about me
tl;dr:
I'm currently on the hunt for my next job! If you know of a full time (32-40 hr/week) role where I can help architect a complex software system, explore how AI can fit into an organization, or lead a team of nerds towards building an awesome product, please reach out to me on LinkedIn!
Most recently, I was the Chief Technology Officer of Bionic Giant where I led a team of high-quality engineers and product owners and built some bespoke web applications for large organizations like Microsoft and Medical Mutual of Ohio.
I'm a seasoned entrepreneur and technical co-founder who helps amazing people get their impactful organizations off the ground.
I enjoy figuring out how things work, making technology approachable & understandable to non-technical people, and doing whatever I can to help get something done (whether that's strategy, executing on a vision, or managing a team).
i've got some time, gimme the longer version.
I can't remember a time where I wasn't fascinated by technology. Even when I couldn't understand how to do anything on it, I took any chance I could get to be on my family's DOS-powered PC. I still have source code from websites I created back in 1998. In middle school, I wrote games for the TI-83+ graphing calculator and maintained the internet's largest Ralph Wiggum fan website.
That's not to say I was only a nerd... I played defensive end in football. I threw shotput in track. I loved intermural broomball. I was a drum major in the marching band. I acted and did tech for our school plays and musicals. I was in the National Honor Society. (I guess looking back on that list, maybe I was only a nerd?)
The consistent thread which started in high school and remains today is the joy that comes with meeting diverse and interesting people, and then partnering with them to do something cool.
I kept up that "team up and do cool stuff" spirit while attending the University of Minnesota. I helped spin up a student-run television broadcast club. I joined a band comprised of professors and recorded an album where I sang backup vocals. I trained for and ran my first marathon with a bunch of other UMN students.
After college, I made the most of my journalism degree and worked as a freelance videographer. I ideated, scripted, recorded, edited, and published videos for organizations like Pepsi, the Minnesota Timberwolves, the National Academy of Television, and Fox Sports North. I also did wedding videography which, uh, never again.
Around the same time, I took a risk and started a custom mobile app consultancy with my friend from high school.
Through that partnership alone, I've collaborated on dozens of amazing projects like figuring out what it takes to build a self-driving car, developing a way to make traffic stops safer and equitable, architecting a better way for dental offices to find temporary hygienists, and improving the experience for millions of people to schedule their haircut.
After ten years of dealing with the ups and downs of owning an agency, I moved on from that partnership and joined up with another long time friend and his growing creative agency. I spent two years there as their Chief Technology Officer, helping to support their growing software engineering team. Our main mission was to help a large wellness plan administrator transition their crumbling legacy products into a single, modern Ruby on Rails stack.
While working at that agency, I got really into artificial intelligence and understanding how it works. I'm now on a mission to help others understand how they can use these amazing tools to solve their own tough problems. I gave a TEDx talk which does just that.
I'm currently on the hunt for my next full time job. I am looking for something 32-40 hours a week where I can help a team solve their tough product and engineering problems. I'm looking for a team that is solving a mission that helps make people's lives better in a meaningful and impactful way, likely in the healthcare or climate space. If you know of someone who could use a big hearted nerd that loves tech and people, drop a line on LinkedIn!
okay, cool, that's pretty much all work stuff... what else do you do?
I'm taking advantage of my time off right now to spend as much quality time as possible with my young family.
My wife and I have been married for ten years now, and we have been on some incredible adventures together. Whether that's exploring Europe and North America, running marathons, singing karaoke, or just chilling on our patio, being with my wife is the part of my life I look forward to the most when I wake up every day.
I'm also digging the time I get to spend watching my kids grow up. My daughter is in second grade, and watching her learn about how the world works is such a treat. My son is a goofy, charismatic, witty little guy, and loves noodling on tough problems like his old man. Those two are the best kids I could ask for.
Outside of family time, I don't often get a whole lot of time to myself. I do quite enjoy going on walks. I used to be super into running, but now that I'm four meniscus surgeries in, I need to probably be more strategic about how I'm gonna use what's left of them. Right now, I'm really into Apple Fitness HIIT and kickboxing workouts. I don't have any goals at the moment, and maybe that's something I need to do after I find my next gig.
Other hobbies that I enjoy include playing the guitar, visiting all the breweries in the state, experimenting with LLMs like ChatGPT, learning how to solder and repair old electronics, listening to new music (current favs are Rise Against, Japanese Breakfast, Green Day, and Jenny Lewis), watching TV with my wife (current faves include Game Changer, RuPaul's Drag Race, and Gravity Falls), playing Retro Bowl for iOS, reading through my Instapaper queue, hanging out with lovely people, and podcasting.
colophon
Here are the tools I used to build this site:
- Ruby on Rails
- Visual Studio Code
- Linode
- Transmit
- 2020 M1 Mac mini
My goal with this design was to make things as sustainable and fast as possible. If you set aside the Turbolinks stuff that comes with Rails 6, I've only used HTML and CSS to make stuff happen on this site. The only Javascript you'll find is a little XHR request to show my most recently listened songs on Last.fm on the front page.
While I'm hunting for my next job, I'm considering a re-write of my site (as one does), just because it used to bring me so much joy to burn my old designs to the ground in favor of new ones. Maybe I'll start doing that while my wife plays The Sims at night.
This about page was last updated on 2024-03-16.