Hey — I'm Kerry. I'm CTO and co-founder at Zipper, where we build software for fitness studios. I also write books, host a podcast, and occasionally have opinions on the internet.
I've been writing code since I was a kid messing around with PHP on Geocities. Got a CS degree from SIUE, spent time at Microsoft, built healthcare systems at Lumeris, and eventually started my own thing. Along the way I got increasingly interested in the non-code parts of the job — which, it turns out, is most of the job.
What I care about
AI is going to write most of our code pretty soon. I think the engineers who do well from here are the ones who can communicate clearly, understand business constraints, and build things users actually want. That's what I write and talk about.
I'm not trying to be a thought leader or anything — I just think the industry has some sacred cows that need questioning. Like the idea that "clean code" matters more than shipping, or that microservices are always the answer.
Zipper
My day job. Zipper is an all-in-one platform built for fitness studios — CRM, scheduling, automated marketing, payment processing, and everything in between. We handle hundreds of thousands of daily requests on a TypeScript/NestJS/React stack, and we're constantly pushing to make studio owners' lives measurably easier.
What I'm most proud of at Zipper isn't the technology — it's the team. We've assembled a group of genuinely excellent humans who are sharp, kind, and deeply invested in building something that matters. If that sounds like your kind of place, come meet them.
Mentorship
I mentor devs who are figuring out the jump from senior to staff/architect, or just trying to get better at the non-coding parts of their careers. Happy to chat.
Hit me up via email or find me on MentorCruise.