Learn how a top AI/ML software engineer thinks about MVPs from his own experience as an inventor, founder, advisor, and investor to startups.
Chris "Skippy" Pate
Startup veteran and problem solving enthusiast
I'm a startup veteran ranging from pre-seed to series A startups taking them up to as far as Series E in numerous industries. Email marketing, SMS marketing, shipping & transportation, ride hailing, digitial media, speech to text are all markets I'm familiar with. I'm a passionate leader with a focus on discipline.
I enjoy solving complex problems whether that be through people management, process management, or architecture and coding.
I have a love for being hands on in all aspects of life a…
Work
International Expansion
Engineering lead for the expansion of Attentive's SMS business outside of the United States. With a scrappy team of 1 product manager, 1 engineer, and myself as tech lead we were able to launch Canada and the UK within 3 weeks of initial start. This same functionality would eventually expand to Australia as well, eventually becoming a 12mm ARR business.
Email List Growth
This project constituted upgrading Attentive's list growth and subscription systems to also collect email alongside sms. This included additional pop up builder functionality, email validation and submission, alongside email subscription creation and finally post back integrations to third party email systems.
The majority of the code build years back still exists today and has scaled from a few hits a minute to thousands of hits a minute at peak.
Reporting System V1
Implemented a report builder and exporter allowing customers to schedule pre built reports in a number of ways including download and email for a desired timeframe.
Was able to continue to scale easily from single sheet to multiple sheet, multiple data sources very easily as project was handed off and scaled from hundreds to thousands of customers.
User Identity Origins
Established the first iteration of the Identity System at Attentive utilizing PostGres. Was the first ever system to be able to track multiple data points in order to be able to attribute it to a single 'user'; a new concept within the Attentive ecosystem.
Even today the same ingestion pipeline and basic data structure still exist in order to power the hundreds of millions of users.
Multi Short Code SMS Marketing
This was an iteration to Attentive's system in which breaking the 1:1 company:phone relationship was implemented. From the signup flow to the subscription system to the the sending and reporting functionality - everything had to be updated and consistent for the best user experience.
We were able to update all of these within a few weeks and release flawlessly unlocking at the time more throughput for our larger clients before the BFCM holiday
Experience
Attentive
Director of Software Engineering
Jun 2018 - Jun 2023
Attentive® is a personalized text messaging platform built for innovative brands & organizations.
- Responsible for 99+% growth amongst popup impressions, creations, subscriber growth
- Developed V0 of companies reporting, identity, multi channel send, creative building, email collection systems
- Pioneered and followed through on international expansion initiative
Business Insider
Engineering Lead and Android Developer
Jan 2015 - May 2018
Digital media company
- Numerous upgrade to their CMS system
- Upgrades to both their android application and public API
- Responsible for modernizing display systems onto latest version of symphony
- Pioneered establishing a unified modelling system to support the microservice nature
- Established a new symphony package simplifying the data adapter problem
Ground Transportation Network
Lead Engineer
Mar 2011 - Jan 2015
An uber like startup before uber existed
- 3rd engineering hire
- Developed AR, Billing, Driver App, Consumer App, Web system, CMS system, Custom Pricing systems
Intermodal Management System
Web Developer
Oct 2010 - Jan 2011
complete line of domestic logistic solutions international containers access rates 24/7 vis iris - dispatch moves via your pc - track and trace via fastrak project cargo oversize and overweight - transloading, rigging, and crane service - warehouse, storage, and palletizing - trade show and exhibition management tools per diem control and prevention - metric and milestone analysis reporting - po / sku tracking - full edi solutions domestic cargo ftl and ltl pick up, delivery, and trace
- Created numerous additional reports for customers
- Participated in upgrading of onsite servers
Nuance Communications
Assistant Technical Consultant
Apr 2010 - Oct 2010
nuance communications, inc. is the pioneer and leader in conversational ai innovations that bring intelligence to everyday work and life. the company delivers solutions that understand, analyze and respond to human language, amplifying human intelligence. with decades of domain and artificial intelligence expertise, nuance works with thousands of organizations – in healthcare, telecommunications, automotive, financial services, retail, and more – to create stronger relationships and better experiences for their customers.
- Numerous updates to the phone menu systems for 2 high profile clients
- Participated in a number of testing suites for additional teams
Vantage Production, Llc
Web Developer
Jul 2009 - Apr 2010
vantage production, llc is the nation's premier provider of content, technology and services supporting the sales and marketing of mortgage products. with more than 15 years’ experience serving tens of thousands of mortgage loan originators, vantage production empowers lenders to close more loans and minimize risk with solutions that are designed by mortgage experts for mortgage experts. at vantage production, we are here to make good things happen for other people. (800) 963-1900 www.vantageproduction.com
- Helped convert a large majority of the UI into a newer framework ExtJS
- Solved their annual event PDF generator's timeout and OOM issues
- Integrated with third parties to provide additional sales funnel of leads
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