Announcing my Office Hours

I am announcing my trial “office hours”!

Inspired by a few well known folks in the tech and entrepreneur scenes, I’ve decided to make myself available to anyone to discuss just about anything. While I’m not famous, and I certainly don’t know everything, perhaps I might have some advice that might help someone.

How does it work? If you’re interested in picking my brain there’s a couple of options. If you’re Boston area local, grabbing a cup of coffee in Chelmsford is a good option. I think in person discussions are the best kind. If you’re not local, I’m happy to setup FaceTime, Skype, or an old-fashion phone call. I’m pretty busy these days, so you’ll have to work with me schedule-wise, but I’m sure we can work something out.

What do I know? More than I did 10 years ago. I’m a technologist who has specialized in enterprise eCommerce, working with ATG/Oracle Commerce for 14+ years and working with many Fortune 1000s on their eCommerce systems and architectures. I’ve also started several businesses, including my current venture Spark::red, providing managed hosting for ATG/Oracle Commerce applications. Over the past five years I’ve made a lot of mistakes and learned a ton about building and running a small business.

Want to pick my brain about cache tuning in ATG/Oracle Commerce? Want advice on starting or growing your business from someone who has boot strapped a multi-million dollar company, with no VC and no debt? Want get advice on scalable architectures? Want to talk about the pros and cons of dedicated servers versus VMs? Want a sanity check on some application design decision? Just let me know!

What does it cost? Nothing. It’s free. I’m limiting it to 1 hour per person initially, and will probably only be able to do about 5 hours in a month. But I’m making myself available.

Why am I doing this? A have a few motivations here. I’d like to meet and connect with interesting people working on interesting problems and projects. I’d like to share what I have managed to learn over the past 15+ years; to share my knowledge, my experience, and give back to the tech and entrepreneur communities, from which I’ve learned so much. I wonder how much I might have benefitted from a similar offer 10 or 15 years ago. Long term, when I have a bit more time, I’d love to be a mentor/advisor to a tech startup, and this is my way of dipping my toe in the water.

If you’re interested, drop me an email at [email protected] with Office Hours in the subject line. Thanks!