Intro
I am the Software Engineering Support Manager at Saatva, a leading online luxury mattress and furniture company. In this role, I lead and mentor a top-tier team of software engineers who specialize in rapid response to infrastructure and site-related issues across our entire production environment. My focus is on fostering a proactive, solutions-driven culture that ensures uptime, performance, and customer satisfaction.
As a leader, I prioritize building strong, agile teams and creating an environment where collaboration, accountability, and innovation thrive. I play a key role in shaping organizational culture, streamlining interdepartmental communication, and aligning technical initiatives with broader business goals. In addition to managing software engineering efforts, I oversee aspects of interstate production, transportation, and logistics, ensuring seamless operations from manufacturing to delivery.
With a foundation in full-stack software development and deep systems-level experience, I bring a technical fluency that enables me to bridge the gap between engineering and executive strategy.
Outside of work, I’m passionate about all things tech—with a particular love for classic video games and car culture.
Some history
My journey into tech started in 1986 when my dad brought home a Mac Plus—complete with the iconic denim carrying case and a dot-matrix ImageWriter. I quickly dove into HyperCard, building simple apps and sharing them with friends on 3.5" floppy disks.
For my 15th birthday in 1993, I got my first personal computer: a Compaq Presario 486 DX2 with 2MB of RAM and an 80MB hard drive. Naturally, I took it apart and put it back together—mostly successfully—just to see how it worked.
In 1994, I discovered a demo of Doom playing in a store window. A clerk handed me a 3.5" floppy, and I spent the next year playing that first level, learning how to modify the game, and creating my own maps. That same year, a friend gave me a 2400 baud modem and an AOL installer disk. After convincing my mom not to pick up the phone, I connected to the internet for the first time—and everything changed.
By 1995, I’d upgraded to a 28.8k modem and moved on to the broader web through a local ISP. A copy of HTML for Dummies (plus another floppy disk) introduced me to coding. I read the book cover to cover and used Notepad to build my first website.
In 1996, I started learning basic HTML and experimenting with Photoshop, thanks to a friend-of-a-friend who worked at Adobe. I wasn’t great, but I knew more than most, and soon I was building websites for local businesses and making side income. I knew I’d found my path.
As work picked up, I turned down interviews from little-known companies like Google, Yahoo, and Amazon (they seemed too weird to last). Instead, I joined a local telecom building websites for small businesses—exactly the kind of work I loved.
Between 1997 and 2001, I launched and sold several small web ventures, built custom PCs, and joined a health insurance brokerage to handle their IT and web systems. In 2002, I earned my MCSE and CCNA certifications—rarely used but valuable—and got hands-on experience in enterprise environments, including a few (literal) fire-drill moments in co-location facilities.
From 2003 to 2011, I developed and ran a division within the brokerage that specialized in secure, self-managed websites for distributing sensitive health documents—using one of the first WYSIWYG editors available online.
When the brokerage owner retired, I took over the business and rebranded it as IntellAgent Benefit Solutions (yes, misspelled on purpose). I ran that company in various forms until mid-2022, delivering secure, custom-built web solutions for clients.
In 2014, I relocated with my family to Austin, TX—where I still live and continue my work in tech, always chasing what’s next.
Favorite Linux Distribution
- Ubuntu for desktop/laptop use
- Ubuntu Server/Debian for server use
- My current home test-bench consists of 4 various servers center-pinned by a large, custom built Media/Data server, lovingly name Obsidian.
I like
- Video Games, especially the classics
- Collecting various incarnations of digital media
- Cars & Driving
- My fur-babies!
- Good design
Fun facts
- I have owned every Nintendo console ever including every permutation of each portable console ever, the one exception being the Virtual Boy as the demo gave me headaches.
- I have owned every Mario & Zelda game that Nintendo has ever released and beaten them all.
- I almost always have a laptop with me because problems likes to pick inopportune times to pop-up.
Sites I find interesting
- First design of my first website, The Dead Link (however broken the Wayback Machine is): Wayback Machine Link
- First actual Telecom company that I got at job at right out of High School, Galaxy Net Telecom: Wayback Machine Link
- Joke Website archive that I used to run, The Joke Forum: Wayback Machine Link
