deadline countdowns read from D2L's own data, custom course cards, and colour coding that follows each course into the calendar and the to-do list. It is the BetterCanvas idea, for the system my college actually uses.
CLASS SOFTWARE · BROWSER EXTENSION STACK VANILLA JS · MANIFEST V3 STATUS LIVE · MIT LICENCE
DATA ROOM // PROJECT NOTE · 12-BDL
SECTION 01 // TECHNICAL READOUT
Dark mode where CSS cannot reach.
Most of D2L is built from web components, so much of every page lives in shadow DOM and iframes that a stylesheet cannot touch, with white hard-coded in. Smart mode recolours D2L's own design tokens first. A colour fixer then walks the page, shadow roots included, repairs what is left, and records every change so it can be undone the moment dark mode is switched off.
Everything else follows the same rule: use what D2L already has. Countdowns read quiz and assignment dates from the page instead of asking the student to type them, and nicknames, colours and themes are stored on the device. No account, no tracking.
01Smart modeDESIGN TOKENS · COLOUR FIXER · SHADOW DOM
02ThemesNINE BUILT IN · THEME MAKER · SHARE CODES
03CountdownsDATES READ FROM D2L · 3-DAY AND 24-HOUR ALERTS
04Course cardsNICKNAMES · COLOURS · CUSTOM IMAGES
05PlatformCHROME MANIFEST V3 · VANILLA JS · MIT
DATA ROOM // PROJECT NOTE · 12-BDL
SECTION 02 // SCREENS
Before and after.
01COURSE HOME · MIDNIGHT02THE SAME PAGE · STOCK D2L03THE POPUP · NINE THEMES04SETTINGS · THEME MAKER
DATA ROOM // PROJECT NOTE · 12-BDL
SECTION 03 // STATUS
Shipped.
BetterD2L
Free Chrome extension for Langara D2L · version 2.5.0
Nota is a native macOS notes app I built in Swift. It is a fast, Bear-style Markdown editor with a password-protected Journal and a Cover mode that disguises what is on screen at a single keystroke. I kept building it because the apps I tried never quite fit the way I actually write, so I made the one that did.
CLASS SOFTWARE · MACOS APP STACK SWIFT · SWIFTUI · APPKIT STATUS PERSONAL · IN USE
DATA ROOM // PROJECT NOTE · 13-NTA
SECTION 01 // TECHNICAL READOUT
A writing app that keeps its secrets.
Nota renders Markdown as you type, in a clean Bear-inspired style, with a sidebar, tags and search. The notes sit in a local library on the device, not in anyone's cloud and behind no account.
Two things set it apart. The Journal is a separate space encrypted behind its own password, so the most private writing never rests in plain text. Cover mode, on one shortcut, swaps the words on screen for harmless glyphs so a note stays private even with someone reading over your shoulder, then restores it untouched.
01EditorMARKDOWN · BEAR-STYLE · LIVE RENDER
02JournalENCRYPTED · SEPARATE PASSWORD
03Cover modeONE SHORTCUT · GLYPH DISGUISE
04LibraryLOCAL · ON DEVICE · NO ACCOUNT
05PlatformSWIFT · SWIFTUI · APPKIT
DATA ROOM // PROJECT NOTE · 13-NTA
SECTION 02 // SCREENS
The app, running.
01EDITOR · LIVE MARKDOWN02NOTES · TASKS AND TAGS
DATA ROOM // PROJECT NOTE · 13-NTA
SECTION 03 // STATUS
Private build.
Nota
Native macOS notes app, built in Swift
IN USE
Release
Personal build · not published
PRIVATE
CAPABILITIES EXERCISED
SWIFTSWIFTUIAPPKIT
DATA ROOM // PROJECT NOTE · 13-NTA
WORK / SOFTWARE / POMOFOCUS
PROJECT NOTE 14-PMF
Pomofocus
LIVE · OPEN SOURCE · V0.17
Pomofocus is a native macOS focus timer I built in SwiftUI. It runs the Pomodoro cycle from the desktop, keeps a session going across quits and restarts, and ships as a small, free, open-source app. I built it because I wanted a timer that stayed out of the way and never lost my place.
CLASS SOFTWARE · MACOS APP STACK SWIFT · SWIFTUI STATUS LIVE · OPEN SOURCE
DATA ROOM // PROJECT NOTE · 14-PMF
SECTION 01 // TECHNICAL READOUT
A timer that never loses its place.
