Ink and Feet was a radical reinvention of my career, based on me primarily working as a writer, and secondarily as an app developer. It's continued ever since, and I've been lucky to live across the planet, experiencing a vast array of cultures and beliefs, learning languages, and making a few things of genuine value, including a book on depression.Alongside that work as a writer, I've also been lucky to get to mentor and coach some amazing people, working on powerful social change… Show more Ink and Feet was a radical reinvention of my career, based on me primarily working as a writer, and secondarily as an app developer. It's continued ever since, and I've been lucky to live across the planet, experiencing a vast array of cultures and beliefs, learning languages, and making a few things of genuine value, including a book on depression.Alongside that work as a writer, I've also been lucky to get to mentor and coach some amazing people, working on powerful social change missions. From ecosystem conservation to legal access for low-income families, it's been deeply rewarding work to contribute to in a meaningful way. I'm especially proud that every one of my coaching clients has built up their skills and personal toolboxes in a way that means they don't need me by the end.And, of course, I've kept coding. I created an open-source platform that hosts secure, encrypted courses - building a custom, encrypted open-source version of Firebase along the way, built a platform for email newsletters and website analytics that respected readers' privacy by preventing trackers, while providing real, actionable insights for marketing books online, and built a popular Chrome extension for digital detox, Mindful Browsing.But by the end of 2021 with all of the Covid changes, it was clear that Ink and Feet alone wasn't going to meet my financial goals. So, I'm heading back into programming work, looking to connect with great people doing good work, with interesting challenges. If that's you, please get in touch! Show less

I joined Valence to lead the development of our LLM-powered Coaching platform. In my time there, my focus was on improving our iteration and learning speed, transitioning our product from proof-of-concept to ready-to-scale assistant for the masses, and building and growing a team of smart, happy developers. We completed two major overhauls in my time there - bringing the codebase up to a modern, de-coupled architecture, and moving the infrastructure to a compliant, scalable system… Show more I joined Valence to lead the development of our LLM-powered Coaching platform. In my time there, my focus was on improving our iteration and learning speed, transitioning our product from proof-of-concept to ready-to-scale assistant for the masses, and building and growing a team of smart, happy developers. We completed two major overhauls in my time there - bringing the codebase up to a modern, de-coupled architecture, and moving the infrastructure to a compliant, scalable system to unlock huge growth and scale. I left with the project on a path to go do great things! Show less

Joined Ox to help build AI-enabled decision-making tools that increase transparency, and reduce bias and noise. We rolled out an innovative, LLM-powered product that frankly, feels like magic.I led architecture, development, and UI/UX, owning product development, performance, and scaling across the entire stack.Technical highlights were Integrating real-time web and news into decision making, and finding novel ways to remove hallucinations, and produce high-confidence "I don't… Show more Joined Ox to help build AI-enabled decision-making tools that increase transparency, and reduce bias and noise. We rolled out an innovative, LLM-powered product that frankly, feels like magic.I led architecture, development, and UI/UX, owning product development, performance, and scaling across the entire stack.Technical highlights were Integrating real-time web and news into decision making, and finding novel ways to remove hallucinations, and produce high-confidence "I don't knows" from LLM-based systems.But most of all, we built a gorgeous UI, a friendly UX, and a product we're really proud of. Show less

Built a chat-based review app that scaled to millions of visits a day from scratch.I was the founding technical member of the team, responsible for architecting, designing, and coding the front-end, back-end, mobile app, and client-facing dashboard for a system that bolted on to existing high-traffic e-commerce sites.Built on Django, Angular/Ionic (v1), React Native/Redux(v2), Postgres, Firebase, Redis, and CircleCI, this tech stack was the best I've built in 20+ years. It had… Show more Built a chat-based review app that scaled to millions of visits a day from scratch.I was the founding technical member of the team, responsible for architecting, designing, and coding the front-end, back-end, mobile app, and client-facing dashboard for a system that bolted on to existing high-traffic e-commerce sites.Built on Django, Angular/Ionic (v1), React Native/Redux(v2), Postgres, Firebase, Redis, and CircleCI, this tech stack was the best I've built in 20+ years. It had full unit and functional test coverage, integrated auto-scaling and performance benchmarks, integrated client analytics, and it all *just worked*.I also had the pleasure of growing our technical team, bringing in and mentoring junior front and back-end programmers, and running them through the one-click onboarding process I'd written - getting new talent coding, fast. Show less

