# Cat Zeng

> Building NikNak 🪄✨

Location: New York, New York, United States
Profile: https://flows.cv/cat

I enjoy figuring out how things work and learning about weird things. My goal is to build a powerful platform for creative expression. This is NikNak, make games together. Our mission is to empower the next generation to turn their imagination into reality in 3D.

My personal website: cat.flairr.com
Flairr is a custom templating engine, iOS app, and site hosting system that I wrote with Zack.

## Work Experience
### Game Developer @ NikNak
Jan 2025 – Present
https://niknak.com
Make games together

### Senior Software Engineer @ Ramp
Jan 2025 – Jan 2025
https://ramp.com/intelligence

### Co-Founder & CEO @ Rrialf
Jan 2021 – Jan 2024
Built two core products:
1. NikNak (legacy) is a multiplayer 3D game engine that we built from scratch, wrote custom netcode in Go + webGL frontend: https://legacy.niknak.com. Designed and drew pets, see rating game: https://rate.niknak.com

2. Flairr let you make a personal website from your phone, built an iOS app and templating engine from scratch, designed custom UI components in SwiftUI and UIKit, worked with 3 interns, one for 2 summers, raised a small pre-seed from investors to whom we are very grateful: https://flairr.com

### Graduate Teaching Assistant @ Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Jan 2020 – Jan 2021
Computer architecture

### Researcher @ MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL)
Jan 2018 – Jan 2020

### Co-Founder & CEO @ Lambda Tea
Jan 2017 – Jan 2018
Boba machine, running out of a dorm room. Funded by YC W18

### Intern @ Senator Bill Nelson
Jan 2014 – Jan 2016


## Education
### Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

### Piano Major
Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts

### W18
Y Combinator

### Master of Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/hoppermori
- Website: https://github.com/yczeng
- Website: https://cat.flairr.com

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Source: https://flows.cv/cat
JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/cat/resume.json
Last updated: 2026-04-07