Pomofocus runs the work-and-break cycle through a clean native interface. The session is persisted, so quitting the app or restarting the Mac does not reset a running timer. It picks up exactly where it left off.
It is built in SwiftUI with a scripted build and a release pipeline on GitHub: each version tags, bumps and uploads a download under a stable name, so the newest build is always one link away. Free, open source, no account.
01TimerPOMODORO CYCLE · WORK / BREAK
02PersistenceSESSION SURVIVES RESTARTS
03InterfaceNATIVE SWIFTUI · DESKTOP
04DistributionGITHUB RELEASES · STABLE DOWNLOAD
05PlatformSWIFT · SWIFTUI · MACOS
DATA ROOM // PROJECT NOTE · 14-PMF
SECTION 02 // SCREENS
The app, running.
01FOCUS · THE DAY AT A GLANCE02SESSION · RUNNING03SETTINGS · NO ACCOUNT, NO TRACKING
Vector Control is a wake-up alarm I built for a Vector robot. Each morning it rings and drives the robot around the desk, and it only stops when I tap the robot twice on its back. To get there I reflashed the robot's firmware and remixed its personality, so it has more expression and a genuine, silent sleep it never had before.
CLASS HARDWARE · ROBOTICS STACK PYTHON · WIREPOD SDK · gRPC STATUS PERSONAL · RUNNING
DATA ROOM // PROJECT NOTE · 15-VEC
SECTION 01 // TECHNICAL READOUT
Getting a robot to wake me up.
The alarm runs as a small Python service on my Mac, alongside WirePod, with a control page built into its web interface. At the set time it takes over the robot: it rings, moves, and watches the back touch sensor, dismissing only on two quick taps so a half-asleep hand cannot cancel it by accident.
To make it feel like the robot and not a script, I unlocked and reflashed it with custom firmware, then remixed its animation set for more variety and added a still, silent sleep. The pairing, settings and controls all survived the flash.
01AlarmRINGS · DRIVES THE DESK · TWO-TAP DISMISS
02ServicePYTHON · LOCAL API · WIREPOD SDK
03FirmwareUNLOCKED · CUSTOM FIRMWARE
04PersonalityANIMATION REMIX · SILENT SLEEP
05PlatformPYTHON · gRPC · ON DEVICE
DATA ROOM // PROJECT NOTE · 15-VEC
SECTION 02 // STATUS
Running on my desk.
Vector Control
Wake-up alarm for a Vector robot
RUNNING
Build
Personal project · runs locally
PRIVATE
CAPABILITIES EXERCISED
PYTHONSDK INTEGRATIONROBOTICS
DATA ROOM // PROJECT NOTE · 15-VEC
WORK / FINANCE / GFC CHATBOT
PROJECT NOTE 16-GFC
GFC Financial Chatbot
COMPLETED · MARCH 2026
An end-to-end financial analysis tool built entirely from annual reports on SEC EDGAR. I pulled three fiscal years of 10-K filings for Microsoft, Tesla, and Apple, extracted the core metrics by hand, and built the layers on top: Excel KPI dashboards, a Python analysis in Jupyter, a rule-based chatbot that answers financial questions, and a React app with an AI fallback that stays grounded in the verified filings.
CLASS FINANCE · DATA TOOL STACK PYTHON · REACT · EXCEL SOURCE SEC EDGAR 10-K · FY2021–FY2023
DATA ROOM // PROJECT NOTE · 16-GFC
SECTION 01 // TECHNICAL READOUT
Every number traces to a filing.
Five metrics per company per year: revenue, gross profit, operating income, net income, and operating cash flow, each read from the primary 10-K rather than a data vendor. The Excel workbook turns them into formula-driven dashboards with year-over-year comparisons: revenue trajectory, gross and operating margin movement, and cash-flow efficiency.
The chatbot answers plain-language questions from that verified set and keeps conversation state across follow-ups. Where a rule does not match, the React app hands the question to an AI layer that is only allowed to reason over the same filings. Fourteen of fourteen representative test queries passed on the first run.
