I founded or co-founded seven of the eleven startups I’ve been involved in. I have dealt with everything from financing (VC pitches, finding private investors, cutting deals with corporate investors, by my own bootstraps), to marketing and sales, to public presentations, tutorials, panels and standards committees. On the technical side I have ranged from pure development, to managing development and IT groups, to providing architecture and technology solutions for developers.

I can help you with…

• Translating your technical architecture into VC speak.
• Fine tuning product and architecture plans.
• Reviewing acquisition and purchasing plans for technical viability.
• Acting CTO as you get up to speed in hiring.
• Defining processes and best practices to streamline technical work.
• Choosing the right set of tools for your development and planning process.

…and more.

I have experience building software for email systems, messaging architectures, metadata analysis, web scraping, social media tools and content moderation systems, text analysis and matching techniques, user interfaces, and more.

I have recent experience with dynamic development languages like Javascript, Python, Perl, and Node. Databases such as MySQL, Mongo, and Neo4J. And frameworks like React, Eleventy, Django, and Pandas.

Whether it's designing a system for others to implement, guiding a development project from start to finish, or just adding a feature, plugin, or extension to an external system, I can provide help in those environments, or come up to speed on new ones.

I've been developing web sites and applications since shortly after the web was invented. I've built internal and external applications for companies ranging from Fidelity Investments to the Boston Museum of Science. From banks to religious organizations. From internal applications to major events. And most recently, this website.

The technologies have changed tremendously, but the requirements haven't. Accessibility. Inclusiveness. Privacy. Security. Responsive interfaces. Browser compatibility. Internationalization. Usability. Speed and efficiency. All are even more important than they were at the start.

Whether it's deciding what product to purchase to solve an issue, or buying a company, I can help you with that evaluation. I've been on both sides of the acquisition process multiple times. I've gone in to evaluate potential acquisitions. I've seen them succeed and fail, because in the end, you're acquiring people, not software.

On the technolog acquisition side, you have the same issues as hiring consultants…is the solution going to fit your company's processes and culture? What will the support costs be, how much customization will you need? Having an outside view that doesn't have NIH concerns can give you an unbiased view of the options.

From chat rooms in the 70's, to moderating social mailing lists in the 80's, to tech lead for the teams at Meta creating software for their 30,000 moderators; I've been involved in social media since before it had a name. If your company allows employees to socialize online, or to interact with customers, then you're running a social media system…whether you want to or not.

I can help you understand the benefits and dangers of running social networks, and help you build the processes and software you need to prevent abuse and burnout, while encouraging participation.