John Wehr
The developer and leader behind products like Flavors.me and Goodsie.com.
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- Summary
I thrive in demanding environments that require tactical software development and strategic executive leadership.
As CTO of HiiDef between 2009 and 2012, I built Flavors.me, a website creation platform, and Goodsie.com, a social e-commerce platform. I assembled and led a fifteen person, geographically diverse, multidisciplinary team.
Launched in 2009, Flavors.me grew to more than a million active users with 142% growth in 2011. Goodsie.com, one of Business Insider's top startups of 2011, launched in April 2011 and hosts thousands of storefronts with 20% month over month growth in paid subscribers.
Prior to my role as CTO I worked as a contract developer in a wide array of verticals, including travel, supply chain management, health care, and gaming. I apply my diverse experience to leverage the best practices, processes, and ideas of each industry. I have provided robust solutions for global corporations such as Wal-Mart and custom software to emerging startups.
Experience- May 2012 - PresentCo-Founder, CTO / Tred
- Jan 2010 - Mar 2012Chief Technology Officer / HiiDef Inc, creators of Flavors.me and Goodsie.com
As CTO I scaled HiiDef from a bootstrapped startup into a thriving company.
During my time with HiiDef, Flavors.me grew from zero to one million active users, with 142% growth in 2011. Goodsie.com launched in April of 2011 and hosted thousands of storefronts a year later. It sustained a 20% month over month growth in paid subscribers, and was one of Business Insider's top startups of 2011.
While always an active code contributor, much of my time was spent working small groups through challenges, identifying bottlenecks, and setting milestones. Projects included growth drivers like internal funnel tracking, A/B testing frameworks, and social analytics tools.
I designed core technologies, managed day-to-day development, led company meetings, and established a unique hiring process for remote workers that brings candidates to real world problems. I introduced systems redundancy, emphasized unit tests and static analysis, accelerated deployments, and released technologies into the public domain.
In late 2010 I led a complete rebuild of the Goodsie codebase. Nearly all components of the site were redesigned. The new version launched in April 2011 as an unmatched e-commerce experience, built in a matter of months.
A year later I helped build a second version of Flavors.me, redefining the crowded space. I was responsible for the core technology behind innovative new features like real time stream processing, extracting non-linear updates from dozens of third-party services. I also developed tools to build a composite social graph spanning these same services, uniting users of disparate services on the Flavors.me platform.
- Dec 2008 - Jan 2010Consultant / Hii Def Inc.
Before becoming CTO of HiiDef, I worked as a consultant for the company.
I built the lauded front end experience and high performance spidering back end infrastructure using proven Python and Javascript technologies. Dozens of third party APIs were integrated, updating content in real time for hundreds of thousands of enthusiastic users.
Flavors.me has experienced sustained growth of its paid subscriber base, spawned countless imitators and remains a flagshop of the HiiDef portfolio.
- Mar 2009 - Dec 2009Consultant / Copay Solutions
Advised the company on general technology issues.
* Helped set up a development environment and automated deployment mechanisms
* Deployed multi-tiered file and database backups
* Reviewed legacy application code
* Guided static website design and development
* Advised on SEO strategy - Sept 2008 - Dec 2009Developer / Offbeat Guides
Developed a system to generate a customized travel guide in seconds. Guides are hundreds of pages long and incorporate dozens of data sources parsed in real-time. Decentralized and hosted on Amazon's Web Service stack, the cluster of machines is capable of producing tens of thousands of books per day at low cost.
* Twisted Python based web services that interface with dozens of data sources
* Highly redundant, AWS based cluster
* Parsing mechanisms for a broad variety of user-generated content
* Translation between several output formats - Aug 2006 - Jul 2009Founder / Who's Going, LLC
Who's Going helps you meet new people through events and activities.
* Seamlessly integrated geocoding and geolocation localize interaction
* Cutting edge social software features enable new methods of communication
* Analytical tools help consistently refine the site and push viral expansion
* Integration with a number of third party APIs help users post rich content
* Development and design best practices ensure a consistent, high-quality experience - Jul 2005 - Jul 2009Founder / Tagalag
Widely heralded web identity management tool allows user to "tag" each other by email address. Combined with geolocation data, Tagalag becomes a literal map of meta-information about people.
