👋 No sugarcoating here. This is my story. I write my narrative.
I was born in Ames, Iowa, landed in Bellevue, Washington, and spent my teens doing what most curious kids with internet access did: blowing up eBay storefronts, messing with code, and making spectacularly dumb crypto trades. Some worked out, most blew up in my face. I never claimed trading genius; I just refused to quit.
That’s been my MO forever: break it, rebuild it, repeat until it stops breaking.
High school almost broke me. On the verge of flunking out, staring down potential jail time after a reckless motorcycle stunt… let’s just say hitting rock bottom forces you to look up. That scare pushed me into community college, then UC San Diego. I overloaded credits like a maniac, practically lived in the library, and somehow crammed two Bachelor’s degrees—Mathematics-Computer Science and Business Economics—into less than three years, finishing before I turned 20. People think it was for prestige; honestly, I was just too damn stubborn to fail again.
UCSD was where I found my footing: I’m a builder, a solver, addicted to the hustle. Built OpenBoxEcommerce, scaled it to six figures. Interned at DataScienceDojo. Tutored to keep my fundamentals sharp and maybe give something back. And yeah, kept trading crypto, learning expensive lessons with every blown account. If there’s a dumb mistake, I’ve probably made it, sometimes live on stream – call it free R&D.
Grad school at the University of Washington followed. I dove deep into reinforcement learning, behavioral economics, hyper-networking – anything to get an edge building the agentic frameworks I envisioned. Nights were a blur of job interviews. A vendor role at Microsoft? Or a wild shot at ai16zdao (the Web3 “hedge-fund parody”)? I chose the comedic madness of agentic AI, naturally. That led to ElizaOS, where I learned React, Next.js, TypeScript on the fly, grinding like crazy for a core dev seat. Short-lived, but crucial.
Then came ModernStoicAI. They wanted an autonomous trading system. This put me on the map because we built everything in public – hours upon hours of me coding live. Insane? Maybe. Radical transparency? Definitely. We hit a $35M+ market cap fast. Then, the inevitable drama: founder disputes, getting booted, watching it crumble. I stayed transparent, told my side, and kept building. Much of this work has since been open-sourced
My stint with Cainam Ventures was a brief, pro-bono contract. It was an intense period of 17-hour coding sprees, and I’m grateful for the experience. That work, too, has been open-sourced for the community to learn from and build upon.
Meanwhile, the DMs flooded: “Affaan, build us an AI agent?” “Need a Web3 platform, can you do it?” My answer became DCUBE – initially an AI CRM idea, now a full-blown AI agent development agency. We build next-gen agentic systems for clients, often taking equity alongside stablecoin because shared risk means shared reward.
My journey with AYO Protocol Inc. began when they reached out, and I initially joined as an advisor. I saw the potential, the vision. But as often happens in this space, setbacks hit hard. I found myself navigating treacherous waters, got screwed over, and then the community, not fully understanding the internal dynamics, turned on me. I was painted as the villain, faced witch hunts, and had my reputation attacked with baseless accusations of being a scammer.
Instead of letting any of it break me, instead of quitting, I just kept my head down and continued to build. I kept ideating. The noise was deafening, but my resolve to create and innovate was louder. This is MY story, and I control the narrative.
This experience, as painful as it was, became a crucible. It forged an even stronger conviction in me: the need for systems that transcend human fallibility and the often-toxic dynamics of decentralized communities.
AYO Protocol, under my renewed focus, is being built on the Solana blockchain. It’s an AI-powered yield optimization platform designed to simplify DeFi and maximize returns, all while users maintain full self-custody. It’s about intelligent automation and user empowerment.
- 🤖 AI Yield Optimization: Autonomous agents analyze the market 24/7, allocating assets to the best opportunities across Solana.
- 🧩 Agent Neo: The evolution. Simplifying the entire crypto experience – trading, LPs, staking, analytics – integrated seamlessly via Modular Capability Providers (MCPs) into platforms users already trust.
