API Guru · AI Agent Architect · Web3 / Crypto Technologist
Technical Partner @ Lightspeed Faction. Architect of the Faction AI Agent — agent harness + VC deal flow agent. Creator of LoopBack. Co-founder of Collab.Land.
Technical Partner at Lightspeed Faction (Faction, JV with Lightspeed). I designed and built the Faction AI Agent: an agent harness (multi-model agentic loop, pluggable hook pipeline, MCP tool orchestration across 170+ tools, three-layer RAG memory, declarative skills, multi-platform delivery) and the firm's VC deal flow agent built on it. The investment team uses it daily to triage decks, run research briefings, mine X/Twitter for signals, and monitor portfolio companies. Beyond the agent, I run the firm's technical due diligence (214 deals reviewed, 70+ deep tech DDs so far), author category research across 9 verticals (AI × crypto, agents, ZK, rollups & MEV, PETs, quantum, Solana, data platforms, agentic commerce), and advise portfolio CTOs on architecture. 30+ years of production engineering before this. Co-founder of Collab.Land (3M users), creator of LoopBack (OpenJS Foundation), former IBM STSM, Apache Tuscany committer.
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Tools — Faction AI Agent
Orchestrated via MCP (5 custom + 30+ third-party servers) · 31 skills · 14 lifecycle hooks · in daily production since April 2025
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Deals — Technical Partner
214 deals reviewed at Lightspeed Faction · 70+ deep tech DDs · 9 category landscapes · portfolio support
Technical Partner — Architect of the Faction AI Agent
2024 - Present
Two roles in one. (1) Faction AI Agent. Architect and sole engineer. Built the agent harness (pluggable hook pipeline, MCP orchestration, RAG memory, declarative skills, multi-platform delivery) and the VC deal flow agent that runs on it. The agent handles deal triage, research briefings, signal extraction, and portfolio monitoring for the investment team. (2) Technical Partner across the investment process. Authored the firm's tech DD process and scoring framework; applied it across 214 deals reviewed, with 70+ deep tech DDs written. Wrote category briefs and landscape decks across 9 verticals (AI × crypto, agents, agentic commerce, ZK, rollups & MEV, PETs, quantum, Solana, data platforms). Advise portfolio CTOs on architecture, engineering practice, and product direction. Author Faction's external technical content (Bitcoin L2, BitVM, Lightning, DLCs).
Production agentic loop: Multi-model loop (OpenAI on the hot path, Anthropic Haiku for verification) with a pluggable lifecycle hook pipeline covering permission, tool selection, skill catalog, auto-compaction with real token telemetry, micro-compaction with error retention, backpressure detection (loop/stall/error), prompt-injection defense, memory, audit, and verification scoring (0–10 with rationale).
MCP orchestration: 5 custom MCP servers (CoinMarketCap, Messari, Notion-Context, IACR, MicroStrategy) plus 30+ third-party integrations exposing 173+ tools to the agent. Tool filtering (97 → 4 on Alchemy) for token efficiency. Three-tier security model on every tool.
Three-layer RAG memory: Hot frozen snapshot (BM25 + vector + LLM-extracted facts in Valkey), session transcript with SQLite FTS5 search, guidance injection. Pre-compaction flush so durable facts survive context compression.
Skill system: Declarative agent playbooks loaded as Markdown with progressive disclosure (L0/L1/L2). Lets non-engineers add new agent behaviors without touching the codebase.
Investment-workflow automation: Built deal-triage pipeline (deck scrape → multi-stage LLM extraction → research → classification), thesis-driven X/Twitter signal extraction, morning intel briefings, deal sourcing, and portfolio monitoring. Each started as a one-off prototype before getting generalized into the platform.
External MCP exposure: JWT-gated /mcp/:token endpoints (Streamable HTTP + SSE) with two modes. A single-tool blackbox mode (one ask tool running the full agentic loop), and a full mode that exposes 173+ internal tools directly. Used daily from Claude Code and Cursor.
Platform adapters: Slack Bolt, grammY (Telegram), discord.js on a shared extension interface. Plus a declarative miniapp engine with renderers for Slack Block Kit and web.
Infrastructure: AWS-native. ECS Fargate, ALB, Valkey, Secrets Manager, KMS, S3, CloudWatch. Hierarchical scoped DI on LoopBack 4 (Application → UserContext → RequestContext). OTEL telemetry into Redis Streams; per-session token/latency accumulation feeds the auto-compaction hook.
Technical due diligence (214 deals reviewed, 70+ deep tech DDs): Authored the firm's tech DD process and scoring framework. Dimensions: feasibility, security, scalability, team competence, innovation. Applied across AI × crypto, ZK, Bitcoin L2, agents, MEV, PETs, and Solana ecosystem projects.
Category research & landscape mapping: Author thesis briefs, landscape maps, and executive decks across 9 verticals: AI × crypto, agents, agentic commerce, ZK, rollups & MEV, privacy-enhancing technologies, quantum, Solana, and data platforms. Published artifacts used in LP letters and partner meetings.
Decentralized AI thesis: Lead the AI × crypto category. Verifiable inference, agent payments (x402), decentralized training and data, model marketplaces, on-chain agent infrastructure. Sit on technical diligence calls.
Portfolio support: Advise portfolio CTOs and founders on architecture, engineering practice, hiring, and product direction. Translate technical constraints into roadmap decisions and vice versa.
