I’ve worked in web and technology since 1997 — nearly three decades now — most of it building products and the teams that ship them. I came up through design, web first, then user experience, and grew into product and operations leadership. It’s an unusual path, and it left me holding two things at once: what the work feels like for the person using it, and what it costs the organization to build.

I’ve done that work at nearly every size of company. A 28-person software shop. A company more than a century old, with a $2 billion portfolio of products it had acquired over its lifetime. I led three companies through the shift from old software models to modern subscription ones. I launched products that didn’t exist before, including the first generative AI assistant in its industry. And I built the quieter infrastructure — the planning systems, the playbooks, the operating rhythms that let a team move fast without breaking things. I’ve directed organizations of 200 people. I’ve also been the one rebuilding a support function alone after a budget cut.

Some of the work I’m proudest of served nonprofits. Early on, I helped build technology for YMCAs — thousands of them, most running on tight budgets, all working to serve their communities well. I saw how much the right technology could do for an organization like that. I also saw the damage the wrong partner could do.

That’s really why I made this switch.

Nonprofits deserve the same caliber of technology work that corporations pay a premium for. Too often they don’t get it. They get the vendor who disappears after launch, or the agency that hands over something impressive that no one on staff can actually maintain. I’ve spent my career learning how good this work can be. I’d rather spend the rest of it here, where the constraints are real and the outcome matters.

So I built Groundwork Common to be the opposite of that story.

We keep our client list small on purpose. We get to know your organization, build what you need right now, and stay to help you grow into it. We work within your budget instead of around it. And we leave you more capable, not more dependent on us.

We work for your mission.