zach.dev

C:/zach.dev/home

Who?
I’m a software engineer and entrepreneur focused on modern web technologies and AI.

Here's an ongoing autobiography, which also shares the story of my by-the-bootstraps "unschooling" education: now the subject of a chapter on grit and resilience in the bestselling book Mindshift by Barbara Oakley.

An angel investor once described my core soft skill in the role of founder or early team member as: "The ability to perceive exactly what needs to be done. And then to do it."

My experience working in difficult environments around the world means that I can be trusted to get things done, even when things go wrong.

In the past, I coined the term "Startup Cities" as co-founder of StartupCities.org and a startup spinoff, both of which focused on why startups should build cities. I now write about Startup Cities at StartupCities.com

I've won several awards for economic research and have been published or interviewed in Virgin Entrepreneur, a16z's Future.com, The Atlantic's CityLab, Foreign Policy, and in academic volumes by Routledge and Palgrave MacMillan.

Wait... what is this site?
This is my personal portfolio, inspired by the question: "What would the opposite of the two-color template developer blog look like?"

Have fun exploring!

Click the Start Menu to learn more.

Contact:hello @ zach.dev

C:/zach.dev/big-cant-innovate

"Big Can't Innovate" Debate

Organization Size and Innovation

Leaders Of Tomorrow | St. Gallen, Switzerland

I debated the resolution "Big Can't Innovate" on the theme of whether organization size matters for innovation at an Accenture-led event in St. Gallen, Switzerland. I was on the 'for' side of the debate (though I'm not sure I believe it).

Facts don't sell, but stories do. So I used the classic innovator's dilemma story of Kodak to illustrate the challenge of innovating in large companies.

Before the debate an overwhelming majority of people rejected the motion. Our team convinced a large number of people to change their minds, but not enough to win a majority.