Companies

Games/Entertainment

Since POMDP is actually my own company, I did not really "join" it, but instead resurrected it for a new idea. I started the POMDP company years before for consulting work, but now used it to advance a game idea I had been thinking about since 2017. This idea was for an online word game which I named Plates Across America^®. I developed this in my spare time and got some traction with the small bootstrap budget I had from past consulting work.

I decided on a pivot with the original game. Though thousands of people had played it, only a few dozen were willing to pay for it. With the accumulated feedback and a fair bit of hindsight, I conceived of a new version of the game which focused on the core game play features and which would open it up to a broader audience. I needed to build this new version from the ground up as it would include a true mobile app version for iOS and Android devices. As of mid 2024, I had released the first version of the new game: Words Across America^™.

Travel/Marketplace

For my next opportunity, I was looking for work flexibility. Pre-pandemic, it would have been hard to find a management role allowing remote work. The RVshare opportunity was both the perfect fit for my skills, management experiences and interests as well as offering the perfect level of flexible work options. RVshare was a startup in the "tweener" years needing to mature its processes and move toward building to scale. They had a strong, experienced management team, good financial backing and a great technical foundation to build on.

I spent the first few years focused on growing and maturing the software engineering team, though my position also came with IT responsibilities. As the company grew so did the IT responsibilities and a need to get more serious about information security. My day-to-day work transformed to focus more on IT and security, neither of which I had passion for. By this time, since I had accomplished most of my goals for the engineering team, I decided it was time for a new challenge.

Legal Technology

The company was strongly positioned to disrupt the legal technology space, had a great vision, great leadership and a very mature and skilled set of engineers.

The company was phenomenally successful while I was there: growing more than 4X. Though the company was still well positioned to grow more, my day-to-day experience was becoming less fulfilling. After more than 3 years, I decided it was time to find the next opportunity.

Practice Management

A colleague of mine had a promising business idea and was passionate about pursuing it. Having been impressed with her work, and with her complementary skill set, we formed a partnership to pursue this opportunity.

We successfully built the first version of the product, but were struggling to get some traction in the market. This, combined with some life changes we were both experiencing, resulted in us deciding to put this effort on hold.

Consumer Generated Content

I was hired for an undefined role with the opportunity to "figure it out". Having been impressed with the hiring manager and seeing the potential of the company's data for expanded businesses, it seemed like an interesting opportunity. I decided to take the risk to see where it would lead.

A better opportunity came along (DISCO).

Comparison Shopping Engine

Former colleagues of mine had formed a business that was going to be acquired by a larger company (IAC) for the purpose of leveraging their technology for different domain. My faith in their technical abilities, combined with the business model and financial backing of a large company, made this the best start-up offer I had seen to date.

After a successful run to profitability and a fairly high valuation, the brittleness of the business model started to show. Each algorithmic change Google made to their search results would impact the bottom line. Eventually, the parent company decided to consolidate Pronto with a few of its other businesses.

Research

I had been collaborating with a Professor at UT Austin on my thesis topic of models for decision making. He offered me a fellowship for a semester to join him and his students to further this work. The work was super interesting and the timing of this offer was perfect.

This was only a one semester appointment and I had already started working for a new start-up (Pronto) by the time the semester ended.

Consulting

This was part time work and an opportunity to collaborate with a former colleague whom I had enjoyed working with in the past. I set up an S-corp for this consulting work and named it POMDP, Inc.

As this is my own S-corp, I didn't really "leave", but the contract work was completed.

Education

I pursued a Ph.D. based originally on wanting to teach. Five years of graduate school opened my eyes to the realities of life at a research institution where teaching was often secondary to other faculty responsibilities. Thus, out of graduate school, I went into industry. I was lured to St. Edwards because they were a "teaching" university. It was a good opportunity and the timing was right for me to see how I might like a full-time teaching role.

The most rewarding part of teaching was bringing the perspective from my industry experiences to students and the curriculum. After a couple years in academia, the relevancy of that experience was diminishing. I decided to leave when a very good start-up opportunity came along.

Research

Former colleagues were interested in some work I had previously done and wanted to further the research with their new company. I was teaching at the time, so had the entire summer available to do something interesting. This was also an opportunity to help ground my teaching with some research and hands-on software development.

The research contract ended and I was just about to pursue another startup (Pronto).

Research

I've always enjoyed teaching and the start-up I was working for was looking less and less promising. I decided to teach a night class in Computer Science for the experience. This course was a grab bag of many different, very loosely connected topics, which which made it especially challenging to prep for and teach.

The amount of effort required to prep for a new course, provide meaningful assignments and quality exams is significant. This would not have been sustainable while working full-time at a new start-up.

Software Infrastructure

Shortly after my first start up had closed, an opportunity came up to work on some interesting technology with a former colleague whom I had admired as a manager.

The original business model was becoming less viable as the market shifted and the initial slide to the dot-com bust had begun. Then came the events of 9/11, and there was not enough to sustain the business.

Software Infrastructure

I was growing less confident in future of my current company, and the lure of start-ups in the dot-com days was highly palatable. Some colleagues and I were able to secure funding for an idea we had in the software infrastructure space.

We never got a second round of funding and the angel money ran out after a year.

Research

While nearing the end of graduate school, I was considering an offer from NASA in the Bay Area and a research position at MCC in Austin. The prestige of the former was fairly alluring, but the practicalities of the latter won the day. Having a family, the overall quality of life and affordability of Austin was hands-down better than the Bay Area (at the time).

As our 3 year research project at MCC was winding down, a couple co-workers and I were able to secure some angel investment for a startup idea.