About — the journey
The short version: a CS degree, then a year of ventures, then the honest conclusion about where I do my best work. The longer version is below — it’s the answer to the interview question before it’s asked.
The degree
Computer science taught me the machinery: how systems fit together, what good engineering looks like, what it costs when it's bad. I got deep enough to build real things end to end — and deep enough to know that writing code forever wasn't the seat I wanted.
What stuck wasn't the syntax. It was the ability to sit with engineers, follow the real conversation, and tell the difference between a hard problem and an excuse.
The ventures
Then a year running my own ventures. It started as Elevatin, a web agency. It became Ringa — an AI voice agent that answers a tradie's missed calls and books the job — and grew into Shujo Studio, a design studio with its own CRM under the hood. Along the way: a component library on npm, an AI-powered lead-qualification tool, and Driftless, a habit app with a Claude-powered companion, built end to end on Expo to App Store readiness.
Three identities in a year wasn't indecision — it was one offer being sharpened against real market feedback. And the hardest lesson was the most valuable: the systems worked, the selling was the actual job. Product is table stakes; distribution, pricing and positioning decide the outcome. I learned to price retainers, script discovery calls, run outreach — and to respect sales as a skill, not a byproduct of good software.
The turn
So this isn't an engineer drifting away from engineering. It's a deliberate bet, made with the evidence in hand: the most useful person in the room over the next decade is the one who can direct technology and own a commercial outcome at the same time. Mid-2026 I parked the studio — parked, not abandoned — and pointed everything at commercial, product and BD roles.
The prep is deliberate too: unit economics, product frameworks, the vocabulary of P&L rooms — fluency earned the same way the technical depth was. The ventures stay live as proof, and shipping remains a habit I don't intend to lose.