I’ve been leading engineering teams and building software for over two decades, and there’s still so much to learn.
I built the engineering team that helped Gopuff become Philadelphia’s beloved unicorn startup. Currently at Swiftly.com, I’m working to counter the damage done by the ‘winner-take-most’ mentality of overfunded startups. I believe regional grocery stores should thrive—we can do better than discount stores and dark kitchens.
I love taking the train to New York. It’s one of the few places left where you can strike up a genuine conversation with a complete stranger—or so I thought. The other day, waiting on the platform for the NYC train, I fell into conversation with a friendly, grey-haired man who turned out to be a biology professor. We swapped stories about our kids: his son was diving into Python for machine learning, my daughter was studying virology. One of those lovely, serendipitous encounters that makes me appreciate Philadelphia. ...
Does my marriage need more FHIR? I read this as being solicited to spice up my marriage. Wildly inappropriate for LinkedIn 😂. (FHIR is pronounced “fire”) Originally I added my ‘Marriage to Jen’ in my LinkedIn work history as a private joke. Almost immediately it was effective in filtering sales and recruiting calls to let me know they had actually read my profile. I’m keeping it because now it’s helping me find the bots. ...
My 89 year old Dad got beat by a younger team of 70 year olds. Dad called me today. His team, Ponza United got bested by Denver at the Florida classic. He said Denver had lots of people on the young side and “They could run” Genetics definitely play a role in his continued ability to compete (Thanks again Mom for my celiac and asthma!) but he was a lifelong advocate of never missing a game. From the time I was young he trained multiple times a week and I even remember an argument when my sister wanted to get married on game day. His priority was to maintain a lifelong habit of training, and I watched that habit become stronger through the decades. ...
The legendary W. Edwards Deming once said “A bad system will beat a good person every time.” Playing Batman: Arkham Shadow recently, this quote kept resonating as I watched Commissioner Gordon - a dedicated public servant - struggle against Gotham’s broken system. This made me reflect on what effective executive sponsorship really looks like. Early in my career at Comcast, I experienced transformative sponsorship. Our development team needed Macs for coding (this was pre-WSL - yes, I’m dating myself here). Corporate policy prohibited Macs on the network. Instead of telling us to “make do,” or intentionally violating corporate IT policy, our executive sponsor recognized the systemic barrier and took action. They funded and built a parallel network infrastructure that enabled our success. Our team went on to deliver exceptional results because we were properly empowered. ...
Over a month ago, my journey with gopuff came to an end. It took me longer than expected to process all the emotions and think about what to do next. I poured myself into building our industry-defining, vertically integrated, quick commerce business. The first few years were the most productive of my professional career, and I enjoyed every minute. I didn’t feel the need to write a farewell post. It was, however, an excellent set of lessons for my children. The top ones were ‘don’t count your chickens (I believed I could retire on the equity)’ and don’t sacrifice your quality of life for a business. No matter how much they tell you they respect and need you, it’s not the same sentiment as I get from the kids when college tuition payments roll around 😃. ...