About Me

I have been working in technology for 20 years. Currently I spend my time working on my own software products, but I am also available for consulting work. My experience ranges from full-stack web development, mobile, databases and machine learning.

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My introduction to technology came during high school when I discovered I could program my TI-83 calculator. Once I discovered the power of computing and more specifically programming, I started diving into HTML on my desktop computer. My first attempts were nothing more than simple markup, but it allowed me to be expressive. 20 years ago with a purchase of a book titled PHP & MySQL, I took the next big step in my journey of building software. Equipped with that book and a Linux distro disc I set out to build creative projects. 20 years later, I am still on that journey. Software evolves over time and I have not stopped learning along the way. I found myself constantly in the bookstore’s computer section browsing titles covering everything in technology.

After a few years of spending as much time as I could learning at my computer, I landed my first job in software. I was hired by Wine Spectator as a web developer tasked with improving the digital products offered by the magazine. I eventually ended up jumping in and helping with the infrastructure management of all the servers colocated down in Virginia. Next I went on to work for a webcasting software company working on the frontend JSP based project powering the interactive media interface. My first two work experiences showed me the world of legacy software, and how challenging it can be to work within the constraints of existing software.

The world of mobile software was just starting to come into the picture. The idea of building software products that were available on a device right in your pocket had me the most excited I had been in my career to date. I started building mobile software for the modern platforms long before there were any jobs to do it. Android had just released very early previews of their platform, and I spent almost a year and a half building software for it on nothing more than an emulator. I also spent time learning to build software for Apple computers at the time, which turned out to be valuable experience when developers were eventually able to build software for the iPhone.

The mobile era was also my first experience working with startups. The tech sector was booming and in New York there were startups beginning to hire engineers for mobile apps. I ran the Android Developer Meetup¹ in New York City for a number of years and had the opportunity to meet some incredible individuals. This lead to working for GroupMe on their Android product. We were eventually acquired by Skype and also Microsoft at the same time, which was quite an interesting experience.

During my time at GroupMe, I had a side project I was working on titled GigBeat. I created the first prototype at a Music Hack Day event in New York. I built an Android app that would scan your music library and allow you to see which artists had concerts coming up in your area. Songkick was integrated in SongBird, an excellent music client for desktops I was using at the time. I felt this would be such a more powerful tool if it was available on your mobile phone. It could alert you whenever there was a new show announced by one of your favorite artists or even present shows on screen for the music you were currently listening to. I spent the rest of that summer building the proper first version of the product and launched it in September of 2011. By November of 2011 the app was being featured on the front page of the Android Market (the Google Play Store of the time), and it was getting a ton of attention. I had met with so many different people in the music space, and to say I was in over my head would be an understatement. I was invited to attend Mobile World Congress in Barcelona with Google as part of their app showcase. I was again invited by Google to be a part of a different kind of Google I/O session that year. They were doing a panel of apps with exceptional design, and GigBeat was selected along with Square². Music has always been a passion of mine and to have an opportunity to build software for music fans is still one of my favorite times as a developer. The music business is very hard and even with 1,000,000 downloads of the app it was extremely difficult to find a path forward for it. The Chainsmokers even mention the state of music and their lack of investment in the industry at the Upfront Summit in 2023³.

I found myself working at a few more startups, I loved building concepts from scratch and trying to figure out where they go next. I realized with GigBeat that I really wanted to build products, not just technology. I wanted to spend my time bringing concepts to reality leaning on my ability to write code for many different platforms. I worked for Derby Jackpot helping bring their horse racing product to iPhones in time for the Triple Crown. This was my first real experience in horse racing and it was an awesome product to be working on. They built a great team at Derby Jackpot and I was proud to be part of it. I made my way back to Microsoft for a number of years working on the Outlook product. My 2019 year in review post captures some of the most challenging work at Microsoft⁴.

After getting caught up in layoffs at Microsoft I decided I wanted to spend time trying to build my own products again. I had to fight the urge to work on music products, I strongly feel that music discovery has not seen its best days yet. I utimately decided to build software for the horse racing industry after a few conversations with friends active in the space. I started with Backstretch⁵, a platform for owners and trainers to manage their stable. Allowing owners to keep up on their stables and provide the ability for trainers to get paid faster. The product has been in beta now for a few months and has been receiving great feedback from early users. I teamed up with In The Money Media to build out a fun new contest platform for horse racing. This started completely as an experiment. We have worked on each iteration of the product as a result of the next experiment we were looking to test. This has been an incredibly fun way to build a product. Contest Jockey⁶ has run a few open public contests so far with some amazing feedback. The first contest was won by a player who has never participated in a contest before. This was one of the motivating factors behind building the product. We wanted to make contests more accessible and fun for more people.

In addition to my own products, I am also available for consulting work. My availability can change often, but if you would like to work together feel free to contact me or setup a quick 15 minute intro chat.