Hi, I'm Bryan

I'm a current enterprenuer and bootstrapper, former startup CTO and VP of Product, with over 20 years of software engineering, product management, and startup experience.

For over 10 years I was the CTO and (sometimes) the VP of Product for a startup called RiskLens. We built a SaaS platform for quantifying cyber risk. I was the fifth employee and helped grow the company to over 100 employees and $10M in ARR.

In the summer of 2023 RiskLens was acquired by Safe Security, and I left to pursue my own startup ideas.

I'm currently working on Interweave, a SaaS dedicated to making the lives of Product Mangers more sane.

I've been in software 💻 for over 20 years. I took the unconventional path, landing a job as tech support, teaching myself to code on the job (Visual FoxPro and C), becoming their developer, working for big tech, all before heading to college.

This is one of the reasons I believe technology and startups are for anyone, as long as you're willing to be curious and put the time in.

Over the years I've worked on many projects for a bunch of companies. I'm particularly passionate about startups or companies who operate with a startup mindset. In fact my first job was at a startup 🚀 where we sold self storage software (it was the 90's) to over 600 customers. I've worked for big tech and for the government.

I find the world fascinating so it shouldn't be a surprise I have a few hobbies.

  • ☕ I ❤️ coffee. My favorite way to make it is with my beloved AeroPress.
  • 🛠️ I'm really into woodworking, building furniture, etc. Which is great because...
  • 🔨 My wife and I bought our dream property on a lake 🌅 ... which happened to have a house 🏚 on it. We're now remodeling the entire thing ourselves.
  • 🐔 On a lark in 2020 I got chickens 🥚🐣🐥🐓🥚. They're awesome. We named them Kung Pao, KFC, Orange, and Ginger. We have a dark sense of humor.
  • ⛵️ We're learning to sail, because my wife and I have the crazy idea we'd like to sail around the world.
  • 💻 And it should be no surprise that I'm also quite passionate about all things software.
Bryan Smith, author of the Product Foundry