This week on Tacos & Tech, Neal sits down with Drew Wilson, longtime North County founder, designer, engineer, and community builder. From launching products solo to landing a GoDaddy acquisition, Drew's track record speaks for itself. Now he's back with a new company, Opacity, and relaunching his beloved creative conference, ValioCon, right in the heart of Oceanside.

In this episode, Drew shares his journey from early design days and Flash websites to building Plasso, navigating acquisition, and diving headfirst into GenAI-powered product development. He also gives us a behind-the-scenes look at what's coming with Opacity, why he's bullish on version control for designers, and how tools like Midjourney and Claude are shaping his build stack.

Key Points

Building Plasso as a solo founder and selling to GoDaddy
Going through YC while still working at GoDaddy
Launching (and shutting down) a modern digital bank
The origins of ValioCon and why it's back after 9 years
The inspiration behind Opacity and the future of visual coding
Building products in the GenAI era — what's actually different
His go-to North County burrito and tales from Cave Week

Links & Resources Learn more about Opacity Grab your ticket to ValioCon

Connect with Drew & Neal Follow Drew on Linkedin & X Follow Neal: LinkedIn & X

The Return of a North County Builder