Diverse Experiences
CFL Journey
Drafted in the 3rd round by the Calgary Stampeders, I went on to be a member of four CFL teams—Calgary, Winnipeg, Saskatchewan, and Montreal. While my playing career didn't amount to anything special statistically, the exposure to pro systems across multiple organizations gave me a unique perspective on how elite football operates at different levels.
Key Learning
Absorbed offensive systems from 4 different CFL organizations
5 Consecutive Championships: A Software Engineering Approach to Coaching
The Refactoring Principle
We faced a different challenge than most startups—we were already the best, but staying on top meant getting every team's best shot for 5 years straight. I applied software engineering principles, constantly refactoring our systems to be more adaptable for younger players while battling increasingly sophisticated competition.
System Synthesis
My main function was taking all the pro systems from my 4 CFL clubs and synthesizing the best concepts into a framework high school kids could handle. We made elevated systems actually simpler—achieving perfect balance with a season averaging 10 yards per snap at exactly 50% run/pass ratio.
The Tech Vision: One year coaching university football, I saw the need for real-time play calling systems. This vision became TeamOura—my football management app with socket-based live play calling and Oura Ring integration, giving coaches daily visibility into player readiness and full offseason management backed by sleep data.
The Ultimate Decision-Making Sandbox
While I don't consider myself a professional poker player, over 50% of my life income has come from consistently winning both tournaments and cash games. I achieved a top 100 finish at the World Series of Poker Main Event and have a deep love for poker as the ultimate sandbox for ambitious decision-making.
Life Impact
50%+ of lifetime income from poker while building tech solutions
Building Tech for the Poker Community
Private Game Management System
Built an auto-SMS app for organizing private poker games using Twilio. Poker game management has nuanced security requirements, so I developed custom auth methods and an AI SMS chatbot interface for curating games—handling everything from invites to waitlists to player verification.
HighStake Health Platform
Recently built HighStake Health as an everything app for serious poker players who treat poker like a sport. Combines performance tracking, health metrics, and lifestyle optimization for players pursuing excellence at the highest levels.
From Real Estate Investor to Contractor
Poker left me looking for more. I wanted to get my winnings into something tangible, so I studied off-market real estate deals. Found a vacant property, became a private investigator, tracked down 4 non-speaking siblings who inherited it from their deceased parent. When everyone said the deal was dead, I persisted—obsession is my superpower. Bought it for $30k when the land alone was worth $80k.
Self-Teaching, Scaling, and Finding React
Master of All Trades
Knew nothing about construction but self-taught everything complex about renovation. Full gut job, complete rewire, plumbing, HVAC—the works. Hired a carpenter to fill gaps, learned to finish drywall and paint. A year later, had an employee, tools, and jobs rolling in from friends and family.
The React Revelation
On my first commercial job, the client asked me to build them a website. That's when I discovered React. All the things I didn't enjoy about software engineering seemed solved. I knew instantly I wanted to build with my brain over my hands. Shut down the construction company and went all-in on software.
From Empty Building to Ice Cream Shop
Had a building with no tenant. In one month, we converted the place into a walk-up ice cream shop during COVID when everyone was scared to start new businesses. The ice cream brought foot traffic, but we had a commercial kitchen sitting unused.
We needed a food offering, but were incredibly limited on kitchen space and couldn't compete with established restaurants. The challenge: find something novel that we could execute in our constraints that wasn't already in our city.
The Prairie Smash Innovation
I researched and found smash burgers—but we needed our own twist. I iterated on the process and built a custom smash tool that could flatten patties to 10 inches, transforming beef into a max-seared helix formation that was impossible to replicate elsewhere.
We coined it the "Prairie Smash"—Saskatchewan is a flat, large province that fit the style perfectly. The first local food blogger to visit instantly said it was the best burger in the city.
Product Result
Created unmatched differentiation in a crowded market
The Technical Challenge
Great—we figured out an awesome product. But technically, it was a bottleneck in the kitchen, especially when timed with ice cream orders. I created software to solve it.
Real-Time Order Management
Connected website ordering, kitchen POS, and mobile staff devices. Orders flowed seamlessly from customer to kitchen screen in real-time, with intelligent timing algorithms for complex orders mixing hot food and ice cream.
Predictive Kitchen Management
System monitored website activity—as soon as someone started ordering chicken (6-minute cook time vs 1-minute smash burger), kitchen got audio alerts to drop chicken in fryer, preventing bottlenecks and maintaining quality during rush periods.
The Business Impact: This wasn't just restaurant tech—it was a complete operational transformation. A smash burger and ice cream concept should have been impossible to run efficiently, but the custom real-time system made it seamless. We sold the entire operation in 6 months because the technology eliminated every operational bottleneck.
Building Foundations
The foundation was set early. At the University of Regina, I studied Software Systems Engineering while serving as team captain for the Rams and being named a finalist for the Top Student-Athlete Award. I always stayed curious about how technology could solve real problems.
I was also the Provincial Chess Champion, which taught me strategic thinking and pattern recognition. I started programming at 15 and founded my first web development business while still in high school. Even then, I was drawn to the intersection of analytical thinking, technical skills, and building something meaningful.
Looking back, every major decision in my career has been about growth. Transitioning from professional football to professional poker and coaching. Moving into small business with construction and starting a restaurant. Then going full-time into software development. Now, building AI-powered tools that represent the next evolution of how software gets made.
If you're working on something that needs both technical depth and product intuition, I'd love to hear about it. Whether it's validating a new AI application, scaling an existing platform, or architecting something completely novel, I bring a unique perspective shaped by competing at the highest levels across multiple domains.