I was the senior developer and technical lead at a small startup, tasked with bringing an aging codebase into the present, adding a mobile app, and getting the whole system ready to scale. I wore almost all possible technical hats - my tasks ranged from system architecture, database optimization, framework design for front-end, back-end, and mobile apps, UI, UX, front-end coding (Angular/Ionic), back-end coding (Django/Postgres/Redis), devops and server architecture, and implementing a… Show more I was the senior developer and technical lead at a small startup, tasked with bringing an aging codebase into the present, adding a mobile app, and getting the whole system ready to scale. I wore almost all possible technical hats - my tasks ranged from system architecture, database optimization, framework design for front-end, back-end, and mobile apps, UI, UX, front-end coding (Angular/Ionic), back-end coding (Django/Postgres/Redis), devops and server architecture, and implementing a CI/CD pipeline.I was also responsible for helping vet potential hires, mentor junior developers, and build a development culture based around upskilling, transparency, and testing. Show less

Grew the team from two to six, built a platform that allowed us to close contracts with multiple schools, and created a full, ionic-based iOS app, android app, and mobile web-experience, including both the front and backend architectures.The app supported 1,000s of concurrent users in real-time, large chat rooms, as well as real-time notifications, camera integration, and a clever threading implementation that kept our interface fast.But more than the technical achievements, I… Show more Grew the team from two to six, built a platform that allowed us to close contracts with multiple schools, and created a full, ionic-based iOS app, android app, and mobile web-experience, including both the front and backend architectures.The app supported 1,000s of concurrent users in real-time, large chat rooms, as well as real-time notifications, camera integration, and a clever threading implementation that kept our interface fast.But more than the technical achievements, I was most proud of the culture we were able to build where people brought their full selves to the office, and we supported employees' personal and professional development in meaningful ways. We created a working remote culture with open lines of communication, and successfully navigated the challenges of time-zone splits and a diverse team. Show less

Took a team of green, talented developers and made app-making warriors. Built an open dev culture, with monthly kick-backs to iterate how we worked. Architected, led code reviews, and moved us from minimal testing to continuous deployment on E2E tests. Wrote and open-sourced will, a python chat bot that handles devops, workflow, and fun.

Designed a decoupled pub-sub application architecture, and built it in a few weeks. Built the deploy system, and a generalized data cleaning and mapping service. Built all the internal tools for the dev team, including Yeti, a deploy, code-health, and secure file-access bot, and flint, a packaging and dev environment framework (similar to boxen.)Helped drive culture from no tests to passing CI builds with browser and unit tests.

Pushed creative digital thinking on the Coca-Cola, Laika, and Nike Golf accounts. Worked on a P&G global sustainability campaign, helped conceptualize and code the ParaNorman campaign, and watched my work in the 2013 Super Bowl. Wrote and shepherded the release of the first two open-source projects in the company's history (Salad and Autoscalebot). Started a monthly Tech Breakfast presentation series to keep creatives current with the latest tech trends.

Built a full-featured CRM, donor and volunteer management platform for small nonprofits in four months, with one hand tied behind my back at a day job. Open-sourced a number of libraries from the codebase. Made some small nonprofits very happy.

Joined a small, nimble development team in Portland working on a natural foods wholesaler's operations software and ecommerce system.I was lucky to work with some brilliant developers, and on some really interesting interfaces - including design and UX for warehouse workers who had never used computers, who were flying around the warehouse with laptops strapped to carts, on *rollerblades*.

Co-founded Sixlinks.org with Jeff Gunther. We created a platform and social network centered around the six biggest areas of need in sustainability.Though the project was let down by our failures to properly monetize or market, I'm proud that we created a deep pool of well-grounded research, and quality guides to sustainable living that are still useful today.

I started and ran a successful web development business whose client list included Honda, Sony Ericsson, Stanford and Cornell Universities, and a host of Fortune 1000 companies and non-profit organizations.

Started as a junior developer, and a year later was leading a team of five super-talented developers tackling difficult medical informatics and patient care problems.We worked quickly, and were lucky to operate in essentially a blue-sky environment. Many of the tools we got to develop were the first of their kind in the world, and it was an immense privilege to get to tackle these problems with such smart peers. This was the place I learned firsthand how valuable it is to never be the… Show more Started as a junior developer, and a year later was leading a team of five super-talented developers tackling difficult medical informatics and patient care problems.We worked quickly, and were lucky to operate in essentially a blue-sky environment. Many of the tools we got to develop were the first of their kind in the world, and it was an immense privilege to get to tackle these problems with such smart peers. This was the place I learned firsthand how valuable it is to never be the smartest person in the room. Show less