Thought leadership: Authored mini-talks on Bitcoin scripting patterns, BitVM / BitVMX, Lightning Network, and Discreet Log Contracts. Technical voice for Faction’s external content and investor communications.
Investment-team tooling: Built integration code (Slack, Notion, X/Twitter, Telegram, Google Sheets) and a DocSend → PDF converter that feed deal intelligence directly into the Faction AI Agent. Drove deal-flow automation strategy for the firm.
Faction AI AgentAI AgentsMCPLLM OrchestrationRAGTypeScriptAWSLoopBack 4 DIValkey / RedisOTELDecentralized AI
Abridged, Inc. (Collab.Land)
Co-Founder and CTO
02/2021 - 2024
Co-founder and CTO. Built Collab.Land into the de-facto token-gating platform for digital communities, with blockchain-based access control.
Scale: Grew Collab.Land from zero to 3M+ users across 55K+ communities. Backend on GCP Kubernetes, 200 container instances sustaining 80+ jobs/sec.
Modular platform architecture: Built on LoopBack 4. Integrated 34+ blockchains and 32+ wallets behind a unified extension interface.
Token gating: Built the original token-gating category. Extensible rule engine for dynamic access control across 34+ blockchains and 32+ wallets.
Product: Shipped REST APIs, an SDK, and a developer portal. Third parties built apps on top.
Community: Built and ran a developer community around Collab.Land's APIs. Wrote and spoke on token-gating design.
Team: Built and mentored a globally distributed engineering team.
Architecture lead for IBM API Connect after the StrongLoop acquisition. Drove the cloud-native and microservices direction across the API platform org.
Led strategic open-source initiatives and contributed to IBM's API management platform
Architected the cloud-native and microservices direction for the platform
Mentored engineering teams and influenced product strategy
API ConnectLoopBackNode.jsCloud
StrongLoop, Inc.
Co-Founder, Architect
03/2013 - 09/2015
Co-founded StrongLoop, leading product and technical strategy, resulting in acquisition by IBM. Created LoopBack.io, now an OpenJS Foundation project.
Co-created LoopBack.io, an highly extensible Node.js and TypeScript framework for building APIs and microservices
Won the 2019 API Award for "Best in API Middleware" category
Successfully led company to acquisition by IBM in 2015
Engaged with developer community to drive adoption and contributed to Node.js ecosystem
LoopBackNode.jsAPIsOpen Source
Shutterfly, Inc.
Staff Web Engineer, Platform Engineering
04/2010 - 02/2013
Led development of Shutterfly's open web APIs and service externalization platforms, enhancing platform scalability and developer integration.
Service routing, dispatch, and performance optimization for the platform
Built service externalization platform enabling third-party integrations
Improved platform scalability through architecture changes
APIsJavaPlatform Engineering
IBM Corp.
Senior Software Engineer
05/2002 - 04/2010
Worked on business integration platforms using SOA. Apache Tuscany committer; led OSGi/SCA development for WebSphere Process Server.
Contributed to Apache Tuscany open source project
Led efforts in OSGi and SCA development for WebSphere Process Server
Developed SOA-based business integration solutions
SOAApache TuscanyOSGiJava
Soft Tech Development, Inc.
Principal Engineer/Architect
12/1996 - 05/2002
Architected e-OpenBridge, a middleware suite for legacy data and application integration, demonstrating early leadership in software architecture.
Led architecture of e-OpenBridge middleware for legacy system integration
Led various software development projects
Demonstrated early leadership in software architecture and project management
MiddlewareIntegrationArchitecture
Early Career
Software Engineer
03/1992 - 07/1996
Built a trading engine and clearing system for futures exchanges in China. First production deployment.
Two products in one codebase. (1) Agent harness. Multi-model agentic loop, pluggable lifecycle hooks (auto-compaction, backpressure, verification scoring, prompt-injection defense, audit), MCP orchestration over 173+ tools, three-layer RAG memory (BM25, vector, and LLM-extracted facts), declarative skill system, and platform adapters for Slack, Telegram, and Discord. JWT-gated external MCP for Claude Code and Cursor. (2) VC deal flow agent. Built on the harness for the Lightspeed Faction investment team. Handles deal triage, deck scraping, research briefings, X/Twitter signal extraction, and portfolio monitoring. Sole-engineer build. Daily-driver tool for the team.
Agent Harness
VC Deal Flow Agent
173+ Tools via MCP
Faction AI AgentAgent HarnessVC Deal FlowMCPRAGLLM OrchestrationTypeScriptAWSLoopBack 4
Collab.Land
Community management platform enabling token-based access control for digital communities. Scaled to serve over 3 million users across 55,000 communities with support for 34+ blockchains.
Highly extensible Node.js and TypeScript framework for building APIs and microservices. Winner of 2019 API Award for "Best in API Middleware" and now an OpenJS Foundation project.
Enterprise API management platform enabling organizations to create, secure, manage, and socialize APIs. Led architecture and development as STSM at IBM.
Service externalization platform enabling third-party developers to integrate with Shutterfly's photo and gift services through well-designed APIs.
REST APIsJavaPlatform
e-OpenBridge
Middleware suite for legacy data and application integration, enabling enterprises to modernize their IT infrastructure while preserving existing investments.
MiddlewareIntegrationLegacy Systems
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