Daniel Hurlbert is a software start-up veteran with over 20 years of experience architecting applications, creating teams, and developing software applications. After purchasing his 2005 Ferrari F430 in 2016, he started his YouTube channel “Normal Guy Supercar” to document his experience of what it was like to be a “normal guy” that happened to own a “supercar.”  This included doing maintenance at home, showing the actual costs, new experiences, and of course meeting new friends.  “Normal Guy Supercar” has become synonymous with videos about the Ferrari F430 and has inspired many people to purchase Ferraris once they demystify what ownership is actually like.  

Daniel has now purchased his second Ferrari, a 458 Italia in beautiful Rosso Corsa with black wheels and Rosso Daytona seats!  Of course this means new videos of 458 ownership, maintenance, and costs. 

So subscribe, share, and participate in the “Normal Guy Supercar” community to learn, have fun, and enjoy our passion for cars!

 

Summary

YouTube creator and former CTO with proven success in multiple start-ups, extensive software development experience, agile, broad knowledge base, excellent written and verbal communication skills, independent as well as team experience, large and small engineering organizations, and a strong understanding and application of software design and architecture.

Things that I might know:

 

  • Agile
  • AJAX
  • Analytics
  • AngularJS
  • Apache
  • AWS
  • Bootstrap
  • Business Intelligence
  • C#
  • C/C++
  • Confluence
  • CSS
  • DNS
  • DoD Security Clearance
  • EC2
  • Enterprise Architect
  • GIT
  • HTML
  • Java
  • Javascript
  • JIRA
  • jQuery
  • JSON
  • LabVIEW
  • Leadership
  • Linux / UNIX
  • MS SQL
  • MySQL
  • NIST
  • NodeJS
  • PCI DSS
  • PHP
  • Product Architecture
  • Product Management
  • Project Management
  • Qlikview
  • RDS
  • Recruiting
  • REST
  • SaaS
  • Scalability
  • Scrum
  • SOAP
  • Software Design
  • Start-ups
  • Stash/BitBucket
  • Statistics
  • SVN
  • Technology Executive
  • Webservices
  • XML

Experience

CTO at the Permanent Legacy Foundation

December 2014 – December 2018

The Permanent Legacy Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization creating the world’s first and only permanent data preservation system.  Through an endowment model, the non-profit will have the ability to endure time and ensure data is kept safe and available permanently without need for advertising or other marketing channels to generate revenue.  The application utilizes various engines to translate datatypes, check on bit decay, and store data redundantly across multiple systems in multiple locations.  It also has a presentation layer to allow preserved data to be accessible on all devices at any time.

My role goes beyond the typical CTO at The Permanent Legacy Foundation.  For the first 3 years I was the only executive at the organization so I was essentially filling in as the interim CEO as well as CTO.  My duties range from architecting the application, hiring all employees, writing code, and even creating the marketing strategy.

  • Pre-revenue Nonprofit Startup about to publicly launch after 4+ years of development
  • Responsible for all technology (design, architect, QA, infrastructure)
  • Responsible for all employees
  • Recruit all staff
  • Lead technology, QA, and marketing teams
  • Plan and schedule work
  • Create and manage DEV-OPS, deployment tools, automated testing, project management tools (JIRA, Confluence, BitBucket, etc)
  • Prioritize work to achieve goals rapidly and launch early next year

Consultant at Modernize

December 2014 – December 2015

Upon my resignation from Modernize, I offered to help transition the company to a new VP of Engineering.  I assisted the company in many ways, from training staff all the way to writing code.  I was frequently given projects to help increase revenue or fine tune existing systems/algorithm.

  • Assisting with core technology stack
  • One off projects
  • Provide skills training
  • Support transition to new engineering management

 Vice President of Software Engineering at Modernize

November 2011 – December 2014

Modernize (previously Home Improvement Leads, Calfinder) is a privately held referral service company for the residential home improvement industry.  Through technology advancements, business intelligence, and strategic geographic and demographic focus, Modernize has grown to the second largest provider of residential home improvement leads in the US marketplace.

