goLance

At goLance we're leading the industry with technical innovation bringing together the right talent with the right clients.

As the Chief Technology Officer for a dynamic marketplace platform, I am instrumental in steering the technology direction and software development to bring together clients and freelancers. My role encompasses leading a talented tech team, enhancing our platform to meet and exceed user expectations, and driving innovation to ensure our technology stays ahead of the curve.

With a keen eye on the evolving tech landscape, I navigate through technological advancements to incorporate cutting-edge solutions that elevate our service. My approach is hands-on in solving technical challenges, ensuring our platform remains robust and reliable. I excel in demystifying complex technical concepts, ensuring seamless communication across teams and with our stakeholders, thereby fostering a collaborative environment that propels our platform forward.

My mission is to create a marketplace that not only meets the current demands of our users but also anticipates future needs, making it a go-to platform for clients and freelancers alike. Through strategic planning, technological innovation, and a commitment to excellence, I am dedicated to enhancing our platform's impact and success in the marketplace.

Chief Technology Officer

Summit Labs

As a seasoned technical product builder and startup advisor, I have been at the forefront of helping early-stage companies bring their ideas to life by building cutting-edge software products. With extensive experience in software development and a deep understanding of the startup ecosystem, I specialize in advising startups on the right technical decisions to make, helping them navigate through the complex process of product development, and providing strategic guidance on how to build successful and scalable products. 

Whether it's working with founders to identify the best technology stack for their product or leading development teams to build high-quality software, I am committed to helping startups achieve their goals by providing the technical expertise they need to succeed.

Principal Technical Advisor | Software Architect | Fractional CTO

ByDesign

As a technical advisor for ByDesign, I provide critical guidance and support to help the company navigate the complexities of the technology landscape and achieve their ambitious goals.

Through a collaborative and hands-on approach, I am able to help guide the development of  customized solutions that align with the ByDesign's specific needs and goals. Thanks in part to my guidance and support, the company continues to achieve significant success, rapidly scaling their platform and expanding their offerings.

Technical Advisor

Techstars

As a technical mentor to early stage startups, I have had the privilege of working with some of the most innovative and exciting companies in the technology space.

My role has been to provide guidance, support, and advice to these startups as they navigate the challenges of building a successful business, with a particular focus on their technical strategy and execution.

Through a collaborative and hands-on approach, I have worked closely with the founders and their teams to help them develop the technical skills and knowledge they need to build robust and scalable technology solutions.

This has included providing mentorship and coaching on a range of technical topics, from software engineering best practices and architectural design to cloud computing, data science, and emerging technologies.

One of the things that sets me apart as a technical mentor is my ability to tailor my approach to the specific needs and goals of each startup. I take the time to understand their unique challenges and opportunities, and work closely with them to develop customized solutions that meet their needs.

Through my experience as a technical mentor, I have gained a deep appreciation for the unique challenges and opportunities that early stage startups face in the technology space. And I am committed to using my skills and expertise to help these companies succeed and thrive in a highly competitive and rapidly evolving landscape.

Mentor

Calendly

At Calendly we're making scheduling easy.

As an application architect, I play a critical role in helping the organization design, build, and deploy complex software applications that meet their unique needs.

Through a deep understanding of software engineering best practices, application design patterns, and modern technologies, I have been able to develop scalable, reliable, and maintainable software architectures that support business growth and drive innovation.

Some of the key areas in which I have provided value include:

* Guiding the implementation of a microservices-based architecture for improved scalability and flexibility
* Designing and guiding development cloud-native applications for enhanced reliability, availability, and cost-effectiveness
* Advising on software engineering best practices and emerging technologies to keep applications current and competitive
* Collaborating with cross-functional teams to ensure alignment with business goals and objectives

Application Architect

WealthForge

As application architect for WealthForge, a fintech startup, I was responsible for designing and implementing cutting-edge solutions for the Altigo platform. With my deep expertise in software engineering, cloud computing, and financial technologies, I was able to deliver innovative solutions that simplified the overall architecture that allowed for better scalability and security.

My role involved working closely with our development teams to design and implement solutions that are scalable, reliable, and secure. Whether we were developing new features, optimizing existing applications, or building integrations with third-party platforms, I ensured that our solutions are aligned with our business objectives and meet the needs of the business.

Capital One

At Capital One, we're Changing Banking for Good. As a Master Software Engineer I have developed applications to improve visibility of key financial metrics. I have developed and continually contributed to inner sourced application frameworks that have decreased development time by 80% while improving application security and resiliency. As an AWS Solutions Architect, I have reduced cloud costs by 66% while increasing application resiliency.

As a trainer and teacher I have developed and lead training courses in Threat Modeling, Application Development, and Application Security.

Master Software Engineer

Provider Resources, Inc.

Application Developer

GutCheck

Senior Front-End Engineer

Specialized Loan Servicing

Web Application Developer

CTO at goLance • Making software simple • Startup Mentor

Are you a founder, business owner, or leader building software? Is your team struggling to deliver high-quality, reliable software?

COMMON ISSUES I SOLVE:
✔️ Technology selection, architecture design
✔️ Complex, confusing, broken software architecture
✔️ Low-quality software code
✔️ Slow, inefficient, or non-existent development processes
✔️ Unstable or unreliable software performance

RESULTS:
🎯 Improved performance, speed to market, happy customers

WHAT I DO:
✔️ Assess your current software architecture, code base, and processes 
✔️ Work closely in developing, coaching, and driving development team
✔️ Install best practices that increase quality, speed, and maintainability 
✔️ Evaluate opportunities to reduce cost, improve security, and increase reliability

HOW IT'S DONE:
✔️ I work with developers, product owners, and leaders to design software based on business needs
✔️ Coach and mentor team 1-on-1 or as a group
✔️ Install processes and systems to increase developer efficiency and security

Connect with me here on LinkedIn or...
Email me: brian@brianchildress.co

Software architecture isn’t monolith vs. microservices. 

