Motivations

Why do I get up in the morning?

I profoundly enjoy learning. I was and I am really lucky to grow up with parents that put a huge emphasis on learning, without being too concerned on what I ended up pursuing, as long as I felt fulfilled and my desired occupation was legal :) I have two sisters and two brothers and I'm increasingly grateful for the lessons they taught me growing up, even if I didn't absorb them at the time. Up until the age of ~13 I devoured all types of literature, spanning from the classics like Thoreau and Edgar Allen Poe to elaborate fiction, mainly the Wheel of Time series. TV was limited to the Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel until I reached middle school. I was in accelerated math and learning groups that split my time with my classmates for the first seven years in the public school system.

Around 8th grade, this became the point in time that I pushed my 'nerd' upbringing to the back-burner and began to live life like a 'normal' teenage guy, succumbing to the social scene... sports, drinking, parties, girls, and lying became the routine throughout all of high school. I was dominated by the social scene growing up, and although I didn't know it at the time I was in a shell of my real self.

Thankfully over the next few years I had some formative experiences and gained some clarity after moving to the Bronx for school. I some incredible individuals in the Bronx and at Fordham, and a few other friends from around the world, that helped reshape my perspective on life- not having any less fun, but finding a healthy balance in enjoying myself, and more importantly, helping find a driving purpose and sense of gratitude to my everyday life.

I've had a lot of undeserved blessings and luck in my life, and on top of that, some of the serious mistakes I've made in the past miraculously were wiped from my record, allowing me to reflect on my choices and consequences with minimal impact on the rest of my life. This is another blessing I am incredibly lucky to have experienced.

So at the end of the day, I choose to live my life the way that I do because I owe it to the rest of humanity: those who do not have a choice in their day-to-day, who do not have a close friend or family member to support them, those who cannot find the strength to change their current path. I could not be more grateful for the select group of people that make up my inner circle at this point in life, and if you've made it in there, I will do whatever I can to support your own cosmic journey.

Just be yourself and enjoy the ride...

Current Projects

Current Projects

> FOMO - Support Engineer

Fomo is a lightweight, high performance app that creates real-time social proof when users engage with websites, like making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter. It integrates with a wide array of popular services, including but not limited to: Shopify, Stripe, Paypal, Zapier, Instagram, and Facebook. My goal is to help customers feel empowered and foster joy in their entrepreneurial ventures. I work to improve customer experiences by diagnosing and patching bugs while customizing Fomo’s functionality to fit their goals

> Blackworkers Project

Based off of the Blackworkers Instagram page, this is an open project to create an interactive, searchable directory of blackwork-style tattoo artists and black and grey artists from around the world. The craft is more popular than ever before and many artists have limited exposure and resources to grow their trade. Increasing accessibility and exposure for artists without adding operating costs to their business was my goal. Individuals getting their first piece, and even seasoned veterans with numerous tattoos are susceptible to the marketing ploys of local shops, when there are quantifiable signs of skill and professionalism (regardless of style) that should be sought out before getting a piece. Don’t get terrible tattoos.

Past Projects

Past Projects

> Villa - Full Stack Engineer

I was brought on as the second engineer to complete a mobile application and create the web application in 12 weeks in hopes of pursuing a seed round. The mobile app was constructed with React Native and Redux for the user interface with a Rails API and Postgres db comprising the backend. Both served as a communication and organizational platform for the residential construction industry.

> General Assembly - Instructional Associate

After graduating from General Assembly’s Web Development Immersive, I went on to work with the lead instructors in the subsequent cohort to facilitate code reviews and break down concepts of OOP, Ruby on Rails, Javascript, React.js, HTML, and CSS. I was able to create new content and dive deeper into the curriculum I just worked through as a student, except this time from the perspective of an educator. This greatly improved my technical communication skills to both novice and advanced software engineers.

> Yelp - Account Executive

After two months of extensive training in Salesforce and developing our own lead pipelines, I hit slightly over 250% of quota in my first month, which was the first month new employees began working under a quota at Yelp. This was a high-volume sales role with target metrics set close to 80+ calls/day and roughly two hours of talking time.

> Jamplify - Community Manager

I helped with customer support related for beta testing and generated analytic insights that were converted into action points for clients to implement in their marketing campaigns. Additionally I oversaw user satisfaction and engagement within a multitude of campaigns while locating and engaging new fans. Initially, users(music fans) acted as promoters for local shows and were incentivized by VIP tickets and prize packages. However, it became clear that the analytics gathered on various artists, their on-sale campaigns, and the engagement with their advertising filled a need within the industry, so the team pivoted to make analytics the focal point of the product. I began teaching myself Ruby on Rails, HTML, and CSS at the time, and between freelance Wordpress design and some occasional mentorship from the lead developers, thus began my journey into software development.

