Alumni Spotlight: LockedIn
A student-centered solution created from the cultivation of Jewish values
LockedIn founders Noah Fakheri (left) and Brian Ohebshalom (right).
At last year’s prom Brian Ohebshalom '26 watched nearly every student in the room consumed by their phone. Milken had already tried banning phones and confining them to locked pouches on campus. None of it seemed to help. In response, now alumni, Noah Fakheri '26 and Brian Ohebshalom '26, crafted a nuanced, community driven approach to an obvious problem using tools they learned from their Milken education.
Together, the two envisioned and built LockedIn, an app that automatically shifts a student's phone into a school-approved lock down mode upon arrival to the campus perimeter. This productivity app was developed through a process they both trace directly to the principles of their Jewish education. Both founders describe their working relationship as a mahloket (disagreement), the rabbinic model of argument aimed not at winning but at truth. "I'll be debating one point, Brian will be debating the other," Noah said. "And then I'm like, wow, Brian's right. I start debating Brian's point." Quickly, this study habit, practiced and honed inside Milken’s classrooms, became a business principle and a method they used to stress test every feature before it reached the desk of any potential partner.
Brian rooted the deeper motivation in a sense of kehillah (community), and areivut (responsibility). Brian and Noah never treated phone addiction as a personal failing to manage with willpower. The whole community was losing something together: presence, conversation, the ability to be in a room without a screen between them. That communal motivation pushed them toward a systemic fix built for the whole school.
That same grounding shaped how they used AI to build the product itself. With limited formal coding instruction, the boys started experimenting. Much of LockedIn was built by prompting and iterating with AI tools, learning to code, research, and navigate legal and trademark work along the way. However, "AI only takes you so far," Brian noted. When reflecting on their process, Brian and Noah shared that while AI tools and LLMs handled the mundane work, and even helped build the product itself, the judgment about the product came from their own knowledge and real-world experiences. It is that judgement, of keeping human values at the center even while developing a powerful tool, that makes LockedIn so impressive.
The development and implementation of their product is a shining example of Milken’s values in action. Brian and Noah took the skills they cultivated while studying Jewish texts and engaging in debates about Jewish ethics to create a better solution for their peers.
Noah Fakheri graduated from Milken in 2026 and is the co-founder of LockedIn. Currently, he runs the LockedIn sales team and product development, as well as works on building out adjacent products for their line.
Brian Ohebshalom graduated from Milken in 2026, having launched and grown LockedIn during his senior year. He now studies at USC’s Marshall School of Business while leading LockedIn’s school partnerships and finances.
