§ ABOUT · 2026 EDITION
I build the kind of software that people rely on without thinking about it.
Eight years of full-stack engineering across agencies, product companies, and now a small shop where I run engineering and still write most of the code. I like hard plumbing problems more than shiny interfaces.
- BASED
- Columbus, OH
- ROLE
- Partner & Head of Eng
- STACK
- Go · TS · Laravel · Vue
- INTERESTS
- AI tooling, telescopes, tennis
- TELESCOPE
- 150mm f/5 astrograph (3D printed)
- FAMILY
- Mo, Lola & Herbert (dogs)
Work
Partner & Head of Engineering
Sky High Visions · Columbus OH
Building custom full-stack applications and automations as an IC while managing a team of five engineers delivering across 30+ client engagements.
Software Engineer
Loop · Columbus
Full-stack engineer on Loop's post-purchase platform, a Laravel and Vue Shopify application used by 5,000+ DTC brands.
Platform Software Engineer
WillowTree · Charlottesville
Full-stack development at a digital product agency building platforms and internal tools for Fortune 500 clients.
Web Developer
Stodzy Internet Marketing
Built and maintained web properties for a digital marketing agency.
How I work
Before I write any code I spend time in the CLI and the API docs. I want to know what the system already does, what it returns, and where the seams are. Most of the bugs I have shipped came from skipping that step.
I test in production. Not recklessly, but deliberately: feature flags, canary deploys, percentage rollouts. Staging environments lie. They run on different hardware, different data, different traffic patterns. The only environment that behaves like production is production.
I read other people's code every week, even in projects I am not working on. It is the fastest way to absorb patterns, catch problems before they ship, and stay honest about what "good" looks like outside my own head.
At the agency I default to boring technology unless there is a specific, measurable reason to reach for something new. Go and Laravel handle most of what we build. When a client asks for a novel stack, I ask what problem it solves that the proven one does not. Usually the conversation ends there.
Beliefs
- 01
The best developer tools disappear. If an engineer has to think about the tool instead of the problem, the tool failed.
- 02
AI is most useful when it handles the parts of coding that were never interesting: boilerplate, lookup, first drafts. It is least useful when people treat it as a replacement for understanding the system.
- 03
Agency work forces you to get good at finishing. You cannot hide behind "we will iterate on it later" when the client needs it Thursday.
- 04
A five-engineer team that ships every day will outperform a twenty-engineer team that ships every sprint.
- 05
Code review is not about catching bugs. It is about distributing context so that more than one person can debug the system at 2 a.m.
- 06
If your CLI does not work, your product does not work. GUIs are optional; the API contract is not.
- 07
3D printing taught me more about tolerances and iteration speed than any software retrospective. You get feedback in 45 minutes, not two weeks.
- 08
Telescope optics are unforgiving. A 0.02mm error in mirror spacing shows up as a blurry star. Software rarely demands that precision, which is why we get lazy about it.
- 09
The most reliable systems I have worked on had the fewest abstractions. Every layer you add is a layer that can break in a way you did not predict.
- 10
Documentation that lives next to the code gets updated. Documentation in Confluence does not.
Outside the screen
Deep-sky imaging
I design and 3D-print astrograph telescopes for long-exposure imaging. Two scopes published on MakerWorld. New-moon weekends are blocked on the calendar.
Whatever is on the nightstand
Mostly nonfiction about systems, physics, and how things get made. Occasionally a novel when someone insists.
Printers and parts
Bambu Lab printer running most weekends. Telescope components, jigs, enclosures. Fusion 360 for design, PrusaSlicer for output.
Court time
Picked it up a few years ago. Still working on a consistent backhand. Playing 3-4 times a week when the weather cooperates.
What I'm looking for
- Advisory work — 1-2 roles, pre-Series-B, developer tools or infrastructure
- Collaboration on AI tooling projects
- Coffee in Columbus if you are passing through