I love creating solutions that solve a pain point.
Builder first. Leader because the building demanded it.
I've been writing software for more than twenty years and leading teams for the last eight. The transition wasn't a career ladder move. It happened because the systems I was building got big enough that the bottleneck stopped being code and started being people, priorities, and clarity about what we were actually trying to do.
That path runs from co-founding a studio, to consulting for Metro Detroit businesses, to principal engineer, to CTO. The throughline never changed: find the real problem, ship to production, and teach the people around me to do the same. The clearest proof came most recently, when my team turned a twenty-year-old communications platform into an AI-powered business by teaching the people already there, including non-engineers, to build the tools that automate their own work. It proved the thesis I now teach: you don't need a research lab to ship AI that does real work. You need a guide, an operating practice, and a team willing to fish.
Outside the day job I co-organize Detroit TechWatch, hold a charter membership in the vCon Foundation, speak on the conference circuit, and write the AI Bytes newsletter. The common thread is the same conviction: the gap between AI ambition and working software is smaller than the industry wants you to believe.
How I'm wired
I start with the problem, not the tool
Before anything else, I hunt for the real problem and the pain it causes. My audit style is comparing what the documentation promises against what the implementation actually does, and finding the incomplete loops: the bunny holes where a plan promises something the build never closes. That's where projects quietly die, and it's usually a hole nobody mapped.
I'm a systems thinker
I understand application architecture, how the pieces fit together, and how the people around them work together to create solutions. That lets me reason about a whole system end to end and see where value is being created or quietly lost.
I speak both languages
Twenty years as an engineer, eight leading teams. I can talk architecture with engineers and business outcomes with CEOs in the same meeting without losing either audience. That bridge is the job.
I ship fast with a quality floor
Move fast and fix what breaks, not move fast and break things. There is a difference. I ship to production quickly, iterate in the open, and never leave a known quality gap unaddressed.
The path
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2025 – today
Chief Technology Officer, Clarity Voice
Accountable for engineering, platform operations, and AI product direction at a communications company serving franchises, restaurants, and auto dealerships. Took a twenty-year VoIP platform and built a conversation intelligence layer on top of it by teaching the team already there, including non-engineers, to build the tools that automate the busywork and level up everything else they do.
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2022 – 2025
Director of Technology and Development, Clarity Voice
Made the jump from principal engineer to leading the whole engineering org. Kept writing production code the entire time, because the best architecture conversations happen when the person drawing the boxes still ships.
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2021 – 2022
Senior Full Stack Developer, Intrepid Control Systems
Helped transform large monolithic software products into lean microservices for an automotive tooling company. A reminder that decomposition is a people problem wearing a software costume.
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2013 – 2021
Application Developer to Principal Engineer, Clarity Voice
Joined as a developer, became principal engineer in 2017. A decade of building the systems I would later be accountable for, which is the kind of context you cannot hire for.
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2010 – 2013
Web and Application Developer, Concise Computer Consulting
Built web and software work for Metro Detroit businesses and sharpened the craft. A lot of what I know about serving local companies started here.
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2000 – 2010
Co-founder and Application Developer, SiteWorks Studio
Co-founded a studio and built the work for a decade. Where the love of building became a craft and a business: shipping real software for real clients, long before it was my title anywhere else.
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2000
“Get a computer, we’re going into the computer business”
My dad called out of nowhere: “Mike, get a computer, we’re going into the computer business.” What he really meant was that he’d learned to build websites. I spent a week in New York with him and his girlfriend, a graphic designer, and found my passion. I’ve always gravitated toward building. I love creating things, especially things that are useful.
Want the longer version?
The fastest way to know how I think is to hear me talk about something we shipped, or ask me about yours.