Innovation Studio · Est. in the woods
Forest Friends Innovation Studio is a small, curious collective. We design AI workflow automations for founders and teams, and we craft PR & marketing for the artists shaping culture around us.
01 — Services
i.From manual process to intelligent system. We partner with founders and teams to identify high-impact workflows, build AI-powered automations, and turn repetitive work into scalable systems that run themselves.
ii.We work with artists, galleries and cultural projects to build the audiences they deserve, with press, story, and campaigns that respect the work.
02 — Approach
We start with questions, not decks. Small, careful experiments beat big, loud plans.
We work as friends with our partners, honest, patient, and in it for the long walk.
Whether it's a product or a press release, we sweat the craft. Details compound.
03 — People
A small circle of directors and advisors guiding the studio's work across product, culture and community.
Nuoya is a strategic tech leader with 10+ years of global experience driving AI innovation, digital transformation, and product strategy across North America, Europe, and Asia. She has led cross-functional teams at IBM, Geodis and Bank of China Hong Kong to deliver ~$1B in revenue impact and ~$10M in cost savings for Fortune 500 clients, aligning advanced technologies with real-world business needs.
At Forest Friends, she is pioneering applications of AI in the performing arts, bridging human-centered design with technical innovation.
She thrives at the intersection of creativity, data, and strategy, with a passion for building solutions that drive impact at scale. She also works as a multimedia artist and published author with Litro Magazine, running contemporary art exhibitions at Maison Mundi Berlin.
She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Brown University with a B.A. in Applied Math-Economics and holds an M.A. in Economics (Quantitative Econometrics) from Columbia University.
Kaijian is an iOS and full-stack developer and monetization expert based in New York, focused on building software that delivers real value without encouraging excessive use.
He is the founder of ByteBrew Studios, serving as CTO or founding engineer for pre-seed and seed startups building MVPs across edtech, healthtech, mental health, musictech, and productivity. He previously founded Podracer, an AI-powered podcast player.
At Citizen, he co-led the launch of the paid tier and drove ARR from $0 to $10M+ in six months. Earlier, he was VP of Product Engineering at Berminal and spent five years at KAYAK leading UI on its highest-traffic flight-search product.
He holds a B.S. in Computer Science, Electronic Music and Multimedia from Brown University.
Jeff is an Engagement Manager at EY-Parthenon based in Tokyo, an experienced management consultant with a track record in growth strategy, change management, and digital transformation across New York, Tokyo, and Hong Kong.
At EY-Parthenon, he leads growth strategy and post-merger integration work for major Japanese corporations. Previously, he spent over seven years at Accenture Strategy & Consulting, delivering projects for global megabanks across the US, Japan, and APAC. He has also served as a startup mentor and co-founded EGUODO, a transition-services company for international students in Los Angeles.
His expertise spans growth strategy, post-merger integration, change management, and digital transformation, backed by tri-lingual fluency in English, Japanese, and Chinese.
He holds a Bachelor's degree in Computational and Applied Mathematics from the University of Southern California.
Annie is a data and AI leader helping enterprises scale impact through analytics, AI/ML innovation, and digital operations. At Diligent Corporation, she is Staff AI Solution Architect (Head of AI Solutions), driving cross-functional AI transformation across go-to-market, legal, and finance teams within a strong GRC framework.
She is the author of AI Maturity Mandate, which reframes enterprise AI as a capability to co-create. Previously, she led one of Fanatics Collectibles' most ambitious digital transformation programs, and earlier served as a Data & AI expert at McKinsey & Company, contributing to Rewired: The McKinsey Guide to Outcompeting in the Age of Digital and AI.
A Forbes Business Council member with thought leadership in Forbes, HackerNoon, and Analytics Insight, she speaks on AI strategy at events and universities including Brown, and judges programs such as the Stevie Awards, Globee Awards, AI Forge, and Hackathon Raptors.
An incoming MBA student at Harvard Business School, she holds a Master's in Data Science and a Bachelor's in Economics & Development Studies from Brown University, and is fluent in English and Vietnamese.
Sharon is a Senior Machine Learning Engineer at Meta in the San Francisco Bay Area, working on Instagram GenAI Creative Ads — building 0-to-1 subtitle generation, LLM-labeled ads relevance models, and an internal AI tool that reached 1,500 users within a year.
Previously, she spent over four years as an Analyst at HBK Capital Management, focused on structured credit across CLOs, RMBS, ABS, and REITs. Earlier roles include proprietary trading at D. E. Shaw, an analyst internship at Deutsche Bank, and research at the MIT Media Lab, MIT Sloan, and Wellesley College.
Her expertise spans ML engineering, applied AI, quantitative analysis, and structured credit, backed by fluency in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese, with professional working Japanese.
She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Wellesley College with a double major in Mathematics and Computer Science — elected to Phi Beta Kappa as a junior — and holds an M.S. in Information Intelligence Science from Carnegie Mellon University.
04 — Contact
