Career
Started at Sandia National Labs (Member of Technical Staff)
First full-time technical role. Learned deep techincal skills from many brilliant mentors.
Acquired skills:
- How to work in critical security environments.
- How to do open-ended technical research.
- System-level software programming and analysis.
- Security mindset of always considering how systems could break.
Started at Blend (Application Security Engineer)
Looking for a faster-paced role, I moved to San Francisco to work at Blend, a FinTech start up with around 50 employees.
Acquired skills:
- How to work in a fast-paced startup culture.
- Cloud computing and security.
- Mindset to automate tasks whenever possible.
Started at Credible (Senior Security Systems Engineer)
Looking for a leadership role and to gain a better understanding of how startups work, I started at Credible in a role similar to a Junior Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). I mainly focused on company-wide Information Security policies by working with Legal, IT, Product, and Engineering.
Acquired skills:
- How to work/communicate with non-technical stakeholders (e.g. Legal).
- How to work/communicate with executive team.
- How to align stakeholders across an organization (e.g. convince Product to prioritize security fixes over new features).
Started Building AppAttack
For personal reasons, I moved from San Francisco to Portland, OR, which gave me the excuse to start building my own company. I decided to build a product that addressed one of the issues I faced at Credible: effectively teaching software developers to write web applications securely. AppAttack is essentially a vulnerable web app environment that guides software developers through exploiting and then fixing the vulnerabilities.
Acquired skills:
- How to start a company from a legal and accounting point of view.
- Understanding the importance of marketing and sales in a business.
Started Building ABAKadabra
After having trouble formulating a solid business strategy for AppAttack, my cousin convinced me to build a SaaS tool for Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) treatment. The idea was to build a customizable electronic platform/marketplace for ABA treatment where 3rd parties can create and sell content and curriculum to other users.
Acquired skills:
- How to ruthlessly prioritize tasks and features.
- How to build quality web app software.
ABAKadabra Teamed Up with FTF Behavioral Consulting
My cousin introduced me to Dr. Greg Hanley and his team at FTF Behavioral Consulting. Dr. Hanley’s team was looking for a technical team to build an app for their proprietary protocol Skill-Based Treatment. I decided to build the Skill-Based Treatment protocol into ABAKadabra as an Add-On Module.
Acquired skills:
- How to communicate with non-technical stakeholders.
- Understanding the power of “Show, Don’t Tell.” A prototype is more effective at communicating an idea than a written/spoken description is.
- How and when to work with a lawyer (e.g. setting up a contract).
Launched ABAKadabra
Launched ABAKadabra with FTF Behavioral Consulting promotionals on the FTF website, the Skill-Based Treatment FaceBook group, and live webinars/training.
Acquired skills:
- How to deliver a product from conception to production.
- How to launch a product with marketing promotions.
- How to work with customers (as Sales and Customer Success).
- How to accept payments from customers (set up through Stripe).
Cut ABAKadabra Down to Only Skill-Based Treatment
After launching ABAKadabra, customers seemed only interested in the Skill-Based Treatment Add-On Module, and they seemed confused by the core ABAKadabra platform/marketplace. I decided to cut the core ABAKadabra product and focus the product entirely on Skill-Based Treatment.
Acquired skills:
- Understanding the importance of launching a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) early to ensure Product Market Fit (PMF) before spending too much time on the wrong idea.
- Understanding the importance of keeping a product and marketing message as simple as possible to not confuse current and prospective customers.
Started at Legends of Learning (Software Engineer - Full Stack)
After working full-time on my entrepreneurial pursuits for several years, I decided to find some financial stability by rejoining the workforce as a software engineer at the educational startup Legends of Learning. At Legends of Learning, I built and launched the backend system for their new flagship product: Math Basecamp.
Acquired skills:
- How to work as a team of software engineers.
- How to communicate with a Product team as a representative of the Engineering team to ensure shared understandings and expectations for the delivered product.
Started at True Anomaly (Software Engineer/Tech Lead - Cloud)
Looking to make a bigger impact in my career, I decided to join True Anomaly as a software engineer and technical lead, where I developed a cohesive, scalable, reliable, web-based product for Space Defense.
Acquired skills:
- How to guarantee results of the team through accountablity rather than responsibility.
- How to effectively push back against unreasonable demands from ambitious Product and Leadership teams.