Built Different. On Purpose.

Building Technology Before I Could Drive

My career in technology didn't start with a degree — it started in middle school. Between 8th grade and high school, I began working with the technology director at Kingsway Regional School District, building computer labs, imaging machines, crimping Cat5 cables, and managing network infrastructure. By high school, I was working in the technology department during my study halls instead of taking electives, and hired as paid staff during summers. I built automated Windows XP deployment images, installed rack servers, configured SAN and NAS storage, managed phone systems, and maintained a district-wide VCR distribution system. This was production infrastructure serving an entire school district — at 14.

At 16, before I could drive, I was building websites, SaaS platforms, and marketing materials for National Paintball Supply during the dot-com boom. Not student projects — real business systems for a real company, generating real revenue.

First Venture

I launched Absolute Rides in my early twenties — years before Shopify existed and while Amazon was still primarily a bookstore. It was a 10,000-SKU e-commerce auto parts operation with dropship fulfillment across the US. I never warehoused a single product, but the internet presence made us look like a major operation. That presence attracted car dealerships who began sourcing rims and accessories in bulk for new inventory. What started as a consumer retail play became a B2B relationship-driven business. The foundational insight: visibility creates opportunity, often from directions you don't anticipate.

14 Years Across Three Industries

From 2002 to 2016, I operated an independent technology consultancy serving organizations across education, beauty and wellness, and law enforcement. This wasn't venture-backed sprints — it was sustained, client-facing work that required understanding how fundamentally different organizations evaluate, adopt, and resist technology.

That cross-industry fluency became my most significant competitive advantage. Building systems for school districts, a multi-location salon and spa operation, and police departments develops a pattern-recognition capability that single-industry specialists don't have. You learn to distinguish between solutions that survive contact with real users and solutions that only survive a pitch deck.

Engineering Meets Entrepreneurship

I've been in the tattoo industry for over 20 years. At Rowan University, I combined that passion with engineering — designing a next-generation tattoo machine in SolidWorks, building prototypes, and competing in Rowan's Business Plan Competition where I placed second. The brand I built around the concept, Hydravolve, ranked at the top of search results for tattooing before a physical shop ever existed. In 2011, I opened Hydravolve Studios, applying the same playbook I'd used in tech: engineer the product, build the brand digitally, then commercialize.

In 2018, I launched Valhalla Artworks under sole ownership — building on every operational lesson from Hydravolve with full creative and business control. It remains open and consistently top-rated. Running these businesses proved something I'd always believed: the fundamentals of building a great company are the same whether you're writing code or running a shop floor. Product quality, brand positioning, operational discipline — it all transfers.

Scrypster

In 2018, I founded Scrypster as a technology consultancy and education platform. The YouTube channel grew to 10K+ subscribers, the SaaS development practice took on clients across industries, and it became the vehicle through which I built in public — sharing real engineering knowledge with a growing audience while running production projects for real organizations.

From Developer to Director in 30 Days

A national SaaS company brought me on as a developer. Within 30 days, I was Director of Engineering. The promotion wasn't political — it was operational. I identified critical architectural gaps, proposed a restructuring plan, and demonstrated the technical leadership the organization needed.

Over the next several years, I scaled that engineering team from 5 to 25 across distributed locations, managed the full AWS infrastructure, and built the technical foundation behind a national SaaS platform. When the company went through a major bank acquisition, I led the engineering organization through the transition.

NPS-AID: National Public Safety Infrastructure

Online Policing Solutions built NPS-AID — the National Public Safety Alert & Information Database. The platform integrates directly into the systems law enforcement already uses — CAD, 911 dispatch, patrol records — to surface critical information about disabled and vulnerable individuals before officers make contact.

NPS-AID is the digital evolution of the Blue Envelope program: real-time, CAD-integrated, covering all disabilities, and deployed across 31 states with 600+ law enforcement agencies. OPS maintains federal partnerships with the FBI and DHS. Where paper programs create awareness, this platform creates actionable intelligence at the point of encounter.

This is the intersection of everything I've built over two decades — the cross-industry perspective, the platform architecture expertise, the understanding of how law enforcement actually operates. Technology that fundamentally changes how officers interact with vulnerable people during the moments that matter most.

Board & Advisory Roles

I serve on the board of Online Policing Solutions and maintain advisory relationships across the public safety technology sector.

Beyond the Work

Outside of technology and business, I'm a competitive USPSA shooter. I believe the strongest leaders maintain a deliberate practice of curiosity — across disciplines, not just within their domain. I'm direct, I'm strategic, and I build things that matter.