Currently Working On
- NANDA Commercial Adoption... the Agentic Web should be open.
- Reflexive-Core... Metacongnative AI and sub-persona single-context agent design inspired by the original A2AS working paper & agentgateway
- Center for Intelligent Industrial Robots at University of Idaho. What if the next wave of breakthroughs and investment in industrial intelligence happened... in Idaho?
- Stealth. Because every real Founder needs a project they could tell you about... but then, unless you sign the back-dated NDA, they would have kill you.
Technologist | Founder | Strategic Leader | Human
I like to dream, design and then actually build shit. Everything Digital. Physical stuff. Teams. Businesses that make lots of money and Non-Profits that improve my community.
Started in early 2000s LAMP stack dev, did cloud and cybersecurity before it was cool. Accidentally built an MSP that became a MSSP and rolled it into a national PE-backed platform. Accepted the corporate CTO/CIO role and spent three years building out the second largest MSP/MSSP Platform in North America, heavily involved in M&A pipeline and integration, with responsibility for 25 OpCos, 1200 employees, doing $250M top-line. That's responsibility for IT and cybersecurity for 5000 SME's and their 120K+ end users by the time I left. Now advise startups, preach on cybersecurity and business culture (yes, they can be synergistic. yes, I used synergistic). Exploring the future of AI and Innovation leadership.
This exists to help collaborators, founders, and future partners get a sense of how I work, my values, and how to best engage with me— professionally and personally.
Origin: Grew up hand-coding PHP, HTML and SQL on dial-up in rural Idaho. The first HDD I installed was a Maxtor 10GB. I built my first website for my dad's company and it went live in Oct 18, 2000. I was 13yo.
First Company: Founded Exbabylon in Sept 2001 at 14yo. I built websites. Some people actually paid me.
Early Days: Built one of the world's first email filtering (anti-SPAM) platforms. We called it SpamSlayer and today you would say it was Cybersecurity SaaS. Back then it was a bunch of FreeBSD servers hand-built in a colo running Apache, Postgres and Exim running in a homemade cluster hacking SMTP/DNS to our will. Our competitor was Postini. We had the cooler name. They were bought by Google. We weren't. Went on to build the first (that I know of) hardened NESSUS Security Appliance with a web front-end. We called it SpookyBox. NSA gave us a TEMPEST certification. Lots of failures but more than my share of successes along the way.
Current Vibe: Pragmatic AI strategy, building on my long-standing HUMAN>TECH mantra, keeping human-in-the-loop by re-imagining how organizations operate in our new Agentic world.
Global Citizen: Rooted in the mountains of the INW, live part-time in my wife's home country of Brazil and work/play across North America, LATAM and AMEA.
Passions: Family. Education. Running stupid distances. Summitting silly high mountains. Sailing and diving. Garden & Bees. Cooking.
Physical Stuff: Building science nerd. Amateur architect. I design physical buildings, furniture, etc. and run construction projects end-to-end, both commercial and residential. I believe physical spaces should be beautiful on the outside and the "inside"... leaving behind efficient buildings that inspire and last for 100+ years. It's a passion++.
Aspiration: Improve the lives of people along the HUMAN<>HUMAN chain, with everything I touch.
Think Big: Entrepreneurial mindset required, no matter how established we are, there's always a hint of a startup vibe. Think big but bring it back to actionable sprints. We're not boiling oceans. We don't just talk. We do.
Foundations: I'm ruthless about foundational thinking. We build frameworks, methodologies and systems that scale and adapt. Every sprint connects to the bigger picture. Every foundation brick is placed deliberately. We move fast, not reckless- we've thought through the dependencies and have a plan to bring everyone along. No steps backward unless critical (see below).
Pivot Fast: No sacred cows. New information == new direction. I'll work tirelessly when we have deep conviction on an audacious idea but will pivot so fast it can feel like whiplash for those not used to it when something obviously better/wrong is brought to surface. Part of building is learning. If we need to change course we trim the sails fast. Sunk cost/time/past decisions have no relevance. But we're not chasing perfect. Good enough is often good enough. MVP and iterate.
Talk About It: I like to talk things through. Zoom out and bring everyone along in the vision. Getting shit done only happens after everyone knows the WHY and can articulate the macro strategy/vision. Highly complex ideas and big things require lots of alignment. Thinking through the long arc of idea>>operational production reality early allows for success at the end.