It’s not onion vs something else... 

Software architecture is making decisions and understanding the trade-offs based on a current understanding of the problem, the business, and the available resources.

Software architecture is finding a solution that works for the business now and supports future changes. 

#softwareengineering #softwarearchitecture

Brian Childress

What are the key trade-offs in software architecture?

Your customers don't pay for the code you write...they pay to solve their problem. 

Your customers don't pay for the number of servers that host your software...they pay for a reliable and stable application. 

Your customer's don't pay for the fanciest new programming language or AI...they pay for a great user experience.

How can I ensure my application is reliable?

What are some ways to improve customer satisfaction?

Software isn't about the technology. 

Software isn't about the language, framework, or amount of AI. 

Software should solve business problems. 

Real-world problems.

Why is it important for software to solve real-world business problems?

I recently drove 4 hours round trip for a 4 minute meeting…

Nuts right!?!

Instead of seeing it as a waste of time I treated it as an investment. 

The result of that meeting will pay off greatly over the next several years. 

While the up front cost was high, the return is more than worth it. 

The same can be true in software. 

The cost (time, money, sleepless nights) can seem enormous in the beginning. Trusting the process and the people guarding you through the process can have huge payoffs in the end. 

 #softwareengineering #softwarearchitecture

How important is trust in software development?

What are some best practices in software development?

Just because it can be written in as few lines of code as possible doesn’t mean it should be…

Read-ability is one of the most important ‘ilities’ in software.

How important is read-ability in software development?

What impact does read-ability have on code?

Somedays finding great technical talent feels almost impossible...

I conducted 3 technical interviews scheduled for today...all failed.

The first two weren't even the same people that interviewed initially. A more qualified person did the initial HR interview, a different person (far less qualified) showed up for the technical interview. 

It was obvious they were reading from something like ChatGPT.

The third candidate just never showed.

Where is everyone finding great tech talent?

What are some effective strategies for finding great tech talent?

How can companies improve their search for technical talent?

How can companies prevent no-show candidates during the interview process?

It’s OK to not know the answer.

It’s NOT ok to let the question go unanswered.

I spent almost 4 months recovering from some pretty wicked burnout...

What I discovered?

It snuck up on me. 

I didn't know what it was or what to call it. 

It affected me and everyone around me.

What is the impact of burnout on productivity?

What are some strategies for preventing burnout?

"This looks like a kindergartener's art project" 

- A manager critiquing my code in front of a room of engineers

How we deliver feedback is important.

Where we deliver feedback is also important.

As leaders the way we talk to and talk about each member of our team builds the culture. Every day. Every conversation. Every statement can have an impact.

How do you deliver feedback in a constructive way?

How can feedback be delivered constructively?

What is the impact of feedback delivery on team culture?

What role does leadership play in feedback delivery?

3 reasons your software is more complex than it needs to be…

- We like new and shiny things 
- We’re bored and want to spice things up
- We’re padding our resumes so we can move on to our next job

What are effective strategies to simplify software development?

How can professionals avoid padding their resumes unnecessarily?

What factors should individuals consider before moving to a new job?

The path to success for me is about doing the things that others around me aren’t willing to do...

That’s included:
- Hiring multiple coaches, personal and professional
- Paying to be a part of multiple masterminds 
- Embracing (leveraging) fear and insecurity to stand on a public stage
- Recognizing and accepting weaknesses, faults, and failures 

There is a path for everyone and not everyone’s path is the same.

How important is having a clear path to success?

What are the benefits of joining a mastermind?

When everything is important, nothing seems important. 

1. Will it cost our customers money?
2. Will it cost our business money?
3. Could it cost out customers money?
4. Could it cost our business money?
5. Will it make our customers money?
6. Will it make us money? 

This list of questions I consider when prioritizing all of the important things.

Why is prioritizing important in the workplace?

The best way I've found to predict the future is by understanding the past.

In technology I use past metrics and data to predict scalability and potential issues by looking at these areas:

User growth:
- How many users have we added over the last week, month, year?
- How many resources (storage, network traffic) have users typically required?

System load:
- How many requests do we typically receive each second, hour, day?
- What are the common peaks and troughs in traffic ever hourly, daily, monthly? 

Development time:
- How much "re-work" have we had to do to deliver new features?
- How quickly have new developers been able to on-board and effectively contribute code? 

The past performance of a system or a team helps to predict future growth and highlights areas of improvement.

I experienced a really powerful lesson in business and customer service today...

I recently spent more than my first 2 cars combined on a service that I thought would help me continue to grow, personally and professionally.

The team was persistent in their sales process, checking in almost daily. 

And the team was in contact with me almost immediately when I said I was unhappy with the service and wanted to cancel my engagement.

The part they seemed to forget was putting time and energy and effort into the delivery of their service...

They cared about getting my money and keeping my money... they didn't seem to care about making sure I got the value I was expecting.

How important is customer service in business?

How can the service industry improve customer satisfaction?

Excited to share the recording of my recent talk at this years FrontrunnersJS conference.

Simplicity: The Key to Software Success

How does simplicity contribute to software success?

What are the key takeaways from the FrontrunnersJS conference?

Open video: Brian Childress – "Simplicity: The Key to Software Success" on buff.ly

Brian Childress – "Simplicity: The Key to Software Success"

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