- Jan 2009 - Apr 2009Consultant / EurekaHire
Advised the company on general technology issues and helped coordinate an international team of developers.
* Helped set up a development environment and automated deployment mechanisms
* Recommended designers and assisted in design reviews
* Evaluated candidates as they joined the development team
Implemented broad Memcached based caching of SOAP web services
* Debugged and improved established PHP codebase - Apr 2006 - Jan 2009Founder / Zip-code-boundaries.com
Developed and marketed a ZIP Code boundary database and related software for use with mapping applications.
- 2007 - Dec 2008Lead Developer / BoredAt, Inc.
Boredat is an anonymous real-time communication application targeted at students. Popular at dozens of universities and content rich with millions of posts. Developed the entire technology stack, including:
* Innovative low-latency comet architecture
* Automated controls over scalable Amazon EC2 hosting
* Spam and abuse prevention tools
* Analytical tools to reveal usage patterns - Apr 2006 - Sept 2007Consultant / MSHC Partners, Inc.
Consulting the prominent political advertising group on e-commerce initiatives.
- May 2006 - Jun 2007Developer / Mochi Media
Periodically assist the rapidly expanding casual gaming advertising network with a variety of technological and marketing concerns.
- Nov 2004 - Jun 2007Developer / Mogopop/Talking Panda
Authored a Flash based iPod emulator for Talking Panda's iLingo translation products. Assisted with editing marketing materials. Maintained the company's online presence. Worked with Zondervan to port religious materials onto the iPod platform.
- Jan 2006 - Jan 2007Member, Board of Advisors / TailRank
Assisted with the leading internet meme-tracker's information architecture and design.
- Oct 2004 - Jun 2006Developer / Bobby McFerrin, Inc
Worked with the team at Bobby McFerrin, Inc to shift their Macromedia Flash based site to an open, community driven portal.
- Mar 2004 - Dec 2005Editor / Avisian, Inc
Developed and maintained a highly customized, Movable Type based CMS for Contactless News, CR80 News, RFID News and Secure ID News, each a leading publication in the automatic identification industry. Developed advertising inventory management systems, user management systems, and paid subscription services. Oversaw a massive architecture overhaul that sparked a substantial growth in traffic, with over 250,000 unique visitors in January of 2006.
- Jul 2003 - Dec 2005Founder and Editor / RFID News
Founded the leading RFID publication with more than 85,000 unique visitors in December of 2005. RFID News is an established thought-leader in the expanding and controversial industry. Affiliated with Avisian, Inc in March of 2004.
- Sept 2005 - Oct 2005Developer / California Chamber of Commerce
Worked with Blue River Interactive Group to develop Calchamber.com content.
- Aug 2005 - Aug 2005Developer / Apple, Inc.
Worked with Blue River Interactive Group to develop Apple's internal "Information Systems and Technology" website.
- Nov 2004 - Feb 2005Developer / Pheedo
Conceptualized and developed a PEAR and Smarty based PHP based advertising and billing system for a leading RSS and weblog advertising system.
- Oct 2004 - Jan 2005Developer / HomeValuesAndListings.com
Worked with Blue River Interactive Group to develop a PEAR and Smarty based PHP based real estate listing system linking prospective leads with agents. The system includes Authorize.net billing and authorization functionality.
- Apr 2003 - Dec 2004Developer / Donna Karan / LVMH
Developed and maintained the Spring, Fall and Winter 2003 "New York Stories" dkny.com websites as well as the Spring and Fall 2003 donnakaran.com websites. Built a PHP/MySQL based sweepstakes management system and produced all Flash content.
- Jul 2004 - Jul 2004Developer / Technorati
Developed online applications to assist in the manual and automated classification of weblogs. Created an aggregator that tracks linking patterns in political weblog communities.
