About Me

Hi I'm James Russo and this is where I'll be writing down my thoughts and experiences mostly involving software and web development. However, fairwarning any number of other topics can pop up into this blog. This is my first attempt at a blog, and as an engineer I apologize in advance for my writing and design skills. Hopefully they will improve as I work on this more and more.

I am currently working at Empirical Health a proactive primary care provider utilizing wearable devices and AI to help patients manage their health.

Previously I worked at Brex, where I initially worked on the Brex Business Account product, building modern technology to replace antiquated banking systems. Later, I transitioned to internal developer tooling, helping to scale from tens to hundreds of engineers building tools like a CLI using Golang + Cobra, a developer portal using Backstage, and a modern microservices testing platform using Signadot. Lastly, I worked on the Brex Bill Pay product, helping businesses manage their accounts payable.

Before Brex, I worked as a fullstack engineer in NYC for Rockets of Awesome, a childrens clothing subscription service and ecommerce brand. I also was the first engineer at an IoT and Analytics startup called Iterate Labs which wants to use data-driven insights to develop safer and more comfortable workplaces.

In 2017, I graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. in Computer Science, where I concentrated in Machine Learning and also researched Systems, Security, and Blockchain technologies under Emin Gun Sirer and Soumya Basu .

Some of my favorite websites to read and stay up to date with tech and web development are Hacker News and TechCrunch. I also read the following newsletters on a weekly or daily basis for tech and software related news and information: Lab Notes, Software Lead Weekly, Founder Weekly, Javascript Weekly, Ruby Weekly, and Elixir Weekly. A few other weekly or daily newsletters I follow are: Axios AM, The Daily Skimm, TLDR, and This Week in Fintech.