While studying computer science, cryptography, and linguistics at the University of Michigan, John worked for ITD, honing his hacking skills while helping grad students print their resumes. In 1999 he joined Organic Inc, home of the Apache web project, and built a fierce tribe of web developers in the sleepy suburbs of Detroit. He helped launch the first web apps for Daimler, Dominos Pizza, and Symantec, growing Organic Inc's business at a rate of $100+ million in revenue annually (NASDAQ: OGNC). While at Organic, John worked nights inventing social bookmarking as CTO of link-sharing startup Feed Me Links, which grew to 15,000 users with no advertising.

In 2007, John moved to California to found something new. As founder & CTO of 140 Proof, the monetization API for apps, John led the company through several crucial startup pivots and developed the first social relevance API. On the business side, John helped raise venture capital funding from Founders Fund (investors in Facebook) and BlueRun Ventures (investors in PayPal), created the 140 Proof brand, and jump-started the company's first $1 million dollar sales pipeline.

John teaches the "Design Hacks" course at the GENERAL ASSEMBLY startup incubator and responds to messages as @jm3 on Twitter and at www.jm3.net. He subscribes to old-fashioned ideas like craft, contemplation, helping, and humility, and is excited that more folks are doing the same.