Overview:

Punchmob began as a personal product vision from Sam Esmail, built around a more private, real-world social experience where content could exist only as long as the moment mattered. I helped turn that creative premise into a buildable MVP, working directly with the founder and technical leadership to define the rules, flows, interaction model, and design system behind the product.

Challenge:

Unlike most of my professional projects, Punchmob was funded and driven by Sam Esmail, the creator, writer, and director of Mr. Robot, Homecoming, Angelyne, and other hit shows and films. Disillusioned with social media, Sam wanted to create something more personal, more intentional, and more connected to the people users actually knew in the real world.

The concept was a social experience where messages and content could be shared with a chosen audience, discussed in a feed, and then removed from existence once the discussion ended. The challenge was to preserve that creative intent while making the experience clear enough to test, practical enough to build, and constrained enough to fit budget and technical reality.

Solution:

Because the idea was still blue sky and cost had to stay at the forefront, a small team consisting of myself and our CTO traveled to Los Angeles for an in-person workshop with Sam. The goal was to understand his creative vision, define the product mechanics, and shape the app before the interface became too precious.

Those conversations covered platform support, native versus hybrid development, posting models, audience controls, thread behavior, privacy rules, and the unusual idea that content should remove itself once participation ended. We whiteboarded the information architecture and navigation structure so Sam could adjust the product in real time before we moved into full design. By branching the experience into three primary posting entry points, we reduced onboarding complexity and gave users a clearer way to create social messages without having to learn an overly complicated system.

The app was eventually designed with Flutter in mind, which shifted the design approach toward reusable widgets. That had the unexpected benefit of creating a strong design system from the start. Daily design publishing and direct review kept the founder feedback loop tight, while small-group testing helped pressure-test privacy, messaging, screen capture concerns, and content lifespan rules.

Result:

The team delivered a designed, developed, and tested app experience that Sam could distribute on his own terms. While the app was not initially published through the stores, the collaboration grew into an ongoing engagement where new ideas and goals continued to develop.

Later iterations explored functionality such as post customization, revenue strategy, and additional product concepts. The working relationship also opened the door to ideas beyond Punchmob, including set-top-box concepts for distributing Sam's television and film projects. The victory was turning a fragile, unconventional idea into something concrete without sanding off the thing that made it interesting.

Highlights:

The biggest highlight of the project was the sense of inspiration and responsibility that came from working directly with someone building from personal passion. Large companies bring budget, product strategy, and structured decision-making. Working directly for an individual is different. Every creative idea has to be measured against cost, feasibility, and personal reputation.

That kind of direct collaboration reminded me of earlier startup work, where the best ideas often came from close proximity to the person taking the risk. It also created room for genuine innovation, from the core social app to concepts around Sam's personal brand and set-top-box distribution. Being able to inspire and build on his creative output kept the project fresh, personal, and exciting.