- Nov 2002 - Feb 2004Founder / Memeufacture.com
Developed and designed the widely cited, Python based multi-language weblog aggregator. Memeufacture uses a combination of editorial selection and bi-hourly spidering to monitor topics from distinct online communities:
* Conservative Politics
* Liberal Politics
* Law
* Apple Computers
* Design
* Top Weblogs
* Persian Language - May 2002 - Aug 2003Developer / Masters of Branding
Developed Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) applications in Python, Visual Studio and Macromedia Flash for Fortune 50 companies. Installed and demonstrated RFID systems at Wal-Mart headquarters, as well as being a member of the installation group for the first ever live RFID smart shelf. Represented Masters of Branding at the June 2003 RFID summit in Chicago, Illinois. Created media and applications for L'Oreal Brands (Maybelline, L'Oreal Professionnel, Garnier Fructise, Matrix) Revlon, P&G, Coty, Prada, and International Paper, while working with large retailers such as Wal-Mart and CVS. Conducted retail audits for Coty, DKNY, and Prada.
- May 2001 - Aug 2001Developer / The Village Voice
Worked with a small web development team to produce the weekly Village Voice website, winner of the 2001 National Press Foundation's Excellence in Online Journalism Award.
- May 2000 - Aug 2000Developer / Oven Digital UK
Lead programmer in London for Oven's 'presentation tool' multinational project, integrating an Oracle database, Macromedia Generator and XML communication protocol. Primary internal rich media developer.
Education-
1998 - 2002Florida State UniversityB.S. in Computer Science
Additional Information-
Websites:
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Repositories
- 1 fork / 1 watcher / Pushed May 17, 12
- 1 fork / 1 watcher / Pushed May 09, 12
- CommonJS implementation of the DOM intended to be platform independent and as minimal/light as possible while completely adhering to the w3c DOM specifications.1 watcher / Pushed May 08, 12
- Creates a GUID based on a float so you can sort it by the GUID and maintain its order1 watcher / Pushed Jan 04, 12
- Amazon Web Services web crawler. DORMANT: see https://github.com/hiidef/hiispider5 forks / 20 watchers / Pushed Jul 20, 10
- Interactive data-driven views, built on top of JsRender templates32 forks / 338 watchers / Pushed May 29, 12
- Django OAuth 2.0 Server App. Please fork and improve!36 forks / 127 watchers / Pushed May 22, 12
- Django Shopping Cart for PayPal, Google Checkout, and Amazon Payments1 fork / 22 watchers / Pushed May 16, 12
- CommonJS implementation of the DOM intended to be platform independent and as minimal/light as possible while completely adhering to the w3c DOM specifications.153 forks / 1474 watchers / Pushed May 08, 12
- HiiDef web spider framework, powers http://flavors.me2 forks / 17 watchers / Pushed Apr 20, 12
- Telephus is a connection pooled, low-level client API for Cassandra in Twisted python.18 forks / 77 watchers / Pushed Apr 18, 12
- Give your JS App some Backbone with Models, Views, Collections, and Events18 forks / 416 watchers / Pushed Mar 25, 12
- Simple, key/value pair browser-storage cache leveraging the latest HTML5 storage APIs. Persists in your preferred order to one of indexedDB, webSQL, localStorage, globalStorage, or cookies.12 forks / 294 watchers / Pushed Mar 08, 12
- graphite api extensions so remote servers can front a graphite installation1 fork / 5 watchers / Pushed Jan 21, 12
- Creates a GUID based on a float so you can sort it by the GUID and maintain its order2 forks / 3 watchers / Pushed Jan 04, 12
- PhotoSwipe is a HTML/CSS/JavaScript based image gallery specifically targeting mobile touch devices143 forks / 800 watchers / Pushed Nov 14, 11
- Enhances Date.parse to support ES5 ISO-8601 strings in all environments.15 forks / 83 watchers / Pushed Nov 12, 11
- Python wrapper for Soundcloud's API with OAuth2 support2 forks / 5 watchers / Pushed Sep 08, 11
- Amazon Web Services web crawler. DORMANT: see https://github.com/hiidef/hiispider5 forks / 20 watchers / Pushed Jul 20, 10