Short Meetings, Long Emails: Expect short meetings for tactical things. Turns out a lot can get done in 15min if everyone is engaged (but expect very long macro strategy sessions). I will send long emails / whitepaper-style concepts from time to time, these are often strategic or conceptual blueprints and I assume everyone will make time to digest.
Blamestorming: We'll only talk about the past enough to repeat successes or not repeat failures. Identify root cause and fault only to learn, not criticize. The only thing that matters is what comes next. The most important day of our lives is today. You're on my team for a reason. You're smart and capable. If there's a problem we're going to talk about it in near real-time. I'll never ambush you with a list of long-past wrongs and expect the same in return. Otherwise, plan for success and move forward.
Disagree: A mentor once told me: "you're not doing your job unless you're regularly disagreeing with me". Discourse is foundational to high quality outcomes. Poke holes in things and look for risk upfront. Verification is not mistrust.
Work/Life Harmony Balance is BS. Harmony is everything. Email ≠ Emergency. I send when convenient, you respond when ready. No nights/weekends expected. If it's actually urgent, I'll call/text. You reciprocate.
Building Humans: We're not just building whatever it is we're building. We're building ourselves and each other. This is not the last place you'll work and our collective job is to help each other grow and achieve our professional and personal goals together. It's my responsibility to be an encouraging mentor that listens and helps you achieve your goals.
Family First: Always. Even if you're a family of one. We support the success of one another in work AND in life. Guess what? There's time for life no matter how big of a thing you're working on. When we foster better friendships, time with loved ones, kids, or to pursue life passions... we come back to each other at work a better version, with new perspectives and new ideas. There's always time.
// "HUMAN > TECH" is my philosophy of a human first approach for any/everything I expect everyone to apply. Everyone is building or working on something that, even if a few degrees removed, impacts another person at the end of the HUMAN<>HUMAN chain.
How I Work
- My most productive time is in the early AM where I read and consume and think.
- I'll be off camera for long calls unless we have something to present or serious to discuss. (I pace when I think.)
- I prefer chat to emails for internal comms and may reply in batches.
- I like most discussions to be in Channels or Teams, not ad-hoc chats, so everyone can contribute/learn. Tag me if I need to see it.
- If you need something in the moment call me. I love it when people just pick up the phone. Call me old fashioned.
- You're never bothering me. Ever. My job is to make you successful.
- I trust by default. But verify often.
What I Assume About You
- You're great at what you do.
- You're good but not perfect. You'll make mistakes (and I'll have your back).
- You'll ask for help when you need it.
- You love being wrong as much as you love being right.
- You are not your job title and work is just one part of your existence.
- You want me to be a leader and mentor, not a micromanager.
What I Expect From You
- Honesty: mistakes happen. failure is not failure. anything but absolute candor gets in the way of everyone's success.
- Proactive: don't wait for someone to ask, anticipate what others want, not just need, to know and share proactively. don't force others to drag things out of you.
- Kindness: always. period.
- Humility: assume you're in a room of people smarter than you. arrogance is weakness not strength.
- Ask & Accept Help: my job is to get in the weeds and help. don't wait until you've exhausted resources to reach out. early and often.
In 2001 at 14yo I founded a little company called Exbabylon to build websites for people.
My excited-for-life kid slogan? "Imagine... a world without limitations"
That became >> "Imagination is the only limitation" in future iterations and was our company motto for over 20 years.
// Apparently I used 301 redirects when I launched the site in Oct 2001. So the earliest archive is April 2002: // https://web.archive.org/web/20020526095821/http://www.exbabylon.com/
My lifetime dogma:
"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat." TEDDY ROOSEVELT, THE STRENUOUS LIFE, 10 April 1899
// And... Most Importantly... Never Give Up! Never Surrender! //
Education: If you're working on something to advance education in the world, especially to young or underprivileged corners of our communities... I'm in.
Strategy: From startups to growth stage to non-profits to government. I have an eclectic background that gives me a unique perspective when solving big problems.
Founders: If you’re early in your journey and want a backboard, reach out. I always try to make room for people who are hungry to grow.
Openness: I got my start because of BSD open source and an open web. Let's work on things that keep it that way.
- ThinkPurple – Speaking, Consulting & Advisory
- DM me on GitHub or via LinkedIn
- mailto:alex@thinkpurple.io
- Once you know me, call/text/WhatsApp anytime.
P.S. Thanks to @juliedavila for early README.md inspiration. P.P.S. RTFM. I'll duplicate her here... If I ask for information and it's already somewhere, don't distill it unless I ask. Just point me to it and I can self-help from there.