Three decades of building impactful products, leading exceptional teams, and occasionally writing fiction about dragons.
MORE ABOUT ME
Building products, mentoring founders, and shaping technology for over three decades
Senior technology executive with deep experience across product, engineering, and applied science at multiple FAANG companies. Most recently led a $6B charter at Amazon Ads, driving strategy for campaign creation and the Ads API. Passionate about enabling teams to tackle ambitious problems, and an active startup mentor across several accelerators, including former Lead Mentor for Techstars.
Early and influential member of the core Python team, helping to shape the direction of the Python programming language as Vice President of Business Development & Engineering at BeOpen.com (later Python Labs). In a quirk of history, I'm the license-holder for Python 2.0 and all derivative works, after working to free Python from the restrictive CNRI license.
Four successful personal exits for companies I joined in the first 100 employees, two of which came via IPO (2004 and 2019). Former Outcomes Committee member with Sand Hill Angels, one of the oldest, largest, and most active angel investment groups in the world.
Here is a sample of projects I've worked on.
A relationship operating system that stores context as stories, not data fields. It gently reminds you when it's time to reach out. No guilt, no scores, no treating friendships like tasks.
VIEW PROJECTA digital experiment exploring how technology can foster compassion. In a world of notifications demanding attention, Hugged asks: what if an app just wanted to make you feel good?
GET HUGGEDAn interactive experience for when you need a moment of peace. No scores, no timers, no pressure. Just a calm harbor where you can simply be.
VISIT THE HARBOR
Production-ready backend infrastructure so you can focus on what makes your product unique. Authentication, billing, notifications. All the boring stuff, done right.
START BUILDINGA unified layer of situational awareness that helps you track what's happening across your organization, why it matters, and how it's changing. Act with understanding instead of guesswork.
SEE IT IN ACTION"Project Phoenix is at risk of missing Q4 deadline"
"Sarah Chen is the primary expert on payment systems"
"Customer Acme Corp shows early churn signals"
"Auth service has recurring memory leak issues"
Research and technical writing on AI, systems architecture, and data science
A unified orchestration framework for real-time bidding in programmatic advertising that combines structural causal graphs, high-fidelity Digital Twin simulation, and hierarchical surrogate models to improve decision quality while meeting strict latency requirements.
READ PAPERA survey and extension of Quantum Clustering methods as density-driven, physics-inspired approaches that reinterpret clustering as exploration of an emergent potential energy landscape—enabling discovery of structure across scales without hard partitioning.
READ PAPERA practical guide sharing the actual questions asked and answers given during PM and TPM interviews at Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google—moving beyond platitudes to offer specific, battle-tested responses that helped secure multiple FAANG offers.
READ ON MEDIUMA Silicon Valley engineer's journey through a self-imposed 7-day app development sprint during Covid-19 lockdown—exploring the real trade-offs of product management, design decisions, and technology stack choices when time is the ultimate constraint.
READ ON MEDIUMWhat others say about working with me
"I had the pleasure of meeting and working with Domenic during his time as an Entrepreneur in Residence with WeWork Labs. He consistently came onsite with innovative ideas for our Labs members, and was willing to work with them both in group settings, as well as on a one on one basis to direct and guide them with a highly strategic mindset. Domenic's 'quick-on-his-feet' personality and mindset allowed him to assist our members effectively in a constantly changing Silicon Valley startup environment."
"There are lots of smart engineers in Silicon Valley, but there are a few engineers that are able to understand very deep technical concepts, abstract them for a wider audience, match the right technology architectures to achieve specific business outcomes and, lead the execution. Domenic has impressed me as exceptional in all of those very distinct attributes. I would recommend Domenic as a fantastic technical architect, business strategist and team leader."
"I've had the pleasure of getting to know Domenic through our participation in Alchemist Accelerator. The way I'd describe Domenic is a leader among leaders. He's constantly thinking ahead, challenging others to do the same, and always looking for ways to help his colleagues and community. He has a track record of success, and there's little doubt this will continue."
"Domenic is the best of both worlds; he is a great mentor to those who work for him and he is a fantastic strategic thinker with soft skills to interact with senior management effectively. If you need him to analyze the resource needs of a proposed project, he can effortlessly spec and forecast the resources needed to accomplish the job. Very few others can work at any level which may be needed in the organization and produce such reliable results."
Short stories exploring wonder, whimsy, and the unexpected
Urban Fantasy
Min-jae is just trying to finish his delivery shift in one piece. Seoul's heat is brutal, the customers are ruder than usual, and he's one botched rating away from losing his job. The last thing he needs is to stumble into a dusty antique shop and accidentally break the seal on a centuries-old jar. Especially one containing a tiny, fire-sneezing dragon.
A voicey, heartfelt urban fantasy about burnout, belonging, and dumplings—with sarcasm, spark, and a tiny dragon who just wants to set things on fire.
VIEW ON AMAZON
Culinary Fantasy Comedy
Marcel Dupont just wanted to pass his culinary finals. Summoning a demon from a Reddit thread? Probably a bad idea. Summoning the wrong demon—one who used to audit souls in Hell's bureaucracy? Catastrophic. But Belzagor is unexpectedly captivated not by Marcel's soul, but by his cheese soufflé. What follows is a whirlwind of molten purées, flaming amuse-bouches, and existentially tormented appetizers.
A sizzling culinary fantasy comedy for fans of Good Omens, The Bear, and Ratatouille—served with sarcasm, summoning circles, and a side of redemption.
VIEW ON AMAZON
Cerebral Science Fiction
Technician Adin Rell arrives at Station Twelve-B expecting a routine diagnostic. What he finds instead is an abandoned orbital archive haunted by malfunctioning systems, corrupted logs, and a prophetic AI that hasn't spoken in years. The Oracle once predicted the future with surgical precision—until it fell silent just before Earth fell into collapse. Now, the systems are waking up again. The station seems to know Adin.
A lyrical, cerebral sci-fi story about memory, identity, and the cost of knowing too much. For readers who love Arrival, Station Eleven, and Silent Running.
VIEW ON AMAZON
Magical Realism
Grazia has grown used to finding the drowned saint—Santa Castalda—washed up on the shore. The fishermen drag her in. The villagers nod and cross themselves. Then she disappears again, like she always does. But this year, the statue doesn't wash up near the docks. It arrives beside Grazia's garden wall. And with it come the voices.
A gently surreal tale of grief, guilt, and the fine line between haunting and remembrance. For readers who love lyrical magical realism and the slow ache of things unspoken.
VIEW ON AMAZON