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Repositories
- Django OAuth 2.0 Server App. Please fork and improve!36 forks / 127 watchers / Pushed May 22, 12
- Django Shopping Cart for PayPal, Google Checkout, and Amazon Payments1 fork / 22 watchers / Pushed May 16, 12
- HiiDef web spider framework, powers http://flavors.me2 forks / 17 watchers / Pushed Apr 20, 12
- Sentry is a realtime event logging and aggregation platform1 fork / 2 watchers / Pushed Feb 29, 12
- Telephus is a connection pooled, low-level client API for Cassandra in Twisted python.1 watcher / Pushed Feb 23, 12
- graphite api extensions so remote servers can front a graphite installation1 fork / 5 watchers / Pushed Jan 21, 12
- Creates a GUID based on a float so you can sort it by the GUID and maintain its order2 forks / 3 watchers / Pushed Jan 04, 12
- Python wrapper for Soundcloud's API with OAuth2 support2 forks / 5 watchers / Pushed Sep 08, 11
- Sentry is a realtime event logging and aggregation platform195 forks / 1356 watchers / Pushed Jun 01, 12
- Django OAuth 2.0 Server App. Please fork and improve!36 forks / 127 watchers / Pushed May 22, 12
- Django Shopping Cart for PayPal, Google Checkout, and Amazon Payments1 fork / 22 watchers / Pushed May 16, 12
- HiiDef web spider framework, powers http://flavors.me2 forks / 17 watchers / Pushed Apr 20, 12
- Telephus is a connection pooled, low-level client API for Cassandra in Twisted python.18 forks / 77 watchers / Pushed Apr 18, 12
- A python library for v3 of the createsend API9 forks / 22 watchers / Pushed Mar 06, 12
- Sentry is a realtime event logging and aggregation platform1 fork / 2 watchers / Pushed Feb 29, 12
- Telephus is a connection pooled, low-level client API for Cassandra in Twisted python.1 watcher / Pushed Feb 23, 12
- Python-bindings for CityHash (http://code.google.com/p/cityhash/)1 fork / 9 watchers / Pushed Feb 01, 12
- graphite api extensions so remote servers can front a graphite installation1 fork / 5 watchers / Pushed Jan 21, 12
- Creates a GUID based on a float so you can sort it by the GUID and maintain its order2 forks / 3 watchers / Pushed Jan 04, 12
- Python wrapper for Soundcloud's API with OAuth2 support2 forks / 5 watchers / Pushed Sep 08, 11
- clone of http://code.google.com/p/django-oauth22 forks / 9 watchers / Pushed Jun 07, 11
- A Python wrapper for the SoundCloud API that works with Django and Google App Engine7 forks / 51 watchers / Pushed Jul 14, 10
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Recent Tracks
- Stars by fun.
- All Alright by fun.
- All Alone by fun.
- Why Am I The One by fun.
- It Gets Better by fun.
- Carry On by fun.
- We are young by Fun. feat Janelle Monáe
- Some Nights by fun.
- Some Nights intro by fun.
Kid Cudifun.Fleet FoxesB.o.BSufjan StevensThe Avett BrothersBright EyesFlorence + the MachineDaft PunkLupe FiascoRadio CitizenDrakeOtis ReddingJay-ZThe SmithsKanye WestBig BoiKings of ConvenienceBon IverStevie WonderWiz KhalifaSleigh BellsTay DizmDeath Cab For CutieLil' WayneMatt & KimMarvin GayeSay AnythingYeasayerKevin RudolfThe RootsTaio CruzDavid GuettaThe xxFar East MovementOutKastNeutral Milk HotelGucci ManeDuck SauceJackie WilsonT.I.Joe PurdyVampire WeekendYolanda Be CoolMGMTNina SimoneKaty PerryJason DerüloBlack Eyed PeasN*E*R*D- Woe by Say Anything54 plays
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- Easy by Commodores29 plays
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- The Gambler by fun.23 plays
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- Sail by AWOLNATION20 plays
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- Power by Kanye West19 plays
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Photos
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History
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Map
- New York, NY, June 20122012-06-11 - 2012-06-17
- New York, NY, May 20122012-05-14 - 2012-05-20
- New York, NY, April 20122012-04-24 - 2012-04-29
- New York, NY, April 20122012-04-10 - 2012-04-12
- New York, NY, January 20122012-01-16 - 2012-01-19
- Wehr Family Trip to Israel2011-12-23 - 2012-01-07
