I’ve spent the last 15+ years building and scaling engineering teams at the intersection of explosive growth, emerging technology, and human-centered leadership. Currently, I serve as Chief Technology Officer at BuildOps, a $1 billion unicorn transforming how commercial contractors work through AI-powered software.
Before BuildOps, I led engineering at companies through their defining moments: scaling Weedmaps from 30 to 300+ engineers through hypergrowth and IPO, and steering ShopKeep’s technology through a $550 million acquisition by Lightspeed. These experiences taught me that the hardest problems in technology aren’t technical—they’re human.
What I Write About
This blog explores the questions I’m wrestling with as AI reshapes what it means to lead engineering teams:
AI and Machine Learning in Practice — Not the hype, but the reality. How do you introduce AI to skeptical teams? What gets automated first? How do you measure impact beyond the obvious metrics? I write about incremental adoption, polymorphic cultures where humans and AI agents collaborate, and the closing skill gap between junior and senior engineers.
Technical Leadership and Team Scaling — The lessons learned growing teams 10x, managing through IPOs and acquisitions, and discovering that self-awareness matters more than technical brilliance. I focus on communication as a superpower, coaching in the AI era, and having difficult conversations that actually move things forward.
Observability and Engineering Excellence — Deep dives into building systems you can actually understand and debug. From my work transforming observability practices, I share frameworks for moving beyond dashboards to true system intelligence.
The Trades Meet Technology — Commercial contracting is a $300+ billion industry built on decades of instinct and experience. I’m fascinated by how data and AI can augment (not replace) that expertise, creating new possibilities for an entire sector.
Why I Write
In 2017, I had 256 emails waiting for me on a Friday morning. That was 4 hours of focus time gone before I’d done any real work. That experience led me to time minimalism and rethinking how knowledge work actually works. Now, as AI tools promise to transform everything about software development, I’m asking similar questions at a much larger scale.
Writing helps me think clearly about complex problems. This blog is my public notebook—a way to work through ideas, share what I’m learning, and hopefully save others some of the painful lessons I’ve learned the hard way.
If even one person builds a better team, ships a better product, or leads with more intention because of something I’ve shared here, the writing was worth it.
Beyond the Blog
I’m a member of the CNBC Technology Executive Council and mentor engineering leaders through Plato and Intro.co. I’ve spoken at SXSW and been featured on podcasts like InfoQ’s Engineering Culture series.
I live in Southern California with my family, where I’m probably thinking about distributed systems, planning the next camping trip, or both.
Let’s Connect
I’m most active on LinkedIn where I share shorter thoughts on AI, leadership, and building great engineering teams. If you’re working on similar problems or just want to compare notes on scaling teams, hypergrowth, or AI implementation, I’d love to hear from you.
You can also find me on GitHub where I occasionally write code when I miss the feeling of actually building things.
Want to work together? I advise early-stage companies on engineering strategy, technical leadership, and AI implementation. Book a call on Intro.co or reach out directly.
This site shares my personal views and experiences, not those of my employer. All opinions are my own, including the bad ones.Share