Company Info for cofactordigital.com | IcebreakerMembers
Close to 30 years as a professional technologist, during which I have gained extensive experience in new product development at leading edge companies. I have led effective and innovative software development organizations, establishing strong business relationships and rapidly understanding new and complex businesses. I have extensive experience leveraging operations and technology solutions resulting in revenue growth, decreased expenses and increased service levels. Years of professional consulting and leadership experience, open-source credibility, charisma and reputation make it easy for me to attract top-notch tech talent to my teams.
I am most proud of my role as CTO on the founding team of Andela, one of the biggest and most successful African startups in history, now operating in over 110 countries.
I am most famous as the author of best-selling Ruby on Rails books, a little less so as the original founder of Hashrocket, which during its heyday, was one of the worldʼs most admired web design & development shops. As its Founder & CEO, I grew Hashrocket to over 35 employees and almost $7M in revenues in 2010, before selling my stake in order to work on product-driven startups.
Specialties: Entrepreneurship, Sales, Software Development, technical writing, Agile coaching, test-driven development, framework development, JavaScript, Ruby/Ruby on Rails-related technology, web application design and implementation. Business strategy, venture/angel fundraising, client services, education, consulting, product management and strategy, product marketing, operational efficiency... 
I’m a seasoned global entrepreneur, startup founder, CEO, advisor, and investor with multiple prominent exits and three decades of experience shaping the digital marketing, advertising, ad tech, and digital nomad industries since the Dot Com era.
My entrepreneurial journey in the digital age began in 1996, and since then have bootstrapped, founded, scaled and sold industry leading digital marketing, advertising and AdTech companies piggybacking on the success of top internet media pioneers such as Yahoo, DoubleClick, Google, and Facebook during their formative years.
From Web1 to Web3, I’ve always caught the next wave early, recently diving into AI, blockchain, and other transformative technologies.
In 2003 and 2004, we were among the earliest in the industry to develop SAAS-based ad tech bidding and optimization software for search engine marketing through our partner company, SearchIgnite. We were one of the first in the industry to utilize AI and machine learning algorithms back in 2004 with sophisticated genetic learning algorithms to optimize campaign performance for large-scale ad campaigns across houndeds of thousands of keywords and billions of dollars in annual ad spend.
Throughout my career, I’ve spoken at over 100 conferences worldwide, especially in the U.S., sharing insights as an industry expert.
In 2017, I relocated to Portugal after several years of global nomadic travel. I’m now deeply involved with the Algarve Tech Hub incubator—Algarve’s number one incubator—and Algarve Evolution, which hosts tech events across the region.
My mission is to foster entrepreneurship and innovation in the Algarve by showcasing top Algarve startups, helping early-stage startups grow and positioning the region as a global startup hub beyond its reputation as a tourist destination.
I’m especially proud of NomadX winning Portugal’s Most Innovative Tourism Award for the Digital Nomads Madeira Island Project 2022, recognizing our work in building and supporting the digital nomad community.
Company culture has always been close to my heart, and my companies have been recognized for their people-first approach, earning accolades for Healthiest Places to Work, Best Places to Work, and Best Commuter Program.
As an adventure travel enthusiast, I’m passionate about long-distance trekking, snowboarding, mountain climbing, and multi-week pilgrimages. This sense of exploration drives my entrepreneurial spirit, and I love helping bootstrapped entrepreneurs find success by exploiting niches that larger companies overlook.
