I build software and exceptional teams

I like building products, platforms, and engineering teams that perform and scale.

Most of my background is in product and platform work where the code, the UX, the team, and the business model all push on each other at the same time.

Lately I have been spending a lot of time on how AI fits into that kind of work: inside the workflow, inside the product, and inside the systems that support both.

Writing

I built a real-time CTO dashboard for my wall2026Some notes on localizing pricing for digital products and subscriptions2026I hacked my own site with agentic AI. You probably should too.2026If it’s obvious an agent did the work, you’re doing it wrong.2025

Current work

ActionVFX.com

Chief Technology Officer and engineering lead, hands-on.

Lead technology for ActionVFX while still shipping code across commerce, licensing, search, media delivery, AI-assisted workflows, and internal tooling. Led the 2023 ActionVFX.com rebuild that improved conversion, performance, and SEO.

TypeScriptNode.jsRubyRailsNext.jsReactPostgresAWSAlgoliaCodexClaude CodeRedisTailwindStripe

AI Pipeline & VFX Tooling

Internal AI and media pipeline work.

Build tooling for media operations, training-data preparation, asset tagging, search indexing, and artist-assist experiments across TypeScript and Python workflows.

PythonComfyUIAWSTensorFlow

SaaS & Subscriptions

Subscription platform, pricing, onboarding, and billing.

Designed and built the subscription business on top of the existing marketplace, including data modeling, pricing logic, entitlement checks, onboarding, Stripe integration, and customer account workflows. Scaled the product from zero to more than $1M ARR in six months.

RailsReactPostgresRedisStripeAWS

Past projects

Homize

Fractional Chief Technology Officer.

Led technology and product engineering across a group of home improvement companies, covering architecture, delivery, technical strategy, and the systems needed to connect operations, sales, and customer workflows.

TypeScriptReactNode.jsPostgresAWS

A.E. Smith Consulting

Engineering and leadership consultant.

Provided fractional CTO and engineering consulting for universities, startups, and established organizations, including Stanford, Harvard, AARP, Timpson in the UK, Berea College, Impassion Media, and HealthCentral.

WordPressAngularFirebaseGCPDocker