About
Hi! I'm Mika. I'm currently:
- in New York
- working on King's Cross Labs
- writing AI tutorials for normal people
- reading The Art of Spending
- creating videos on Instagram
- watching The Pitt
- listening to my Wedding Dinner Playlist
- addicted to Claude!
Last updated @ April 2, 2026
Bio
Currently:
- Running an AI product studio for growth & marketing teams with my husband Nick. Want to increase website conversions autonomously? Check out askleda.com and get a site audit!
- Teaching AI to 25K+ ambitious founders & professionals on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Maven.
Recently CEO and co-founder @ Parallax. Acquired by Phantom ($3B val acquirer, best crypto wallet).
- Led product vision and strategy, developing one of the earliest stablecoin cross-border payments companies.
- Scaled the business to over $X00M+ in volume
- Raised ~$5M in venture funding from top VCs, including Dragonfly, General Catalyst & more
- Built and managed a cross-functional team of 10–15 team members across 8 countries
I'm grateful to have been recognized by Forbes 30 Under 30, Tatler Gen.T Leader of Tomorrow, Kleiner Perkins Fellowship SPC Founder Fellowship. I've also been featured on Forbes, TechCrunch, BusinessInsider, Tatler& other publications.
Previously product lead @ LinkedIn (if you see those purple "Hiring" rings on people's profiles, built that and more!), Kumu (led the team to product-market fit in the early days) & Ripcord through the KP Product Fellowship. I started the Filipinos @ LinkedIn group & was a Women in Product executive member.
My family and I have basically paid $0 in tuition for my high school and college as I'm a proud Freeman Asian scholar and Philippine Science High School scholar. I graduated B.A. Economics, Psychology, Data Analysis from Wesleyan University, Phi Beta Kappa & a summa cum laude.
I'm a fan of broadening access to opportunities in emerging markets like my home, the Philippines & love to help ambitious people design careers (and lives) they actually want, not just what society tells them to.
On the side, I like to work on fun projects like a virtual startup incubator for emerging markets, the first playbook for launching NFTs (as an NFT) & launched a fun social card game. Nowadays, I'm overloading on coffee & funneling my type A energy towards wedding planning.
Timeline
Origins
I grew up in Manila with big dreams. I earned a spot at Philippine Science High School, the most competitive science school in the country (aka nerd city 🤓). My classmates came from many walks of life, all over the country. And a lot of them were so much smarter than me!! It was inspiring but also taught me to dream BIG, even at a young age.
The Scholarship
Dreaming big paid off, baby! I got a full ride to Wesleyan University through the Freeman Asian Scholarship! Without this scholarship, I would absolutely not have been able to study abroad. I'm so grateful to have quality-tier & FREE education since high school. I appreciate how education opens doors & desire to give back in a similar way.
Creating the Path
In college, I eventually decided tech was the industry I wanted to be in. I was determined to make it to ✨ Silicon Valley ✨ Wesleyan just didn't have a roadmap for that (as a liberal arts school). So I built a tech organization from scratch, planned excursions to the Bay Area & taught product, design & eng classes myself. That work landed me my first internships & my first tech job! *squeal*
Breaking In
Many things were stacked against me: international visa, woman in male-dominated industry, no tech feeder school, no network. But many-a-hustling after, I made it!! I got my 1st tech job through the prestigious Kleiner Perkins Fellowship. But #visaproblems were neverending. Eventually, I had to leave & had 30 days to find a new job when my visa status changed. I thankfully landed at LinkedIn and eventually led products on the jobs team, including the purple "I'm Hiring" ring you've probably seen on profiles
The Wake-Up Call
LinkedIn was the 🌈 dream job on paper: big title (in product, no less!), prestigious company, job security, AMAZING benefits. But I was building products for internal metrics & executive approvals. Every decision required 42 approvals & 56 emails back & forth. I still worked SO HARD thinking "so many people would LOVE my job... i need to be grateful"... eventually burnt out. 🥵 I realized it just wasn't the dream I always imagined.
The Founder Life
So I decided to quit & start my founder phase! Founding a company is the HARDEST thing I've ever done!! Respect to all the founders out there. After meandering in the idea maze (it takes longer than ya think!), I co-founded Parallax, a stablecoin payments startup, and in under a year we hit $100M in transaction volume, raised $5M from Dragonfly and General Catalyst, and built a team of 15 across 8 countries. I landed on Forbes 30 Under 30 and Tatler Gen.T, got featured on TechCrunch & other media outlets, went on live TV for the first time. A lot of things looked awesome...
The Exit
We eventually sold to a $3B company, one of the biggest in the industry! But looking back, I had been quietly burning out AGAIN. 🥵 The day to day just ended up not being my cup of tea: compliance paperwork, vendor shopping, admin grunt work, risk management, fundraising. I'd also lost the freedom I left corporate for in the first place. Now, instead of pandering to execs, I pandered to investors. None of it was why I started a company (I love talking to users, growth, marketing, product & design). All of it wore me down.
The Break
After the exit, I took a breath, worked with a coach & reflected on my life (#quarterlifecrisis) I also got married to Nick! And somewhere in that quiet, I realized: 1. I care about autonomy, freedom & building a time-rich life. I'd burned out the 1st time pandering to execs, and again pandering to VCs. 2. I dove deep into AI & wish I'd had this at my 1st startup. AI could've handled many tasks I dreaded. AI is one of the most direct paths to getting your time (& life) back. I wanted to build with it & help more people see what I was seeing.
Building on Our Terms
I'm trying something new & doing it with my husband as a co-founder! Nick & I are building an AI company on our own terms, optimizing for time-rich freedom (no more burning out!) I'm the growth & marketing founder (again) and we're building for growth & marketing teams so naturally I am nerding out about all of that! We're in the early days but have big dreams 🚀 I'm also sharing everything I know about AI, because I know how education (especially about this amazing & crazy tech) opens doors. I hope you'll join me in my journey 🙂
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