I was hired to replace all 3rd party software solutions with in-house solutions from scratch.  In only 3 years, my team was able to implement fully autonomous lead routing systems, ad generation systems, business intelligence, reporting, and other tools that enabled the company to grow rapidly and dramatically increase revenue and profitability.  I had to frequently work with marketing and sales teams to create solutions that enabled grow or provided insights allowing these teams to achieve their goals – ultimately helping the company achieve broader revenue and growth goals.

  • Enabled company to scale from $7M to $35MM+ annual revenue in 3 years
  • Increased the valuation of the company from $6M to $75M in 4 years.
  • Increased net profit to over 30%
  • Responsible for the Software Engineering, Software Quality Assurance, and Business Intelligence teams
  • Self-funded startup with only 1 external investor
  • Design applications
  • Plan, schedule, and monitor all development tasks
  • Run Agile Development planning meetings
  • Recruit and hire all employees in the Engineering Department
  • Mentor and train employees
  • Work with other executives to increase revenue/profitability of company
  • Designed and created development processes
  • Designed and created systems architecture
  • Created Business Intelligence reporting systems
  • Architect for all technology solutions
  • Plan and budget the Engineering Department

Team Lead, Data Security Architect at Mattersight Corporation

April 2006 – October 2011

Mattersight (previously eLoyalty, recently acquired) is a public SaaS company providing solutions for large call centers.  Their products and services increase the efficacy of agents by providing analytics, call routing, insights, and personality modeling.

My role at Mattersight evolved rapidly.  Initially hired to be one of the lead developers, I was quickly given a team of engineers.  My team was tasked with ensuring the security of the application.  Our goals were to create solutions to meet all security and compliance standards.

  • Team lead on the Behavioral Analytics portal development team
  • Head of the Security Focus Group
  • Responsible for ensuring code meets and exceeds PCI DSS and NIST compliance
  • Project manager of multiple applications/projects
  • Assigns other programmers work and monitors their progress
  • Estimates work effort and schedule tasks to iterations
  • Involved in design and architecture
  • Trains all new developers
  • Trained in Agile Software Development, attended Agile Software Development classes
  • Develop, enforce and maintain coding standards
  • Performs code reviews
  • Performs security audits on all tasks related to the portal project
  • Enterprise level PHP application development
  • Model View Controller (MVC) AJAX application
  • Subject Matter Expert and designer of the application security modules
  • Large database design and use experience
  • Responsible for interviewing potential new employees for the team

Web Applications Programmer at PureData

April 2004 – April 2006

  • Web applications design and programming in PHP, ASP/ASP.NET, Java Script, AJAX, and HTML with MySQL and MS SQL databases
  • Highly involved in the specifications, design, creation, implementation, support, and warranty of most software projects
  • Produced code with an emphasis on quality and security
  • Software projects including E-commerce, photo gallery/sharing, research and development, accounting, and reporting systems
  • Created websites with Content Management Systems and translation engines
  • Assisted with project management
  • Direct interaction with clients during all phases of development
  • System Administrator of all servers (Linux and Windows) and workstations
  • Creation and maintenance of Apache, Qmail, IIS, MySQL, and MS SQL servers
  • Wrote custom scripts to monitor servers and produce daily reporting statistics 

Data Acquisition Consultant at Western Michigan University

April 1999 – March 2004

  • Provided consultation for the design and implementation of the Tribology Lab’s data acquisition systems at Western Michigan University
  • Created software to fully automate tests from start to finish 

Data Acquisition Programmer & Lab Technician at Flowserve

April 1999 – December 2003

  • Data acquisitions programmer – designed, programmed, produced, and maintained all of the data acquisitions systems software and hardware
  • Strong emphasis on LabVIEW programming and National Instruments Field Point hardware
  • Integral part of the Research and Development team, altering software and hardware to match specified requirements for customized test environments
  • Created software safety systems to prevent the failure of equipment, saving millions of dollars in lost hardware and test equipment
  • Implemented notification system that alerts operators of any anomalies
  • Software used a “One Click” start to finish for fully automated test parameters

Education

Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, 2001 – 2004
Bachelors of Science in Computer Science with a Mathematics minor

University of Michigan, College of Engineering, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1998 – 2000 Studied Mechanical Engineering