Engineering

Background

Hi! I’ll be Kyle (number two).

I’m a MT native (natural born bear wrestler), but I currently live in Tacoma, WA. My wife, Rachel, and I met there in college, moved to Seattle for nearly a decade, then came back to the promised land for space, her work, and in-laws.

I started my career in Seattle Big Tech. The Amazon Kool Aid was very good and has stuck with me. Great mentorship helped. After a stint at Google, I moved on to startups and found that I love

1. growing with and building a company
2. working across functions
3. knowing customers
4. moving fast

I stepped into people leadership to fill needs at Karat and ngrok, leading ngrok’s Engineering org for over three years. Now, after a sojourn into solopreneurship, a Mini MBA, and exploring some cofounding roles, I’ve found my next great home at Fay.

Outside work, I like to build things (photos below), read, walk our dog (Poppy, goodest girl in the world), cook, travel with Rachel, read more, and exercise/run (the latter with Tacoma Runners where I’m a board member).

My favorite meals

• Big Green Egg: I love grilling and smoking year round. The BGE is my go-to for easy and delicious food.
• Multi-course, full bottle of wine: it’s a cuisine. A trip to Italy ~7 years ago left a huge impression on how I like my meals to “flow”.
• Pizza and a beer: it’s basically the cuisine of Tacoma, and I’ve come to love it.

What I’ve been learning about lately

• The usual “things about building great software”:
  • Core 4/Accelerate
  • jj
  • devcontainers
  • MLOps
• “My body”
  • Gymnastics
    • Elbow levers
    • Muscle-ups
    • Back/front levers
  • Runner training schedules
  • Better sleep
• Good decision making and governance
  • Thinking in Bets
  • The Politics Industry

Get to know me a little better