# Paul Baron — Creative AI Product Leader > Personal website: https://aka.me > LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pbaron-me/ > Email: hello@aka.me ## About Paul Baron is a creative and technical product builder passionate about crafting digital services that help people become better versions of themselves. He is Swiss-French and has lived and worked in Geneva, London, Tokyo, Berlin, and Paris. He speaks French, English, and Japanese. ### Summary As a senior AI product manager with 20+ years of experience and a background in Design, UX, User Research and Tech, Paul has helped scale a regulated MedTech startup to 100,000 patients, launch a SportsTech product to 1 million runners, and worked in DeepTech to bring AI voice recognition to the masses. He is known for his creativity, passion, endurance, ethics and pragmatism. ### Bio Paul has spent 20+ years in multicultural environments, at the crossroads of people, business and tech. He loves building products & teams that grow with customers. He started out in Design in Paris and London, then focused on Interaction Design in Tokyo at Honda R&D and Mobile Research at Nokia R&D, before co-founding and managing AQ, a 10-person digital products studio and growing their product management, service design and user research practice with clients including ASICS, Airbnb, Google, AccorHotels, Mozilla and many others. For the last 9 years, he has focused on AI and ML products where privacy, safety, and compliance are first-class requirements. He has built and shipped ML-powered experiences in regulated digital health at HelloBetter, and at Snips (acquired by Sonos). ### Tools Claude Code, Lovable, Linear, Jira, Confluence, Metabase, PostHog, Miro, Figma ### Interests Trail running, Art & design, Fatherhood, Weightlifting, Typography, Baking, Mental wellbeing ### Worked With Airbnb, Orange, Google, ASICS, AccorHotels, Mozilla, Lumosity, Lionbridge, Nokia, Red Bull --- ## Work Experience ### HelloBetter (2022–2025) Senior Product Lead — Berlin / Geneva Accelerated growth to 100K patients despite adverse regulatory landscape, through product leadership, AI/ML integration, UX leadership, Product Ops, and team mentorship. HelloBetter is a medically-regulated desktop and mobile platform for patients with clinical symptoms of Stress & Burnout, Depression, Chronic Pain, or Insomnia. Paul managed a team of 2 mid-level PMs and a squad, as part of a Product team of 6 people. He also led Product on an AI Adaptive therapy program with a team of data scientists, researchers and psychotherapists. Website: https://hellobetter.de ### Dadditude (2020–2022) Co-founder — Berlin Founded and grew app in challenging and underserved space of Paternal Wellbeing to 6K monthly uniques, 500 paid subscribers, and 20K followers on Instagram. Dadditude was a multi-platform app offering community features and 50 short wellness guides created for busy dads, with the help of 20 psychotherapists. It closed mid-2023. Website: https://dadditude.app ### Snips AI — SONOS (2017–2020) Principal Product Manager — Paris Built new products & services to add great sound and voice recognition to people's lives. This followed Sonos's acquisition of Snips.ai, a fast growing AI ML startup working on voice recognition where Paul was leading a team of talented PMs. He worked with Magic Leap to add voice recognition to their AR glasses. Press: https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/21/20975607/sonos-buys-snips-ai-voice-assistant-privacy ### AQ (2005–2017) Co-founder, Managing Director — Tokyo / Paris AQ is a team of designers, developers and researchers building digital products that help people do great things and learn from the world around them. Clients include Airbnb, Google, Medium, ASICS, AccorHotels, Gengo, Lookout, Etsy, NHK, Mozilla. Founded in Tokyo. Managed the Paris office as Managing Director from 2014 to 2016. Project Highlight: ASICS Running — Conceived, launched and product managed ASICS' marathon training app called My ASICS, for 6 years, on iOS, Android and wearables, until their acquisition of Runkeeper. Website: https://www.aqworks.com/work/myasics ### Nokia R&D (2005) Interaction Design Research — Tokyo Research mission to explore mobile tech trends and future mobility experiences as part of Nokia Design's research into what happens when mobile devices become location aware. Website: https://rpaulseymour.com/location-matters ### Honda R&D (2002–2005) Future Interaction Concept Researcher — Tokyo Looked beyond digital speedometers and glowing icons, aiming to take the driver and passengers out of the interior of a 1930's aircraft and into a cocoon designed around the human body, where all senses and instincts can naturally contribute to the safest and most enjoyable riding experience. Elements of Paul's work were implemented in the Honda FCX concept car presented at the 2005 Tokyo Motor Show. The Honda FCX Clarity was later put on the market in the USA during Summer 08. Website: