Andres Cruz / Inchipala
Design, film, code, and the things that happen when they meet.
I grew up in Ashburn, Virginia, collecting interests and asking too many questions. Rubik’s Cubes, origami, Black Ops 2 — then design took over. At 12, I learned Photoshop from a YouTube tutorial and never really stopped.
I went to USC to study business and film, carrying a love for making things into a new place.
ChatGPT, Midjourney, and Runway made the impossible feel strangely close. Suddenly an idea could become something real in an afternoon. I had never been more addicted to making.
I helped grow Barstool USC into the school’s largest social platform, leading its Instagram, X, and TikTok. At our peak, our work reached an average of 46 million engagements a month.
Isaac Latimer and I began writing a short film together. It was the beginning of something bigger.
I left college and joined Destination DC as a creative intern, moving between video, photography, and design. I built ddcsustainability.com and made an AI-powered interview show. It taught me how a story can change the way people see a place.
Isaac Latimer and I co-founded a film company named for our hometown. We made Sense of Sight there — written and directed by Isaac, produced by me — and Pianissimo. We wanted to make original stories because they needed to be told.
Dylan Torrey and I built one place to learn about, buy, and simulate drones in 48 hours. Sky took first place at the US National Drone Association Hackathon at the SCSP AI+ Expo, winning $25,000.
Dylan and I built a different way to explore the news: less agenda, more curiosity. GAIA won first place in the Lovable Integration track at the ElevenLabs Hackathon.
Those wins led me to Firestorm, where I work as lead contract designer on visual assets, drone camouflage, and its website.
At BURNING STUDIO, the company Isaac Latimer and I co-founded, I finished writing, directing, and producing a short film about a once-famous pianist facing a relapse on the night that might change his life. Victor Wooten and Golden Jones are executive producers.
Agents that can make websites, documents, slides, and 3D models for you — and take on deep research and generate code.
Other things I’ve made.
Inchipala means ‘firefly’ in Quechua. My parents immigrated to the United States, and everything I make rests on their sacrifice. I hope to carry their work ethic, kindness, and empathy forward — and keep making things that have never existed before.
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