01Extract10-K FILINGS · THREE COMPANIES · FY2021–23
02DashboardEXCEL KPIS · YEAR OVER YEAR
03AnalyzeJUPYTER · MARGINS · CASH FLOW
04AnswerRULE-BASED ENGINE · CONVERSATION STATE
05FallbackREACT APP · AI GROUNDED IN THE FILINGS
DATA ROOM // PROJECT NOTE · 16-GFC
SECTION 02 // STATUS
Built, tested, closed.
GFC Financial Chatbot
Rule-based query engine over verified 10-K data, with an AI fallback
COMPLETE
Verification
14 of 14 representative test queries passed on first run
MAR 2026
CAPABILITIES EXERCISED
FINANCIAL STATEMENT ANALYSISPYTHONREACT
DATA ROOM // PROJECT NOTE · 16-GFC
WORK / DATA / RELEASE-TO-RESALE
PROJECT NOTE 17-R2R
Release- to-Resale
IN PROGRESS · DEC 2025 – PRESENT
A price model for the question every watch dealer argues about: what happens to a piece between its retail list price and the secondary market. It grew out of pricing work at Notte Watches, and it starts with the Rolex Datejust 36, a reference with enough listings to test a model properly.
CLASS DATA · PRICING MODEL STACK PYTHON · PANDAS CASE ROLEX DATEJUST 36
DATA ROOM // PROJECT NOTE · 17-R2R
SECTION 01 // TECHNICAL READOUT
Modular, so the next brand is a config change.
The pipeline cleans secondary-market listings, normalizes currencies, and engineers the features a price actually depends on before fitting a regression baseline. Every stage is a separate, configuration-driven module, so moving from the Datejust 36 to another reference or brand means changing a config file, not rewriting code.
The model is judged on three numbers: mean absolute error, mean absolute percentage error, and R-squared on a log scale, which keeps a handful of expensive pieces from flattering the fit. The baseline is in place; the current work is widening the data and testing what the model gets wrong.
01CollectSECONDARY-MARKET LISTINGS
02CleanCURRENCY NORMALIZATION · DEDUPLICATION
03EngineerFEATURES FROM LISTING ATTRIBUTES
04ModelREGRESSION BASELINE
05EvaluateMAE · MAPE · LOG-SCALE R²
DATA ROOM // PROJECT NOTE · 17-R2R
SECTION 02 // STATUS
Baseline in, data widening.
Release-to-Resale
Python pricing pipeline · Rolex Datejust 36 case study
IN PROGRESS
Next
Scale across references and brands through configuration
PLANNED
CAPABILITIES EXERCISED
PYTHONPANDASREGRESSION
DATA ROOM // PROJECT NOTE · 17-R2R
WORK / WEB / PARLAX
PROJECT NOTE 10-PLX
ParlaX
COMPLETED · 2026
What it is. A free translation app that runs in the browser: 24 languages, no account, no install. The name is a small play on words: parla is Italian for speak, and the X stands for anything.
Why. I wanted something I could open on any device and hand to someone mid-conversation, without a sign-up in the way.
How it was built. Plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript. I handled the translation API integration, the CORS configuration and input sanitisation end to end, and deployed it on Netlify.
What I would do differently. Cache recent translations offline. The next version keeps the last hundred phrases on the device so it still works with no signal.
Any subject is on the table: a role, a build, an introduction. And yes, I am always happy to talk watches, or look at one you are not sure about.
Replies within 24 hours. Thanks for reading this far.
★CAMPAIGN / VANCOUVER / MY STORY
My Story
Start with the story, or open any file.
RAJAN PROFILE
##### FILE 250 ######
AlyRajan
Founder & Analyst
VERIFIED PROFILE
Aly Rajan is a business student, founder, and analyst based in Vancouver. He started notte. (as DB Watches) in 2021 and has grown it into a vintage and luxury watch business with over 350 transactions across Vancouver and Toronto, roughly one in three of them repeat clients. In October 2026 he joined the Grants and Review Board as an intern on its Objectives, Strategies and Budget portfolio. He worked through 2026 as an analyst intern at Two Oceans Ventures, a search fund working to acquire and operate a single exceptional business, and built the Python research pipeline behind Aga Khan Foundation Canada's global interactive map, verifying thousands of data points across more than 30 countries. He served two terms on AKFC's Youth Advisory Committee and works at the Salvation Army Harbour Light in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, supporting federal offenders as they transition from prison back into the community.