https://www.motortrend.com/news/05tokyo-honda-fcx-gall --- ## Side Projects ### BunBun AI (2026) Let's transform conversations into learning experiences by integrating AI into our everyday social interactions, without complication or interruption. BunBun AI can participate in dinner conversations with your children or professional meetups, and provide relevant, verified insights to enrich your discussions. ### YDUN Fitness Progress Dashboard (2025) Built a fitness studio platform that turns raw workout history into clear, motivating progress. It imports members workout data, visualizes trends and personal records, and generates a simple composite YDUN Score across strength, body composition, and health metrics—so members and coaches can see what's improving and what to focus on next. Website: https://www.ydun.life/ ### Flexbase (2025) Built a social network for sporty people, with Lovable, in 2 months, without writing a single line of code, including an AI agent fetching pro athlete results in real time. Website: https://flexbase.co ### Else (2024) Innovated in the screentime control space with collaborative onboarding, regular pauses, weekly counters and educational content. Teens reported a 25% decrease in phone use in their first month. Else is a fresh take on over-exposure to screens, placing collaboration, accountability and education at the core of the experience to help teens (re)gain control of their digital life. Press: https://www.bfmtv.com/tech/vie-numerique/un-probleme-generationnel-else-l-application-qui-lutte-contre-le-temps-d-ecran-abusif_AV-202402050946.html ### Tokyo Art Beat (2004–2021) Co-founded and managed the leading iOS / Desktop platform covering all the Tokyo Art and Design scene, tracking 500 events each month in English and Japanese. Ran as a financially self-sustainable Non-Profit Organization. Website: https://www.tokyoartbeat.com ### Tchokin (2017) Tchokin means Savings in Japanese. Alpha-launched a fintech chatbot aimed at promoting financial literacy among low-income populations, offering spending analysis, weekly budgeting routines, savings goals, and ongoing financial coaching. ### PetitRocket (2013) Launched an app for young kids, powered by gyroscopic steering and accelerometer handling to help them dream of traveling through space to Mars. It was beta-tested by a few real NASA astronauts! Illustrations by Gaku Kinoshita. Music by Lullatone. ### HITOTOKI (2007–2016) Hitotoki was an online literary project collecting stories of singular experiences tied to locations in cities worldwide. The word Hitotoki is a Japanese noun comprised of two components: hito or "one" and toki or "time," and is often translated as "a moment." Website: https://hitotoki.org/ ### Location-based Gaming (2004) Interview by Wired Mag about Paul's passion for location-based games and beta testing of Mogi, Item Hunt, the first GPS-enabled mobile phone game, launched in Japan. Press: https://www.wired.com/2004/04/making-wireless-roaming-fun/ ### Moblogging Conference (2003) Co-organised a Mobile Tech Conference in Tokyo sponsored by Sony and NTT Docomo, marking the start of the era of posting photos and other media content from mobile devices. --- ## Fun Facts - Paul once created a mobile game for kids that was beta-tested by a few real NASA astronauts! The app used the gyroscope and accelerometer to let kids launch a rocket and steer it through space to land on Mars. - He travelled from London to Japan by train, including on the Trans-Siberian Railway. What better way to feel the distance and meet the world. --- ## Blog Posts - [Personal Software to Stay Healthy — Part 1](https://aka.me/blog/personal-software-to-stay-healthy) (2026-03-30) — Why I built my own fitness dashboard, made it public, and what it says about data ownership. - [What Miso-Making Taught the Guy Who Built Claude Code](https://aka.me/blog/what-miso-taught-claude-code) (2026-03-12) — What a Japanese miso master's philosophy shares with the creator of Claude Code — and what it means for how we build with AI. - [The Missing Recap: Why AI Chat UI Needs a 'Welcome Back' Moment](https://aka.me/blog/the-missing-recap-in-ai-projects) (2026-03-09) — When you reopen a long-running AI project after a few days, you're dropped into a thread with zero context. A simple recap could change everything. - [Vibe Coding for Absolute Beginners — LinkedIn Live](https://aka.me/blog/vibe-coding-for-absolute-beginners) (2026-02-19) — Joining Jose Rosa on stage for the first edition of What is Vibe Coding, live on LinkedIn. - [Part 1 — The AI's Blank Box Trap](https://aka.me/blog/the-ais-blank-box-trap) (2026-02-11) — Multi-agent is eating the engineering world. But consumers opening ChatGPT still see… a blank box. - [Have You Tried Vibe Coding Yet?](https://aka.me/blog/have-you-tried-vibe-coding) (2026-01-15) — I've had a lot of fun building apps with Lovable in 2025 — from full-fledged products to simple tools. Let me help you get started. - [The Moat Isn't a Dashboard](https://aka.me/blog/the-moat-isnt-a-dashboard) (2026-01-07) — Most