Good to meet you. I'm Alex, a full-stack software engineer working remotely from Minnesota.
I'm a software engineer who is passionate about designing, building, and scaling web-based applications & systems.
In early 2017 I started Penmob, a platform that I built from scratch for writers to receive in-depth feedback from professional editors. As a side project, it has grown to become the home of over 6,000 pieces of writing advice and specific feedback.
I joined Envoy in early 2018 as a senior software engineer, where I primarily contributed to the core product's Ruby on Rails codebase with a bit of Elixir sprinkled on top.
From 2019 - October 2022, I worked as a senior software engineer at Udacity on the Growth & Payments team.
(my office mates, Ollie & Greebo)
After freelancing on a variety of projects (from web development to building prototypes for an Internet of Things startup), I left the Midwest to work at Vouch, a financial tech startup in San Francisco. I later moved back but continued to work for Vouch remotely as a full-time software engineer.
From 2016-2018, my co-founder and I ran Flipped Art, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that provided equitable access to the local arts community and education.
Through Flipped Art, we hosted community discussion forums, designed educational programs, and built a mobile makerspace with the goal of overcoming transportation barriers for under-served communities.
While helping to run the nonprofit, I started doing freelance software work as a remote engineer for MyCaseBuilder. Over time I transitioned into a more consistent role while I contributed to core features of their web application.
It was also around that time that I started building out the first iteration of what would later become Penmob, my ongoing side project for writers and professional editors to share in-depth writing feedback. Over Penmob's lifetime, editors have collectively provided writers with over 6,000 pieces of specific feedback to improve their blog posts, short stories, and novels.
In early 2018 I joined Envoy as a senior software engineer. I collaborated across teams to ship new projects and undertake large refactors of the Rails codebase. I was the lead developer and primary stakeholder for introducing multi-language capabilities to the core product.
At Udacity, I primarily worked on building and maintaining their Payments systems using React and Ruby on Rails.
I have undergrad majors in Computer Science, Mathematics, and Writing from Drake University.
Penmob takes the experience of participating in an in-person writing workshop and puts it online.
Penmob is a web application built with Node.js, VueJS, MongoDB, and Firebase. It wound down in 2020 as I refocused my energy toward other projects.
Penmob provided a comprehensive editing experience for beginner and aspiring writers: professional editors are prompted to have deep conversations around a manuscript, and writers get feedback from a diverse set of perspectives.
(an editing example on Penmob)
The cohort of professional freelance editors grew to 40+ members. They have collectively left over six thousand pieces of qualitative feedback for writers.
In the summer of 2016 my co-founder and I started Flipped Art, a local 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
Our first step was hosting conversations with community leaders and local artists in order to learn as much as we could about the needs of people in the local art community.
Then we used our resources to build a mobile art studio, which brought art materials and educational programs to underserved communities.
An outside view of the Tiny Studio.
It also
opens up
and stores art materials.