Six-time technical co-founder, including a fintech unicorn (Branch)
I've built six companies from scratch--bootstrapped, VC-backed, and PE-backed. I've exited four of the companies, been the CIO and CTO of multiple PE-backed companies, have two patents, and have recently written a book published by Pearson (Serverless as a Game Changer). I have handled all aspects of running technology at SaaS and data companies, including enterprise architecture, software development, data engineering, reporting, information security, infrastructure, internal IT, and anything else that's been required.
I graduated with degrees in English and Mathematics from Williams College, and I have a law degree (JD) from Yale Law School.
I am currently the CTO at Branch, the best and fastest insurance carrier for bundling home, auto, renters, condo, and/or umbrella insurance.
I am a good fit for companies looking for:
Software development architecture/advice/evaluation
Establishing a world-class software development life cycle (from idea to deployment and running)
Establishing a pragmatic, efficient information security program
Assistance and expertise in hiring technical talent
Branch is a full-stack insurance company that uses data, technology, and automation to make bundling home and auto insurance easier and less expensive.
Experience
Apr 2018 — Present
Branch
Co-Founder and CTO
Branch is a full-stack insurance company that uses data, technology, and automation to make bundling home and auto insurance easier and less expensive.
Initial developer and architect of back-end architecture
Scaled the company to over $200M in annual premium and more than 400 employees
Raised over $230M in venture capital
Oct 2015 — Present
FuelSQC
Consulting CTO
I have been the part-time/consulting CTO for FuelSQC, an online statistical package built specifically for the fuel and bio-fuel community, providing comprehensive quality control analytics, and control charting. We bootstrapped FuelSQC from scratch to more than $1MM in ARR over several years.
Built the original application in Angular 1.4 on Firebase Realtime Database
Redesigned and led the rebuilding of the application in React on Firestore
Have cost-optimized to keep run costs under $5K/year
Oct 2015 — Jun 2017
S
Spaceful
Co-Founder and CTO
Founded a commercial real estate SaaS product out of an incubator in Redwood City (Mach49).
Built and launched initial product in 3 months
Acquired into a larger company, where I became CIO
Jul 2008 — Oct 2015
BuildFax
Co-Founder and CTO
I founded BuildFax to collect all the building permit data in the US. Building permit data is stored in many different formats and structures, and so I designed a pipeline that could be operated by non-technical staff that ingested the data in arbitrary formats and standardized it for analysis and sale. We had a YC-backed competitor that we beat in every head-to-head because of our data quality, and we operated with much lower overhead.
Designed underlying software and cloud architecture
Original developer for software, reporting, and analysis
Awarded two patents around using building permit data for roof condition
Built team to more than 50 employees
Oct 2001 — Jun 2008
EphPod
Founder
I built the first software to make the iPod work with Windows. I was first to market, despite being a solo developer against several companies with teams of developers working to build their own products. I released it for free, and monetized the traffic and partnerships through ads. In 2008, I sold the product and domain to Wind Solutions.
Built EphPod in Borland Delphi
Translated it in eight different languages
Featured in Wired, New York Times, Wall St Journal, and others
Sold to Wind Solutions
Jun 1998 — Sep 2004
BluePrince
Co-founder and CTO
We founded BluePrince to put municipal building departments online. The first jurisdictions went live with BluePrince in 2000, and it's still in use across many states.
Designed and built the original Windows application (C++)
Designed and built the first web application that allows applying for and paying for building permits online
Compare the best fractional CTO companies for startups in 2026 by vetting, speed, pricing, and model, and find the right fractional CTO services for your stage.
Learn what a forward deployed engineer does, how the role differs from traditional software engineering, and why hire one to support enterprise customers.
