Justin Bowen is a software and business leader with over a decade of experience helping startups turn their dreams into reality and building open source R&D projects. Technical specializations include machine learning, software architecture, database scaling, and scaling Ruby on Rails, Python, and computer vision applications. Business specializations include global remote team leadership, mentorship, aligning product with business goals, fundraising, and technical due diligence (for $100M+ investment rounds and acquisitions). Justin is also a regular speaker at RailsConf, RubyConf, and other technical conferences and events.
2024 - present
Remote from San Francisco Bay Area
Created Active Agent, the open-source AI framework for Ruby on Rails with Rails-native infrastructure and standardized conventions. Enables developers to deploy AI features quickly and easily with familiar Rails patterns. Provide AI product development and consulting services to startups integrating AI into their products.
2023 - 2024
Remote from San Francisco
Built real-time conversational AI agents with generative UI elements to streamline hiring workflows. Developed tools guiding hiring managers through requisition creation and applicants from resume building to job application. Architected Ruby on Rails backend integrated with LLM services and Next.js/Vercel frontend.
2021 - 2023
Remote from San Francisco Bay Area
Performed R&D in partnership with Stanford Healthcare. Led development of GPU-accelerated ML/DL/AI computer vision systems deployed on-premise at hospitals across the US and in the cloud. Built data processing pipeline for cloud training data and real-time inference. Led user-facing product development with a global remote team of engineers, data scientists, and designers.
2021 - present
Remote from San Francisco, California
Led tech due diligence for $100M+ venture capital and private equity fundraising rounds and acquisitions. Audited businesses, teams, processes, and technology. Provided comprehensive reports to stakeholders to assess and mitigate risks while managing technical expectations. Advised and led on the integration of business and products post-acquisition.
2018 - present
Remote
Launched a startup consulting firm with my now-wife to help early-stage companies with everything from brand development and messaging to defining their product requirements and designing/building their MVPs.
2018 - 2021
Remote
For musicaloverture.com I built a real-time audio/video collaboration platform for musicians to practice and perform with the lowest possible latency. Managed Mesh-WebRTC implementation. Integrated Twilio API TURN/STUN services and Twilio Video SDK. Developed a Mesh-WebRTC implementation for free peer-to-multi-peer group audio/video call experiences.
2016 - 2020
Remote
Combining smart cameras, AI, and IoT technology to fundamentally transform the cannabis industry from seed to sale.
2017 - 2018
Remote, San Francisco, California and Dublin, Ireland
Grew global remote team from 1 to 8 engineers, scientists, and designers to deliver cutting-edge agtech products to market (drone analytics for field crops and dairy barn computer vision). Lead tech due diligence to close Series B fundraise with Cargill Animal Nutrition.
2016 - 2017
Remote, San Francisco, California and Dublin, Ireland
Grew a Series A team to deliver a drone mappping and analytics platform to market and Lead the product design, R&D, engineering, and testing of the Dairy cow computer vision platform.
2016 - 2016
Remote, San Francisco, California and Dublin, Ireland
Worked with a small team to optimize and scale a drone analytics and real-time geo search to close Series A funding
2016 - 2017
Remote, San Francisco, California and Tokyo, Japan
Designed and developed a custom itinerary mapping platform plus travel experience recommendation engine for use by elite concierge teams (including the Grand Hyatt and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Tokyo).
2015 - 2016
Remote
Lead the design and development of the MVP web, iOS, and Android apps.
2014 - 2016
Remote
Lead the development of a short-form multimedia sharing platform. Designed a high-throughput media uploading service with node.js for handling file uploads to S3.
2012 - 2014
San Francisco Bay Area
Independently built geocoding and data processing platform used to raise $150M. Built event detection system using advanced geo information systems to index social media content and determine what events were happening where, using geo queries on indexed polygons of all buildings and administration boundaries in the world. Built geo-coding microservices that handled 10s of millions of requests each day.
2010 - 2012
San Francisco Bay Area
Responsible for network security, services and systems reliability, software development, and support. Design, build, and maintain Rails web applications that compliment a software suite of Adobe Flex/Flash Builder Air desktop apps.
2008 - 2010
San Francisco Bay Area
Maintained the registration and reporting application using Java and MS SQL, while handling mass emails to sites. Used Ruby on Rails and MySQL to develop new web interfaces designed to increase efficiency by improving the user experience. Continued advanced responsibilities of Technical Support and system administration.
2005 - 2008
San Francisco Bay Area
Assured the availability of the testing service to over 300 globally distributed testing sites. Maintained servers and testing center network via telephone and on call support on weekends. Everyday tasks ranged from simple software support to assisting in the installation and configuration of small networks at the testing facility, by phone. Also helped maintain and administrate Microsoft SQL and Windows Server environments.
