Data-driven product manager with a technical background, passionate about building great web applications
Six years ago I founded LanguageConvo, a web app that connects thousands of language learners with teachers around the world. I started my career as an aerospace engineer, working on design and business dev of air and space systems. Building a team and product you’re passionate about? Lets chat.
Contact MeSix years ago I founded an educational technology company, LanguageConvo. Through our web app we connect thousands of students with language teachers around the world via live video chat (WebRTC). As a bootstrapped-on-a-shoestring company I had to learn just about everything along the way, from marketing to MVC. On the technical side I built each aspect of the application: modern responsive UI, application layer, back-end, auto-scaling AWS infrastructure in CloudFormation, automated build/test/CD, and data analysis to help us make informed decisions. We now serve customers in more than 70 countries and have 22 employees on 5 continents; more than anything, I’m proud of having helped build a passionate team that is continuing to grow an incredible company.
Prior to LanguageConvo, I worked as an aerospace engineer in a number of design and management capacities. At Northrop Grumman I led an interdisciplinary team of software and aerospace engineers on an internal-facing software product. In a second role there as a cost and affordability engineer, I worked on design projects for the F/A-18 fighter jet, as well as a software tool to make billion-dollar cost predictions for large scale aerospace systems. As an intern at ATK Space Systems I was fortunate to have the opportunity to design hardware that flew – some might say tumbled – in space on Ares I-X (NASA’s planned replacement for the Space Shuttle until Space X came along and decided to revolutionize reusable spaceflight vehicles!)
I have degree in aerospace engineering and minor in economics from Purdue University. I live in the woods with chickens, deer, and turkey on the outskirts of Eugene, Oregon with my partner Hayley and our trusty leader Nelson the chocolate lab. I’m really fortunate to have a desk in the CodeChops coworking space in downtown Eugene.
John Aitchison
hi@johnai.com
hi@johnai.com