The Data Underground
2003 - 2005 • DataFind Solutions
Before "Big Data" was a buzzword, before data brokers were household villains, I was building the machine. Data aggregation systems that could vacuum up millions of scattered records and turn them into something useful. Something powerful. Something that made people nervous.
LocateCell. That was the name. The systems worked too well. Time Magazine labeled it "the most notorious website in America." CNN covered it. Fox nightly news covered it. Then Congress got involved.
"The most notorious website in America." They wanted to know how one guy could do what governments couldn't.
Cited in the Congressional Hearing on Internet Data Brokers. Serial No. 109-130.
When you build something powerful, powerful people notice. The country of Canada. T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon. The FCC. Four state attorneys general.
The result? Found to have done no wrongdoing. I was operating within a legal loophole that nobody knew existed. My work was so impactful that Congress created the Telecommunications Act of 2006 in response.
I was playing at a level that got the attention of countries and federal agencies. And I came out clean.
That's when I learned the first rule of the internet: Data is the only currency that matters. If you're not controlling it, you're being sold by it. I chose to be the one doing the selling.
The Automation Wars
2005 - 2015 • Skootle, FriendAdder, TweetAdder, FollowAdder & More
Social media was the great equalizer. Or it was supposed to be. In reality, big brands had entire teams managing their presence while small businesses were stuck posting manually, hoping someone would notice.
I built the weapons for the underdogs. FriendAdder. TweetAdder. FollowAdder. TubeAdder. MP3SongPlays. CraigsNotifier. A full arsenal of automation tools that gave a one-person shop the same firepower as a Fortune 500 marketing department. Suddenly a coffee roaster in Portland could compete with Starbucks. A photographer in Thailand could find clients worldwide. The playing field wasn't level. I leveled it. Cease and desist letters from Craigslist and MySpace soon followed.
Years later, a user in Thailand tracked me down to say: "Your software brought my business back from the brink." That's the thing about building tools for underdogs. They remember.
I learned how algorithms think. How platforms decide who gets seen and who gets buried. That knowledge is worth more than any degree.
The automation years were good enough to buy a cabin in the Smoky Mountains. Real software. Real revenue. Real assets.
When Twitter Came Knocking
2012 • Twitter, Inc. v. Skootle Corp, N.D. Cal.
Success has a way of attracting attention. Not always the good kind.
In 2012, Twitter's lawyers filed suit. A billion-dollar Silicon Valley giant versus a guy running a software company from Virginia. They didn't like that the little guys had access to the same growth tools as the big brands. They wanted the weapons back.
I could have folded. Most people would have. I hired lawyers instead. Not because I was sure I'd win. But because 129,000 small businesses were counting on those tools. Someone had to stand up.
Platforms will change the rules whenever they want. Algorithms get rewritten overnight. The only thing that survives is understanding how the system actually works. Not the marketing version. The real version. I've been inside the machine. I know where the gears are.
PCWorld. TechCrunch. They covered the story because it wasn't just about software. It was about who gets to compete online.
The Scars
What 20 Years of War Taught Me
You don't survive two decades of building internet companies without collecting some scars. I've failed spectacularly. I've trusted the wrong people. I've watched competitors with worse tech win because they had better lawyers. But I kept building.
Lost a major client because a $2 component failed. Drove to the data center in my pajamas. Now I build redundancy into everything.
Built for 1,000 users. Got 100,000. Didn't sleep for a week. Now I plan for 10x from day one.
Trusted a vendor with critical code. They disappeared. Had to rebuild from scratch. Now I own everything I build.
Built "perfect" features nobody wanted. Users didn't care. Now I ship fast and iterate.
I've made every mistake you can imagine. Which means you won't have to.
The Method
How Underdogs Win
I don't believe in fair fights. I believe in winning.
My entire career was built on one principle: If someone else figured it out, I can figure it out better. Reverse engineer what works. Understand the mechanics. Then build something superior.
Fish where the fish are.Don't waste time in empty ponds. If your competitor is catching leads with something, don't reinvent the wheel. Study their approach. Find the gaps. Then dominate.
Every project starts with research. I study your competitors like a general studies enemy terrain. What's working for them? Where are they weak? Then we build something that makes their site look like a first draft.
I'm a gadget freak. A tool hoarder. A process junkie. If there's a new marketing tool, technique, or platform, I've already tested it.
Anything and everything that might give you an edge. By the time you hire me, I've already tested 50 approaches and know which ones actually work.
