About the Builder
I spent 20 years building everyone else's dreams. Then I started building my own.
If you're here, you probably know what it's like to be brilliant at executing — and exhausted by never having time for your own vision. Here's my story.
Origin story
From data systems to side projects.
I grew up in Mercer, Pennsylvania — a small town that gave me big curiosity. I studied computer engineering at the University of Florida, then started my career at Siemens building data systems for Northrop Grumman and Electric Boat. The data was never clean, the edge cases were real, and the customer didn't care why it was hard.
Then I moved to California for my dream job at Google. At DoubleClick, I sat at the intersection of engineering, product, and business — partnering with the world's largest agencies to shape their digital marketing strategy. That's where the "engineer whisperer" skill was built: aligning outcomes, constraints, and timing so teams ship and customers win.
From there, I kept choosing roles where the hard parts mattered. Neustar. SoftBank Robotics. Andela. At Heap, I became a Principal Product Manager — the highest IC level — and led a database migration that recovered $5M in lost revenue and delivered $2M+ in annual cost savings. Contentsquare acquired us. Same place, more chaos, bigger scope.
And I thought: "Why am I using these frameworks at work to ship products worth millions, but staring at a blank page when I try to build my own thing?"
So I adapted them. RICE scoring for idea validation. JTBD for product scoping. Sprint planning for building. Funnel engineering for launch.
Three businesses later, I realized: this isn't just my story. It's a playbook. And it works for anyone who knows how to build but has never built for themselves.
That's what The Ship It System is.
The Track Record
Highlights from the last decade.
At work. On the side. In the desert. On a glacier. A flamingo, a documentary, a dozen products — all shipped while holding a full-time PM role.
Burnfriends
Fitness shouldn't feel like work — an app that turns exercise into a social game
Joel Aumakua
Personalized in-home stretch therapy — making recovery and mobility accessible
Lan Global
A global ecosystem bridging East and West through wellness, capital, and culture
The Ship It System
20 years of PM frameworks turned into a playbook anyone can use to ship
Ready to ship your thing?
The Ship It System takes 20 years of PM frameworks and puts them in your hands — so you can go from idea to first sale to PMF in 90 days, on 7 hours a week.