Phoenix, Arizona · 20 years shipping
I write the product.Then I write what it runs on.
Twenty years an engineer, the last ten as a CTO or founder. I’ve taken companies from a blank repo to an acquisition, grown engineering teams from one person to ten, and shipped products that carry more than a hundred thousand people.
On nights and weekends I write multiplayer netcode, browser renderers, and binary serializers. Systems work is the part of the craft I care most about.
The engineer
Deep TypeScript, and every layer beneath it. Rollback netcode with binary state sync at 60fps. WebGL and WebGPU renderers. A zero-dependency schema serializer. A working computer built from cellular automata. I take on the problems where no library exists yet.
The founder
Zero to one, repeatedly: seven companies, two exits, one acquisition. I’ve shipped a first version in four days, and I’ve built the version that carries a hundred thousand members.
The CTO
One engineer to ten, twice. I hire, set the architecture, carry the pager, and give the board an accurate picture. I still write code every week, which keeps my technical judgement current.
github.com/dested
Ten years of commits. Twenty years of engineering.
Every square is a day of commits. Ten years of startup work and side projects, all of it public.
13,544 contributions2,576 days with a pushlongest streak 34 daysbusiest day 115 on 2026-07-27
Real contribution data from github.com/dested, fetched on the server and cached daily. Last synced 2026-07-28.
LessMore
Companies
Seven companies. Two exits.
2023–now
Clever Benefits CTO & cofounder
The Clever model built for employers: healthcare benefits that cost less and are easier to understand. More than 100,000 members on the platform today.
Current100,000+ members2023
DimeADozen.AI Founder
An LLM that stress-tests a business idea and returns a structured validation report. MVP in four days, revenue in the first week.
Exited40,000+ reportsMVP in 4 days2021–24
QuickGa.me Founder
A browser-based 3D multiplayer game engine that teaches kids to build games: WebGL and WebGPU rendering, Monaco for students writing code and Blockly for those starting visually. Y Combinator W20 applicant.
Lives on as GameCreatorsClub.com2019–20
DoubleDates Founder
A matchmaker for couples: you and your partner matched with another couple. React Native on a serverless backend, built and launched single-handedly.
Shut down2018–23
Clever Rx / Clever Health CTO & cofounder
Prescription savings applied at the pharmacy counter. I built the platform, the apps, and the engineering team from nothing, and stayed through the exit.
Exited2016–19
STYR Labs CTO
Personalized nutrition across software and hardware: an app, a connected scale, and custom BLE hardware designed in-house. I grew engineering from one person to ten and shipped firmware and cloud services on the same schedule.
Hardware + platform shippedEng 1 → 102015–16
HealthiestYou VP, Architecture
Telemedicine before it was an established category. I owned the architecture and built the WebRTC video layer that connected patients to doctors.
Acquired by Teladoc · $180M
Projects
Engines, games, and infrastructure.
2026
Untangleuntangle.gg
Drag the dots until no two lines cross — faster than everyone else, while they wreck your board.
2026
Shellquestshellquest.dested.com
The terminal dungeon crawler for engineers. Play while your code compiles.
2026
Subpixelsubpixel.dested.com
A level-generation and agent competition on a deterministic, subpixel-accurate platformer engine.
2026
Factorio Toolsfactorio.dested.com
Lua mods and scenarios, plus seven rendered mapshots of finished factories — 292 hours across five worlds, read straight from each save.
2021
AnyCardGameanycardgame.dested.com
One engine, any deck: describe the rules and play card games online with friends.
2020
Emote.Bingoemote.bingo
A Twitch extension that turns chat emotes into a bingo card the whole stream plays at once.
2018
Social War Gamessocialwargames.com
A faction war fought by everyone at once on a single shared hex map, resolved on a schedule with nothing running between turns.
live · wireworld rules
2016
Wireworld Automatawireworld.dested.com
A computer built from cellular automata, running in the browser. Four states and one rule, assembled into gates, registers, and a clock. JavaScript first, then WebASM, then WebGPU for higher cell counts.
2012
Oursonicoursonic.org
A Genesis-faithful Sonic engine and level editor in the browser. I reverse-engineered the original ROM’s tile, chunk, and collision formats and rebuilt the physics to match the source material.
Writing · casualdeveloper.net
Recent writing.
Binary state over the wire at 60fps
Why JSON does not hold up in a 60fps game loop, and what a hand-rolled ArrayBuffer protocol provides instead.
Running my own Render on a $30 AWS box
Building drydock: ECS on a single ARM instance, one shared Postgres, and a deploy flow that runs off a git push.
The wartime CTO playbook
How I decide what to cut when the runway is short and the team needs a clear answer.
Let’s talk.
I’m looking for my next role — Principal or Staff IC, Director, or CTO. If you’re building something technically demanding, I’d like to hear about it.
sal@dested.comDownload resume ↓Phoenix, AZ · remote friendly