About

I build companies, I write things down, and I'm trusting God with the rest. This is the longer version.

I live in Fredericksburg, Virginia, with my wife and our two kids. Most of my work comes back to one problem: a company grows, but the way it runs doesn't. The real process lives in spreadsheets, inboxes, and someone's head. Eventually, it breaks.

I came to software from operations. Before I wrote a line of code, I'd managed a store, a team, and a full day of customers. I still look at every company that way: the tools should make the work obvious to the people doing it.

In 2008 I started JL Computer Associates, looking after computers and building websites for small businesses. Then I spent years at Intuit and Quickbase, first helping customers, then designing and building the systems they relied on. The most useful part was sitting with the people who actually did the work.

In 2019 I started Synctivate here in Fredericksburg. We build custom software for companies that have outgrown their workarounds, many of them in construction, the trades, and field services. The goal is simple: make the operation clear enough that the business can grow without the founder holding every piece of it. Seven years in, I still stay close to the work, but the point was always a team that could carry it with me. That's what we've built.

With my brother, I also started Toffee Bridge Holdings. We buy commercial property and hold it for the long term, and we bought our first office building in 2025.

Faith is the part underneath all of it. I'm not a theologian, just a builder who's learning to trust God with more than my plans. Most nights that looks like reading Scripture, asking hard questions, and being honest about where I fall short.

That honesty became my first book, I Know: A Prayer, and God's Answer. It's a set of short confessions, each answered by God's Word. It's coming soon to Amazon, and the updates list will hear first when it's out.

I also write short essays here on business, building, and faith. They're in my own words, and I'll keep them short.

To see what I'm focused on this month, read Now. To get new essays and the book announcement by email, join the list.