Joe Burns

Chicago, IL, USA

  1. Engineering
  2. Team Building
  3. Chief Technology Officer
  4. PostgreSQL
  5. Senior Software Engineer
  6. Ruby on Rails

Engineering to Executive Translator | Early Stage Technical Expertise

I help founders and CEOs understand what's actually happening inside their engineering teams—and fix it. Whether it's broken processes, team dynamics, technical debt, or simply the wrong people in the wrong seats, I diagnose the real problem and get things moving.


I've built and exited a startup (TeePublic, acquired by RedBubble), scaled engineering teams from 1 to 30+, and learned to speak both engineer and executive fluently. Before tech, I spent years doing improv comedy at UCB in New York—ski…

Hire Joe
Joe Burns

Testimonials

  • Joe was my Founder for 10 years. He has a unique skill set where he is both an expert software and product architect, knowns how to hire and manage excellent people, and has a very sharp business mind. I've been building internet businesses for 24 years now and Joe is among the very best that I've had the pleasure of working with.

    JA

    Josh Abramson

    CTO, TeePublic

Experience

  • Togetherhood

    Togetherhood

    CTO

    Jun 2025 - Present

  • Teepublic

    Teepublic

    Chief Technology Officer

    Aug 2013 - Present

    Original incubated from within BustedTees, TeePublic has become a premiere destination for independent artists to turn their passion into profit. Acquired by RedBubble in 2018.

    • Built engineering team from 1 to 20+
    • Scaled custom Ruby on Rails marketplace platform to support over 8 million designs and billions of unique skus.
    • Collaborated with product to plan OKRs and lead in execution.
    • Implemented comprehensive agile development lifecycle to ensure platform reliability and consistency in delivery.
  • BustedTees

    BustedTees

    Software Engineer

    Aug 2009 - May 2012

    BustedTees was the premiere funny t-shit company of the early internet. Operated within CollegeHumor.com.

    • Engineer for Custom E-Commerce Platform
    • Lone engineer for company through multiple holiday seasons.
  • Critical Mention

    Critical Mention

    Software Developer

    May 2007 - Aug 2009

    The most reliable PR and earned media platform featuring global media monitoring, a media contact database and analytics

    • Built out Lucene powered media search with language translation.
    • Crated XSLT based report builder and format.