About Me
Full-stack engineer based in San Diego. I've been doing freelance web development since 2010. In 2017 I founded RipeMetrics and scaled it to 50+ enterprise clients. Now I build production software and agentic AI systems for clients who need things that actually work.
The Journey
Spent seven years in B2B sales and cause marketing, learning how businesses actually buy software and what makes customers stick around.
Founded RipeMetrics and graduated from the CSD16 accelerator program, a venture capital-backed program for early-stage software companies.
Built the product from scratch while leading product development, managing teams, and shaping company vision.
At RipeMetrics, led complete technical refactor from Laravel Livewire to React/Next.js, reducing network response times by 6 seconds and improving overall system performance.
Built AI-powered chatbot with OpenAI, MySQL, and vector databases (Pinecone/Chroma). Created website content extraction system reducing client onboarding from 20 minutes to 2 minutes.
Scaled platform to 50+ enterprise clients processing thousands of customer interactions daily, while maintaining 95%+ system uptime.
Completed AI Engineering Bootcamp (Maven) and LLM Engineering course (AI Makerspace), going deep on transformer architectures, fine-tuning, and RAG systems.
Now building client projects: a Next.js 16 wellness platform for AlignSD with Sanity CMS and structured data.
Focused on agentic engineering — wiring LLMs, tool-use, and structured outputs into systems that run autonomously.
Education & Continuous Learning
Pitched and secured a spot for RipeMetrics in the competitive CSD16 Spring 2017 cohort, a VC-backed program for early-stage software companies in regulated markets. Completed an intensive 5-month program refining business model, go-to-market strategy, and key partnerships with industry experts and mentors. Graduated with a polished pitch deck, investor network, and clear roadmap for scaling operations.
UC San Diego Extended Studies
Sep 2018 - Jan 2019
Customer Experience Leadership Course — Explored strategic importance of CX, evaluation methods, and best practices from industry leaders like Apple, Amazon, and Tesla.
Stanford University Online
Oct 2016 - Jan 2017
Technology Entrepreneurship — Studied entrepreneurship process for high-impact enterprises, team formation, and Silicon Valley startup ecosystem.
Stanford University Online
Aug 2016 - Oct 2016
Advanced Entrepreneurship — Transforming ideas into viable business concepts using Stanford GSB's Startup Canvas methodology for customer identification and go-to-market strategy.
California State University, East Bay
2000 - 2003
Mass Communications — Content creation and storytelling across media types including documentaries, press releases, films, and marketing campaigns.
Claude Code for Real Engineers
AI Hero - Apr 2026
Cohort-based course on production-grade AI-assisted engineering with Claude Code. Agent steering, TDD feedback loops, autonomous agents with Docker sandboxing, and human-in-the-loop patterns.
Master the Model Context Protocol (MCP)
Kent C. Dodds - Sept 2025
Intensive 2-week cohort on MCP fundamentals, advanced features, UI development, and OAuth 2.1 authorization for AI-native applications.
AI Engineering Bootcamp
Maven - Mar 2025
10-week intensive bootcamp on building production-ready AI agent applications, including RAG, fine-tuning, and multi-agent systems.
LLM Engineering - Foundations to SLMs
AI Makerspace - Nov 2024
6-week course on transformer architectures, fine-tuning techniques (LoRA, QLoRA), model alignment (DPO, RLHF), and SLM optimization.
AI-Powered Sanity Development
Sanity - Mar 2025
Official Sanity certification covering CMS architecture, GROQ queries, schema design, and AI-powered content workflows.
Landing Page Academy
Learn UI Design - Feb 2025
Design-focused course on high-converting landing page patterns, visual hierarchy, and conversion optimization.
Cursor AI Bootcamp
Maven - Jan 2025
Intensive bootcamp on AI-assisted development workflows, prompt engineering for code generation, and IDE-integrated AI tooling.
Effective Communication For Engineers
Taro (YC S22) - Sep 2024
YC-backed program on technical communication, stakeholder management, and career growth strategies for engineers.
Modern Redux with RTK & TypeScript
egghead.io - Oct 2022
Advanced Redux patterns using Redux Toolkit with TypeScript for type-safe state management in React applications.
Introduction to Next.js
Frontend Masters - Jul 2022
Foundational course on the Next.js framework covering SSR, SSG, API routes, and the pages router architecture.
How I Work
My path from sales to engineering means I build software with the end user in mind, not just the spec. Seven years of selling enterprise software taught me how businesses actually buy and what makes them stick around that instinct doesn't go away when you switch to the terminal. I ship fast, communicate clearly, and treat every project like it's my own product.
I also bring genuine customer experience expertise. I completed UC San Diego's CX Leadership program, then built RipeMetrics into a Customer Experience Management platform that used NPS scores, retention analytics, and behavioral data to help 50+ businesses improve how they treat their customers. Most engineers optimize for the system. I optimize for the person using it.
Speaking & Publications
Walked attendees through building a reusable AI system that captures unique voice and generates authentic marketing content—from gathering existing content to creating a writing profile to deploying with Claude Projects.
Demonstrated how I built an internal AI assistant at RipeMetrics using LangChain and Flowise to boost developer productivity.
Published book chapter on leveraging cause marketing partnerships between for-profit businesses and nonprofits to boost revenue, increase lifetime customer value, and reduce customer acquisition costs.
Technologies I Work With
Frontend
Backend & Database
AI & ML
CMS & Tools
DevOps & Testing
Mobile & Monorepo
Emerging Tech
Beyond Code
When I'm not building you'll find me rock climbing around San Diego or hunting for rare vinyl records.