Why read this?

I'm Jon, sometime London-based tech-leader. I've been working the UK web-scene for nearly two-decades.

I'll be writing about software development edge-cases I deem interesting, and I'll be giving my own view on building a startup in the UK in the current environment.

If you're interested in the tech-side: I've got experience throughout the tech stack:

Infrastructure

From bash scripting a WordPress deployment through to managing international-scale Data Collection systems on the biggest cloud platforms with Pulumi & Terraform.

Web Frontend

Before there was Next.js, I co-authored a framework for bundling & hot-reloading isomorphic React.js apps, I've built e-commerce sites in two days, publishing sites that reach millions of users, and I've encountered every front-end edge case you can imagine. (Try rendering 3D in the IE, or debugging memory issues in the original Kindle Fire web-browser).

Apps

I've built an award-winning app featured by Apple, I've built a national-news featured app in React Native in a week, and I'm currently interested in truly cross-platform code-bases - building iOS & Android apps with 90% of the code used to build your site. I've been doing this for around six months with Tamagui & Solito, and I think there are only a handful of sites as advanced as Ashore.io doing this.

Startup Life

In startup world, I'm a long-time listener, first time caller. I got my first job in tech on Hacker News, but waited 15 years before taking the plunge properly. In many ways I'm a traditional startup founder candidate: double university drop-out with a tech background, beard, and glasses - but one thing I'd like to talk about more is the understanding gap many people face who haven't been exposed to entreprenuership, fundraising, investment, mentorship, or general professional development - I'm passionate about the idea that the UK has thousands of entreprenuers lying in wait - held back by old ideas about what a career looks like, who gets access to financial investment - and a blind spot about how to get going.