Building meaningful connections through code and creativity.

Sawyer Valin and Seth Flucas met through their shared passion for technology, design, and human connection. Now both students at the University of California, Irvine, they combine complementary strengths in full-stack development, machine learning, and user experience to create Accquainted -> a campus-based social app designed to make meeting new people feel intuitive and genuine. Together, they bring a balance of engineering precision and creative vision to every feature they build.

A young man with dark hair and blue eyes resting his chin on his hand, smiling at the camera, sitting indoors by a window with a marina and boats in the background.


  • Co-Founder, CEO, Lead Product Designer

    Sawyer Valin is an Informatics major at the University of California, Irvine, and the creative mind behind Accquainted. With a foundation in IT systems, software engineering, and UX design, Sawyer blends technical fluency with a storyteller’s instinct to build thoughtful, people-first technology. Before UCI, he led IT operations at The Supreme Tech and supported clinical data systems at Caring Family Medicine, driving improvements in reliability and workflow efficiency. His work spans managed IT, full-stack app development with React Native and Supabase, and data-driven automation in Python. At Accquainted, he focuses on end-to-end product design, cloud architecture, and feature innovation.

    LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sawyervalin
    Portfolio: sawyervalin.com

Young man smiling outdoors on a sunny day with modern buildings in the background.


  • Co-Founder, CTO, Lead Software Engineer

    Seth Flucas is a Computer Science major at the University of California, Irvine, where he continues his journey after transferring from UC Merced. With hands-on experience in AI research and full-stack web development, Seth has built deep learning pipelines at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory using PyTorch and U-Net architectures, and engineered dynamic web dashboards with React, Node.js, and MySQL. His background also includes public relations leadership in the UC Merced Robotics Society, where he bridged communication between teams and the broader tech community. Seth brings a strong passion for artificial intelligence, data science, and the future of intelligent systems to the Accquainted team.


    LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sethflucas