Hire Me

AI isn't magic. It's automation.

I trained my first neural network in 2018. Since then, I've used AI in production features, to build internal tools, and to get startups funded. As of 2025, I am available as a product and engineering consultant. Mostly, I work with Series A and earlier startup teams and founders.

My commitment to you is to never sell you hype or slopcannon your codebase. Let's chat.

What I Do

Team training and advisory. I've helped engineering teams and non-technical founders understand how to responsibly and effectively use AI to ship code or automate their work.

Custom AI tools I build tools (and sometimes application features) with AI models at their core including eval setups, human-in-the-loop workflows, and cost optimization.

Technical due diligence. Helping investors and acquirers not get burnt by slop code products.

What People Say

Zach is on my list of people with whom I leave every conversation at least 10% smarter. Short of sword fighting, he's a renaissance man in every respect.

— Jeff Fong, Former Chief of Staff, Postmates

Zach has the ability to perceive exactly what needs to be done and then to do it.

— John Chisholm, Serial Entrepreneur & President MIT Alumni, John Chisholm Ventures

Zach is by far the most self-motivated and hard-working person I have ever met. His work ethic is built around taking large, complex goals and breaking them down into manageable pieces.

— Jacob Kayen, Lead Software Engineer, Goldman Sachs

We could not have imagined a better software developer! Zach is much more than 'just' a software developer who develops. He has an expertise and a holistic way of thinking. He puts his heart and soul into his work and really thinks along with us.

— Robin Kunz, Co-Founder, Capalis

Zach has been a critical component to Clarity's success, growth, and has set a very high bar.

— Matt Sherman, Co-Founder CTO, Clarity

It's not an overstatement to say I was in awe of Zach on a daily basis. I do not know how someone can fire on so many cylinders simultaneously and make it seem so effortless.

— Chaim Sash, Chief Marketing Officer, Reconext

Zach is one of the most disciplined and motivated collaborators with whom I've had the pleasure of working. Once setting down to complete a task, he will throw himself wholeheartedly at it until completion.

— Nathan Anecone, Co-Founder & CTO, Semantic Reach

Zach seamlessly transitioned between writing in C# for Unity, JavaScript for our dashboard app, and using the Node SDK for Watson API. This type of context switching often slows down even very experienced developers, but Zach was able to forge ahead without any loss of focus.

— Sam Bakkila, Product Manager, Codecademy

Zach's presentation was so on point and provided so much clarity into how our assumptions were challenged and what a path forward might look like.

— Van Miranda, Product Lead, Curology

Zach has a very high level way of thinking, seeing problems and concerns, and synthesizing something tangible. He has done so much to elevate this company.

— Jenny Ridley, Sales, Clarity

He is one of the hardest working individuals I've ever met. Being around him only inspires others to be better. Anyone would greatly benefit from having Zach on their team.

— Benjamin McCain, Senior Software Engineer, Peloton Interactive

If you need an innovative and hardworking leader, then Zach is the person you are looking for. He has a peculiar way of analyzing approaches to different problems and finding the best solution.

— Marcos Reynoso, Senior Software Engineer, Dow Jones

Zach is extremely sharp and is by far one of the hardest working/disciplined person I have met. That plus being creative and a natural leader is a killer combination.

— Samir Awuapara Cardenas, Entrepreneur, Mercano Consulting

Zach is an extremely innovative thinker and strong developer. His work ethic combined with his strong technical skills make him an extremely effective developer.

— Dean Guo, Product, Tanium

Zach's greatest traits are his positive attitude and boundless creativity.

— Anton Cataldi, Senior Software Engineer, Aireon

Background

Over a decade building zero-to-one products for startups. Popular open-source author. Featured in the NYT bestseller Mindshift for an unconventional learning path. Writing featured in a16z's Future.com, Stripe's Works in Progress, The Atlantic's CityLab, Virgin.com Entrepreneur, and VICE. I've spoken on technical subjects across five continents.

I was the very first official Mastra.ai AI Agent Development Partner.

Previously:

• Clarity Schools — Head of Product at America's #1 financial aid suite for private schools. Backed by First Round.
• Clay — Founding Engineer at the $5B AI + GTM pioneer. Backed by Sequoia and First Round.
• Curology — Lead Engineer at the $1B+ vertically-integrated online dermatology practice.
• Makesoil.org — The entire tech team of the world's largest composting community.
• Storetasker — Founding Engineer at top private Shopify expert marketplace. Backed by Founder Collective and Techstars.

Open source:

• Easy MCP — the simplest way to build an MCP server.
• Markdown-ify MCP — convert almost anything to Markdown.
• Fetch MCP — fetch web content as HTML, JSON, plain text, or Markdown.
• GTasks MCP — Google Tasks over MCP.
• Easy Agent — a lightweight agent framework.

I'm often supported by another principal AI engineer who is a computer vision pioneer and multiple patent holder.

How It Works

1. We meet and I learn about your work.
2. We co-design an AI solution together.
3. If you're not excited about what we'll build, you pay nothing.

Get In Touch

Let's talk about how AI can make your business better.

hello@zach.dev · (410) 603-5562

More at zach.dev.