Fractional CTO helping startups scale through technical strategy, architecture reviews, code audits, and team development.
Oct 2024 – Present
Advised founders and startups on system scalability and architecture through technical consultations. Conducted stack assessments, code reviews, and architecture analysis to identify risks, improve reliability, and align technical decisions with business goals.
10/2022 - 10/2024
Improved cross-team developer workflow by streamlining complex nested branching strategies into a single staging-to-production environment. Over six months, reduced self-induced incident rate from about 60% two years ago to less than 5% over the last three months. Successfully delivered essential client-facing features within a complex legacy codebase while simultaneously maintaining agile development on new greenfield products. Facilitated a complete migration from DigitalOcean to Google Cloud.
03/2020 - 11/2022
Resolved major scaling issues with WordPress site by moving SQL database to GCP and leveraging self-healing VM instances. Decoupled PHP runtime from on-disk sessions using Redis for multi-instance sharing. Successfully launched product without downtime, maintaining costs on par with WP Engine. Implemented quality-of-life features in legacy codebase before deploying real-time swap to new React/Firebase codebase. Technologies: React, Node.js, Firebase, React Native, GCP.
02/2015 - 10/2024
Bootstrapped a CRM with my wife using a pile of JavaScript books. Grew the company from $0 to $8M ARR in five years. Currently holding the Engineering Manager position. Technologies: Node.js, CD/CI, TypeScript, REST, GraphQL, MongoDB, Terraform, GCP.
03/2014 - 01/2019
Grew to 15,000 users at its peak and served over 100,000 separate accounts over five years. Developed using the CakePHP framework (self-taught). Wrote a streaming transparent proxy from scratch in Node.js, replacing a middleman—including the logo from the target site—without client or server awareness. Maintained a clear budget; identified and halted a production issue caused by a contractor's code that saved the company over six figures in one day.
01/2012 - 10/2017
Reduced repetitive human tasks via automated cron jobs in PHP, saving the company 15% in recurring labor expenses. Enhanced a legacy Perl codebase to add quality-of-life improvements for existing users. Managed uptime for legacy systems with cloud server companies. Hired a new lead engineer and handed off full control after fully migrating to the new Firebase/React codebase.
Cloud & Infrastructure: GCP, Vercel, Docker, CI/CD pipelines, observability & monitoring, performance optimization, cost planning
Backend: Node.js, TypeScript, GraphQL, REST APIs, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, Redis
Frontend: React, Remix, Next.js, React Native, iOS/Android native development, responsive design
Engineering Leadership: Hiring & building high-performing teams, system architecture design, database migrations, scaling strategies, code review processes, mentoring developers, Agile/Scrum methodologies
Computer Science coursework at University of San Diego, Pasadena City College, and Santa Barbara City College. Focus on data structures, algorithms, test-driven development, and full-stack programming. Self-taught through real-world projects and continuous learning via Egghead.io, Educative, and Frontend Masters.