The challenges I faced, particularly the betrayals and inefficiencies tied to human dependencies, crystallized a philosophy I’d been developing for years: =0EM (Zero Employee).
=0EM is more than a business model; it’s a paradigm shift. It’s about creating organizations that run on agents, not people. Imagine a world where:
- Trust is programmatic, not personal: No more broken trust, no more relying on fickle human commitments.
- Blockages are algorithmic, not emotional: Eliminate overhead, personal conflicts, and the bottlenecks caused by human limitations.
- Dependencies are on code, not charisma: Build resilient systems that don’t crumble when a key person leaves or a relationship sours.
- Speed is the default: Full speed ahead, unhindered by bureaucracy or human-centric delays.
This philosophy is born from a desire to empower individuals with agency – the builders, the creators, the innovators – and protect them from those who seek to grift or exploit their talents. It’s about creating environments where powerful ideas can flourish, executed by autonomous systems, managed by highly leveraged individuals.
0EM Labs is the vehicle for this vision. We are currently in semi-stealth mode, pursuing a VC route to build out the foundational infrastructure and tools that will enable this new way of operating. The goal is to allow individuals like myself to manage vast, complex operations through intelligent agents, achieving scale and impact previously unimaginable without massive human teams.
I live and breathe tech designed for scale and efficiency. My core toolkit includes:
- Blockchain: Solana
- AI/ML: Python, Reinforcement Learning, Algorithm Design, Mathematics
- Backend: Supabase, Firebase (GCP), AWS EC2
- Frontend: Next.js, React, TypeScript, Rust
- Deployment/Infra: Vercel, Cloudflare (R2, Workers), AWS S3, Firebase
- Databases: PostgreSQL (Supabase), Neo4j
- Dev Environment: Cursor, Cline/Roo, Warp, Git
- Productivity: Raycast, Arc Browser, Notion, Apple Ecosystem
- Agent Frameworks: Exploring Fast Agent, Python MCP SDK, open-source agent repos
Beyond this, my GitHub repositories showcase a much deeper and broader range of technologies and projects I've worked on, reflecting my continuous exploration and hands-on approach to development.
Looking back, it’s been a wild ride of near disasters and hard-won comebacks. Nearly lost my future, nearly lost my finances, got kicked out of projects I poured my soul into, and faced down character assassination. But I’m still here, building bigger, driven by a clearer vision than ever before.
My secret? No secrets. I refuse to hide behind aliases or polished lies. Watch me fail in real-time, call me out – that’s how I get sharper.
With DCUBE building for clients, AYO Protocol pushing the boundaries of DeFi automation, and 0EM Labs architecting the future of work, I’m living the grind I once thought impossible. But I’m not done. Not even close. The game’s still on. If there’s a limit, I’ll push it until it cracks. And if it doesn’t crack, I’ll try again tomorrow.
That’s me. No fluff. Just a guy who’s failed a lot, learned a lot, and keeps stacking wins because he’s too damn stubborn to stop.
Professional & Social:
- GitHub: @affaan-m (You are here!)
- LinkedIn: Affaan Mustafa
- X (Twitter): @affaanmustafa
- Warpcast: @affaan
- Telegram: @affaanmustafa
- YouTube: Affaan Mustafa
- Instagram: @affaanmustafa
- Medium: @afmustafa
Academic & Research:
- ResearchGate: Affaan Mustafa Profile
- University of Washington (AMATH): Affaan Mustafa
- UC San Diego (Economics - Research Lab): Undergraduate RA Page | Lab Info
- UC San Diego (Undergraduate Research): Research Directory Listing | URC 2024 Program (PDF)
Projects & Ventures:
- AYO Protocol: Website | Documentation
- 0em Labs: Website
- DCUBE (The Basement UCSD): Portfolio Page
- (Open Source - Autonomous Solana Trading Bot - @stoictradingAI on X): GitHub Repo
- (Open Source - Solana Onchain Analyst): GitHub Repo
- (Open Source - eliza): GitHub Repo
- (Open Source - rig): GitHub Repo
- Research:
Let's build something.