My Background

Born and raised in New Jersey, I grew up dabbling in a dozen different sports (never football though, thanks mom) and ultimately settled on lacrosse and wrestling. The North East was (and is) a national powerhouses for wrestling, frequently sending their high school varsity athletes to top D1 programs. I started wrestling later than most of the guys on my team, so I focused on athleticism and nutrition over technique. I didn't predict the outcome, but this path was highly influential in creating who I am in this current stage of life.

A coach introduced me to Crossfit in 2010, and I earned my Level 1 Trainers certificate in September 2011. This path developed an intrinsically competitive, near-masochistic perspective on exercise, but I've finally found a proper and sustainable balance after a great deal of trial and error. However, my insane regimen did produce some benchmarks along the way, including a 5:16 mile and a 465lb deadlift at the age of 19, weighing around 165-170lbs. My physical priorities decreased after entering college, as my focus shifted towards meeting people, exploring New York City, and having some fun in the five boroughs...

I pushed strength training and conditioning with my own programming for about two years before I hit a wall and injured myself, severely straining my lower back after completing a Crossfit workout twice with only a few minutes of rest in between workouts. Most injuries are a blessing in disguise, as it reveals an error in calibrating recovery windows, and exposes issues in mobility and positional strength. I took a step back to think about my goals, and I shifted to a hybridized powerlifting + conditioning program.

I studied entrepreneurship at Fordham, which allowed for me to follow more of a unique course structure than other majors in the business school. I was cycling through internships every 6 months or so (in addition to a long-term internship at Jamplify) throughout the latter half of my time at Fordham, and through that, I gained some base experience in practically every type of technology you could utilize on a computer. I was able to take Information Systems and Philosophy courses while enrolled in the business school, and I worked with custom Wordpress themes, Google's Adwords/Adroll/Analytic platform, Ruby on Rails, HTML, CSS, SQL, and Adobe Illustrator.

After graduating from college, I moved to San Diego with my partner Julianne, who I met halfway through our time at Fordham. She opened up Warby Parker's first retail location in San Diego, while I was hoping to develop my technical skills and knowledge of exercise science. After some research, I found David Miller, co-owner and head weightlifting coach at Crossfit Fortius, who holds a USAW-L4 certification and won Gold at the 2013 PanAms in the 69kg weight class. This relationship began my journey into olympic weightlifting, and the community within the gym became my home while living in San Diego.

I did not have good luck entering the biotech industry in San Diego, so despite physical growth, I felt unstimulated and was approaching the brink of a small existential crisis. I needed a meaningful career path, and I wanted to create- anything really, whether it was art, music, writing, or something else. We turned our sights to San Francisco, and in just a few weeks I received more interviews than months of job searching in San Diego. Julianne and I both committed to software development as our respective career path. We had different reasonings, but ultimately felt stagnant and jaded with our outlook on a future in marketing, retail, or sales. With programming, we realized it was possible to uniquely blend creative desires with highly analytical, process-driven thinking, and it also allows the freedom to shift between industries and work remotely.

After a year dedicated to coding every day I am now working in both a technical and customer-facing capacity that I find incredibly fulfilling and intrinsically motivating.

In addition to finding a fulfilling skill set and a general career path, there are plenty of opportunities for physical growth in the Bay Area. Marin County is just north of San Francisco, a short bike ride across the Golden Gate Bridge. This was the birthplace of mountain biking. Previously it was unimaginable to foresee selling my car, commuting via bicycle, and learning the intricacies of the sprawling trails in Marin. I feel like a maturing embryo on the mountain compared to some of the leathered and sun-burnt retirees who have been bombing up and down the mountains for decades, yet it feels absolutely incredible to get out there, away from the digital metropolis that is the Bay Area.

I am happy to call this unique environment my home for the foreseeable future. I was struck by a car last Fall, and after a year of more generalized weightlifting I'm prepared to return to an olympic weightlifting program.

When I'm not breaking things and rebuilding them on the computer, you can find me biking around Marin, playing guitar, enjoying a long weightlifting session, out at a club or venue, or spending time with friends and family. I've played electric guitar since I was 13 and have attended 500+ concerts over the last eight years, spanning nearly every imaginable genre. All of my endeavors are fueled by passion and coffee.