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About me
My name is Aidan (eye-den) - Gaelic name with a German pronunciation. Thanks, mom! I am: married to an amazing woman; a father of 3 boys; an avid dreamer and tinkerer; a seasoned full-stack software engineer; a Staff Engineer at Assured.
For the last 12 years I have been working with startups - prototyping, building new products, learning, growing, and having ideas. Those years have been a rollercoaster, complete with twists and loops, and they have taught me a lot. An ambitious young engineer who works with early stage startups usually has to learn a lot of things on-the-job without much coaching. This site was created to be a source for other ambitious, startup engineers - the things I would have liked to be able to look up along the way - and a place to discuss fun ideas.
My Motto
Throughout my career, I've been building a personal motto - my prescription for life. It was created for me by me, and is a constant work in progress; so, I don't expect everyone (or even anyone) else to fully resonate with it. But I would like to share it all the same, and I encourage you to look within yourself and define your own.
Choose love. Create joy. Inspire childlike wonder. Grow wise. Grow strong. But, never grow up.
Why F80?
In 2013, I was running a digital agency in Orange County called VGC Unlimited with my two best friends, Derek Colnar and Paul Vazquez. I did most of the business development, and spent a ton of time at meetups and events wearing our company colors (orange and black). Orange has always been my favorite color. I decided that I would just wear it all the time; so, since April of 2013, I have worn an orange shirt and black pants every day. My favorite shade of orange is #FF8800, which can be shortened to #F80. There you have it!
Freelancing
I am always open to helping with fun projects. If you need a website for your business or organization, or to bring an app idea into reality, or to scrape and process large amounts of data, or pretty much any other web-based technological challenge - please reach out. Even if I'm not available to help directly, I'm happy to share ideas and connect you with good people.