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I am a self-taught full-stack programmer, and a self-starting entrepreneur through and through. After 7 years as a programmer, over 70 successful web development projects, and 2 startups, I have learned to love the challenge of developing new businesses. My motto - “Reach for the heavens, with conviction and without excuse.”
I have built 2-sided platforms, rating/review systems, chatrooms, location API integrations, referral systems, payment/payout integrations, reservation systems... I have done events, sales, marketing, user tests, recruiting... whatever called upon to build a product and ultimately a successful business. All self-taught, bootstrapped, and using lean startup methodologies.
Overcoming every technical challenge from malicious hackers to obscure Japanese IT products, never missing a deadline and always on a shoestring budget, I have earned the right to say with confidence - I make it happen.
Founder, CEO, Developer - Bazuru Feb 2018 - Present
Tokyo, Japan
Bazuru is a referral system for local offline shops. I built an MVP in 2 months and iterated rapidly to reach the current product within 1 year. Spending a total of under $2,000USD and going through a hard pivot midway, this startup was a true test of resourcefulness, perseverance, and hustle.
- Built a referral system for local offline shops by generating custom links and QR codes for easy sharing. Integrations also included Twilio’s API, SNS sharing APIs, and payment APIs for our SaaS business model.
- Utilized lean methodologies including face-to-face user testing and A/B testing via paid ads to rapidly optimize UI flows throughout the website.
- Successfully did sales and networking to build our first cohort of users in our target demographics, and to build partnerships with marketing firms and experts with access to our target demographics.
- Built an effective and repeatable content marketing strategy that simultaneously grew our online reach and tightened our direct relationships with current users.
Founder, CEO, Developer - Musby Jan 2016 – Dec 2017
Kobe, Japan
Musby is a 2-sided online marketplace for matching passionate professionals with students. We successfully grew our user count to over 200 and our SNS follower count to over 400 before succumbing to competition from Meetup.com and Airbnb Experiences.
- Built a 2-sided marketplace with payment/payout integration, a reservation system, location API integration, chatroom, review and rating system, as well as other features and integrations.
- Led weekly social events of an average 10~20 participants to grow our community and gain feedback.
- Recruited 3 highly talented professionals with design, marketing, and finance skills and experience.
Vice President, Developer – Self Achieve Feb 2012 – Dec 2015
Kobe, Japan
Self Achieve is an IT firm that helps SMB clientele develop their online presence – including websites, SNS profiles, SEO, and more. Clientele were all non-English speaking Japanese businesses, who I communicated closely with in order to successfully complete over 70 projects, never once missing a deadline. I started by working for free for 6 months, and on a part-time salary for another 6 months while honing my web development skills from zero. By the end I became a very talented and battle-hardened full-stack programmer. I’ve successfully dealt with malicious hackers, Outlook Express compatibility, IE6 compatibility, ancient server setups, obscure Japanese IT products… I’ve seen it all.
- Successfully completed widely varying projects, many requiring quickly learning new programs and languages such as Adobe Flash, WordPress and their plugins, EC-CUBE the Japanese e-commerce platform, as well as countless jQuery plugins and API service integrations.
- Built multiple completely custom CMS systems for networks of websites to consolidate data and manage employee workflows.
- Built and retained relationships and reputation as an extremely efficient and reliable programmer.
