Shawn Chiao

Shawn Chiao

Mentor
5.0
(12 reviews)
US$20.00
For every 15 mins
16
Sessions/Jobs
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First 15 mins free for your first session
ABOUT ME
Building Technology, Value, and Community
Building Technology, Value, and Community

I've been in the startup trenches for over 15 years, having experienced both the early stage crucible and the continuing support of successful projects.

As a mentor, I volunteered and worked for an educational non-profit for 4 years. I've also been an instructor and emcee for a local Lindy Hop dance venue I started for the past 4 years. It's a secret life I live away from the computers, but I believe those experience has helped me as a mentor. Most importantly, I believe in supporting newcomers and underrepresented groups into tech field, because this is the way to make technologies better serve the whole world.

As a developer, I've worked on technologies used by film icons like Brad Pitt, designed and developed online games that had millions of users, and built mission-critical health care systems.

As a mentor, my strength is in the ability to explain domain knowledge in a way that is easy to grasp, through analogies and examples. I have hired and coached many early-career engineers and it's something that I particularly enjoyed.

To me, software engineering is a tool that brings ideas to life, and my career focus has reflected that. While I love to learn and talk computer science theories with fellow programmers, my passion lies in building what delivers value for the end users, our community, and the world.

Chinese, English
Pacific Time (US & Canada) (-08:00)
Joined July 2015
EXPERTISE
15 years experience
I've spent most of my career in startups - both as a cog in the wheel and as co-founders. I have a good grasp of the challenges in the d...
I've spent most of my career in startups - both as a cog in the wheel and as co-founders. I have a good grasp of the challenges in the different stages of any startup, from building a cofounding team to fundraising, and from product prototyping to post-launch.
7 years experience | 1 endorsement
I have used Python for building web apps (primarily with Django and flask) as well as sysadmin scripts and server daemons. I have also e...
I have used Python for building web apps (primarily with Django and flask) as well as sysadmin scripts and server daemons. I have also experience working with non-blocking IO (gevent) and Celery in Python.
15 years experience
One of the more frequently used language in my day-to-day jobs in the past several years. I am familiar with both classic jQuery and mode...
One of the more frequently used language in my day-to-day jobs in the past several years. I am familiar with both classic jQuery and modern frameowrk such as React.
14 years experience
Bread and butter of my day-to-day for a good number of years. I've been also using MongoDB and DynamoDB in the recent years, but I still...
Bread and butter of my day-to-day for a good number of years. I've been also using MongoDB and DynamoDB in the recent years, but I still maintain a strong foundation of relational database.
OptimizationRelational DatabaseSQL Queries
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OptimizationRelational DatabaseSQL Queries
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6 years experience
I've setup, automated, managed, monitored systems large and small. But you can probably find better help elsewhere for hands-on DevOps ta...
I've setup, automated, managed, monitored systems large and small. But you can probably find better help elsewhere for hands-on DevOps tasks, but I can provide value on how DevOps fits in executing projects and running startups.
9 years experience
Experience with gitflow (working with separate feature, release, and bug fix branches), as well as working with non-tech folks (e.g., art...
Experience with gitflow (working with separate feature, release, and bug fix branches), as well as working with non-tech folks (e.g., artists at a gaming company) on working with git.
Git flow
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Git flow
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6 years experience
Built products from scratch and managed team using React. Familiar with use of hooks, context, and various state management options.
Built products from scratch and managed team using React. Familiar with use of hooks, context, and various state management options.

REVIEWS FROM CLIENTS

5.0
(12 reviews)
Derek
Derek
June 2017
Great technical advice from Shawn!
Derek
Derek
March 2017
Shawn was very helpful! He found my problem right away and explained everything in great detail. He also sent me 'real time' updates as he was troubleshooting. Very cool!
Tanner Jones
Tanner Jones
February 2016
Shawn is great. Really helping me traverse Node.js and AWS.
Tanner Jones
Tanner Jones
January 2016
Shawn was really helpful with both high level questions AND helping me with really specific questions down to the exact line of code I was struggling with. Excited to keep working with him.
Gene Billingsley
Gene Billingsley
August 2015
Big help clearing some hurdles to upgrade our app.
EMPLOYMENTS
Engineering Manager
Nuna Inc.
2018-01-01-2020-01-01
Lead, built, and successfully launched an API-based enterprise SaaS integrated with major health plans. Built and provided internal suppo...
Lead, built, and successfully launched an API-based enterprise SaaS integrated with major health plans. Built and provided internal support for new serverless web architecture that successfully supported new product offerings.. Provided mentorship to existing BI analysts who were successfully transitioned to frontend developer following a company product pivot.
Python
Django
MySQL
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Python
Django
MySQL
Google BigQuery
Docker
React
Swagger
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Engineering Manager
Elation Health
2016-03-01-2017-12-01
Architected and implemented integrations with 3rd party health systems and services. Planned and implemented a path for migrating legacy ...
Architected and implemented integrations with 3rd party health systems and services. Planned and implemented a path for migrating legacy front-end code to React. Managed team that built and released the company’s first mobile app using Expo and React Native.
Python
Django
MySQL
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Python
Django
MySQL
Elasticsearch
Celery
React
React Native
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CTO / First Engineer
Gummicube
2014-03-01-2016-02-01
Designed and developed SaaS to provide mobile search data and analysis for app store optimization. Tracked millions of search results da...
Designed and developed SaaS to provide mobile search data and analysis for app store optimization. Tracked millions of search results daily using servers in multiple regions for localized results. Built and managed dev team with remote members. Clients included multinationals such as Viacom and Gree.
Python
Node.js
MongoDB
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Python
Node.js
MongoDB
Meteor
JavaScript
AWS DynamoDB
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