JT Tao

Hi, I’m JT. I’m a native New Yorker who is passionate about the pursuit of knowledge and having high craftsmanship in everything I do. A self-described jack of all trades and maker, I love creating things that are beautiful but also functional.

That curiosity led me to software engineering, where I enjoy looking at systems and thinking about how to improve them. Right now, that’s at Blackbird, where we’re reimagining the restaurant economy. Previously at Meta, I worked on improving browser performance and rethinking web experiences for the glasses form factor.

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  1. J

    Stuyvesant High School

    2014–2018

  2. NJT

    Princeton University

    2018–2022

  3. C

    Meta

    2022–2026

  4. B

    Blackbird

    2026–

jtxtao.com — hobbies
A geometric wooden lamp on a tableWoodworking project 1Woodworking project 2Woodworking project 3Woodworking project 4

Projects

A woman on a sofa wearing Orion glasses, with three holographic panels floating in the room in front of her: a message thread, a video call, and the browser's home — a grid of site tiles for NYTimes, Google, YouTube, Wikipedia, Spotify and others over a “search or say website” bar.
Image: Meta · Source: Introducing Orion

A browser for glasses

Bringing the web to Meta’s Orion AR glasses was an interesting product and technical problem. How do you rethink browsers for a device with no keyboard or mouse and a viewport you can see through? I worked on making the browser performant enough to run on a device that packs all its compute into the glasses’ frame and has a tight thermal window: it sits on your face, so it would be uncomfortable if it ran too hot.

UploadVR — hands-on

A close shot of the Meta Ray-Ban Display's right lens, lit with a card about Santorini — a photograph of the island, a line of description, and Meta AI's dot beneath it — with the Neural Band wristband beside the frame.
Image: Meta · Source: Meta Ray-Ban Display

Web Apps on the Meta Ray-Ban Display

My team built the web platform that lets third-party developers use standard HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to build web apps for the Meta Ray-Ban Display. Hundreds of web apps have now been built to watch videos, play games, or even track planes. I worked on some of the earliest web apps and helped develop the MCP developers can use to build for this device.

Connect 2026 — the session

Canopy's dashboard for October 2026: what is left to budget, what the month has budgeted and spent, and a countdown to the next paycheck, over a table of categories — rent, utilities, groceries, the emergency fund — each with what it holds and what it has spent, beside the three account balances.

Canopy Budget

A personal finance app that goes beyond budgeting. Assign your income, track spending by category, and keep tabs on accounts, saving goals, net worth, loans, retirement, and donations — all in one dashboard.

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