Social automation tools existed. I studied every one of them. Then built something 10x better and took the market.
Data brokers had clunky systems. I reverse-engineered their methods. Built faster, cleaner, more powerful.
This isn't about luck. It's about strategy. It's about doing the homework nobody else wants to do. When I build your website, your competitors become my research project.
Why I Do This Now
Today • Skootle Web Development
I got tired of watching good people get ripped off.
You know the story. A local business owner pays an "agency" thousands of dollars for a website. The agency turns around and hires someone overseas for $50 on a freelance site. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. When it breaks? "Oops, here's another invoice."
These people give real developers a bad name. They're not building websites. They're running a markup scheme.
I'm here to do it right. The same enterprise-grade engineering that powered 129,000 accounts now powers local contractor websites. No middlemen. No overseas outsourcing. No mystery meat.
Why I Don't Use WordPress
I used to run WordPress on my other sites. It was a nightmare. Constant plugin updates that break everything. Security patches every week. Themes that conflict with plugins. Page builders that make simple edits take forever. Bloated databases that slow to a crawl. Hosting bills that climb because WordPress needs more and more resources just to stay alive.
And the maintenance? Endless. Update one plugin, another breaks. Hire someone to fix it, they make it worse. The whole ecosystem is held together with duct tape and prayers.
Now I build with React, Next.js, and Vercel, the same tech stack powering Netflix, Uber, and Twitch. Zero plugin conflicts. Lightning-fast load times. Automatic scaling. Security built-in, not bolted on. Your business deserves infrastructure that just works.
That's Why I Show My Work Live
Click any demo on this site. You'll see real, working websites. Not mockups. Not "coming soon" pages. Fully functional sites running at blazing speed.
You won't see other agencies doing this. They take two months to deliver something they paid pennies for. I show you what's possible before you spend a dime.
I'm here to raise the standard. To show what local businesses actually deserve.
Your Local Expert
Not a Faceless Agency
I'm not a faceless agency in a high-rise.
I'm a neighbor in Bon Air, VA. I work from my home lab with my pit bull, Dolly, at my feet. When you call Skootle, you don't get a sales team. You get me.
Personal Service
No juniors. No overseas outsourcing. No project managers playing telephone. Just me and 30 years of experience.
Local Accountability
I'm in your community. I shop at your grocery store. When I build your site, my reputation is on the line.
Ready to Work With a Builder, Not a Vendor?
Skip the sales pitch. Get a free speed audit that shows you exactly what's slowing your site down and what it's costing you.
Get Your Free Speed AuditIf your site doesn't load in 0.2 seconds,
you didn't build a website. You built a waiting room.
- My design philosophy
Why This Matters For You
What You Get
Why does a 30-year internet pioneer matter for your HVAC or construction website?
Because I know how the internet actually works. I've built systems that handled more traffic than your competitors will ever see. Your 500 visitors a month won't break a sweat.
Enterprise Architecture
Your small business gets the same infrastructure quality as Fortune 500 companies.
Proven at Scale
My code has powered 129,000+ businesses. Your site will handle anything.
Built to Last
No fragile WordPress plugins. Clean, modern code that survives platform updates.
Direct Access
You talk to me. Not a sales rep. Not a junior developer. The person who built the internet.
Most agencies build websites like houses of cards. One platform update and everything collapses. I build anti-fragile systems. Code that doesn't just survive chaos. It gets stronger from it.
Why I'm Telling You This
No LinkedIn. No Apologies.
I don't have a LinkedIn page. Never needed one. My resume is on Google. News articles. Congressional records. Court documents. Search results that actually matter.
For 20 years I've preferred the shadows. Running web businesses from the background while living a quiet life in Virginia with Amanda, my kids (now grown), and my dogs. No networking events. No thought leadership posts. No corporate ladder.Just building things that work and letting the results speak for themselves.
You won't find my profile optimized for "synergy" and "leveraging paradigm shifts" and whatever other buzzword bingo corporate America is playing this week. That's not my game.
This page? This is my resume.
Raw. Real. Battle-tested in arenas most people don't even know exist. Countries, federal agencies, billion-dollar corporations, and I'm still standing. That's the kind of person you want in your corner.
When you hire me, you're not getting a vendor. You're getting a fighter. I will go to war for your online presence the same way a manager goes to war for their fighter. Your success is my reputation. Your website is my craft. Your competition is my research project.
This is the first time I've ever put this story on the record. I figured if I'm going to step out of the shadows, I might as well tell you who you're really dealing with.