longevity protocols have a longevity problem: an over-optimized check-up, but little-to-no guidance for the 360 days after. - [Hourly Movement Breaks for Everyone](https://aka.me/blog/hourly-movement-breaks) (2025-11-01) — A tiny web app that pings you each hour for a 5-minute movement break, happening simultaneously all over the world. - [Flexbase's AI Athlete Agent](https://aka.me/blog/flexbase-ai-athlete-agent) (2025-10-15) — An AI agent that fetches your favorite pro athletes' results and pings you when there's a new update. - [Enforce the Minimum Viable Fix](https://aka.me/blog/minimum-viable-fix) (2025-10-01) — Vibe-coding rule: kill bloat, be ruthless with the overeager AI copilot, and ship the smallest change that solves the bug. - [The Flexbase Launch Story](https://aka.me/blog/flexbase-launch-story) (2025-09-01) — From a simple athlete profile page for my son to a full web platform — built with Lovable, and one of the most exciting experiences of my career. - [Can We Vibe-Code Our Way to Happiness?](https://aka.me/blog/daily-sparks-gratitude-app) (2025-04-01) — I vibe-coded a daily gratitude micro-journaling app with Lovable's AI — without writing a single line of code. - [I Invented Facebook (Sort Of)](https://aka.me/blog/i-invented-facebook) (2025-03-15) — I found proof in my archives that I invented Facebook 4 years before Mark. Here's the first design of 'myGroupNews' from December 2000. - [Making AI Interactions Feel Natural](https://aka.me/blog/making-ai-interactions-feel-natural) (2025-03-01) — How ChatGPT's Advanced Voice Mode UI — a painting-like animated dot — shapes not only how we use AI but how we embrace it. - [From Tool to Agent to AI Colleague](https://aka.me/blog/from-tool-to-agent-to-colleague) (2025-02-15) — Exploring the benefits of AI-powered collaborative platforms where teams work alongside an AI as a standalone colleague. - [An AI Index Label for Digital Content](https://aka.me/blog/ai-index-label) (2025-02-01) — Imagine a label that reveals how content was created: AI-generated, human-created, or somewhere in between. - [Is This AI's GUI Moment?](https://aka.me/blog/ais-gui-moment) (2025-01-15) — The evolution of AI interfaces from chat boxes to interactive visual tools may remind us of the shift from CLI to GUI almost 40 years ago. - [Push/Pull AI Dynamics](https://aka.me/blog/push-pull-ai-dynamics) (2025-01-01) — In the future, AI will need to strike a balance — knowing when to offer help and when to step back and let users take control. - [The AI Email Inbox of the Future](https://aka.me/blog/ai-email-inbox-of-the-future) (2024-12-01) — No list of emails, no inbox, no spam. Just a few topics brought to my attention as a recap throughout the day. - [Skip the AI Agent Curation Stage](https://aka.me/blog/skip-the-ai-agent-curation-stage) (2024-11-01) — I wish we could skip the 'AI agent curation' and 'search engines for AI agents' stages, and go back to the simplicity of just asking. - [On and Off Stage — 2023 in Review](https://aka.me/blog/on-and-off-stage-2023) (2023-12-01) — Leading high-impact initiatives at HelloBetter while planning a family move from Berlin to Geneva. - [Dadditude in The Wall Street Journal](https://aka.me/blog/dadditude-in-the-wsj) (2022-06-01) — We talked with Julie Jargon at The Wall Street Journal about our work supporting dads with Dadditude. - [Dads In Tech Interview](https://aka.me/blog/dads-in-tech-interview) (2022-03-01) — A conversation about parenting philosophy and running Dadditude for Tiang Lim Foo's Dads In Tech newsletter. - [Dadditude V1 Sneak Peek](https://aka.me/blog/dadditude-v1-sneak-peek) (2021-02-01) — One year in, 16,000 followers and nearly as many downloads — we're just about ready to launch our Dadditude app V1. - [Dadditude Proof of Concept Ratings](https://aka.me/blog/dadditude-proof-of-concept) (2020-10-01) — 151 ratings (4.8⭐️ avg.) and 22 kind reviews in the app stores — great motivation as we prepare to launch V1. - [Dadditude Community Tips Growing](https://aka.me/blog/dadditude-community-tips) (2020-09-01) — Two months after launch, our Community Tips section keeps growing. Dads look out for each other. - [Leaving Sonos — 8 Things I Loved](https://aka.me/blog/leaving-sonos-8-things) (2020-07-01) — After 3 years at Snips and post-acquisition at Sonos, my time is up. Here are 8 things I loved. - [Sonos Acquires Snips](https://aka.me/blog/sonos-acquires-snips) (2019-09-01) — From co-founder to employee, from expert to n00b — what a ride learning about neural networks and private-by-design voice recognition. - [I Want a Coach in my Banking App](https://aka.me/blog/i-want-a-coach-in-my-banking-app) (2017-03-01) — What if your banking app could coach you the way a running app does — with smart, timely nudges instead of pie charts? - [Designing Apps for Kids](https://aka.me/blog/designing-apps-for-kids) (2014-11-01) — My 5 year old boy loves playing and learning on my iPad. Observing him taught me a great deal about app accessibility for kids.