About This Site
This is my personal digital sandbox where I (albeit infrequently) publish articles, musings, insights and other content I find worth sharing. I do not consider myself a “content creator” but it has been known to happen from time to time. The unfortunate reality of working as developer for successful private businesses most of your career is that almost exclusively, my best work that I’m the most proud of, is hidden from the public behind NDAs and proprietary repositories. At least here I can share some of the insights I’ve gained over the years to hopefully prepare others to succeed.
More About Me Professionally
My name is Colin Ross and I’m a Software Lead with over 15 years of experience specializing in cloud-based platforms (primarily Rails-based). Skilled in leading teams and organizations to implement scalable, resilient, and efficient solutions, with a focus on minimizing development waste (both time and effort).
I Successfully operated a software development consultancy, overseeing a team of in-house developers and managing annual revenue of $400k across multiple years. In 2023, I made the decision to spin-down my consultancy, Ross Solutions, in order to focus more on my career as an individual contributor and leave the hustle-heavy world of consulting for one with a better work-life balance, opportunity to join a team that can scale, and position myself better to tackle larger challenges.
I am always seeking out new opportunities to expand my knowledge and skill set, whether that be through attending conferences or local meetups, online courses, or collaborating with industry leaders through open-source initiatives. I thrive in fast-paced and dynamic environments.
I’m currently seeking a new role to utilize my skills and experience in a challenging and collaborative environment.
Accomplishments
- Established and led business generating over $400k in yearly revenue with 4 full-time employees
- Successfully reduced defect backlog from over 90 day MTTR to under 10 days within three months
- Achieved a 50% reduction in regression occurrence rate while doubling team size over a six-month period
- Spearheaded the creation of a Professional Services organization within an existing enterprise, delivering ROI of 35% within the initial six-month period
- Led platform onboarding team, enabling the capture of customers from competitors with minimal loss of legacy data, resulting in securing several large national level clients with thousands of locations, thereby boosting revenue and market share
- Introduced and managed API documentation for public consumpion by partners and clients, resulting in a reduction of technical helpdesk issues by over 75% and saving over $285k a year in costs.
If you wish to explore a potential fit for me in your organization, please visit my LinkedIn Profile.
Feel free to message me, but note: I do not accept connection requests from people I do not have an established or previous working relationship with.