Simons
Development Labs
← StudioDownload PDF ↓

One-page layout for Letter or A4. Turn off browser headers and footers when printing.

Will Simons

Solo Founder & Software Engineer

San Francisco, CA · will@simons.dev · simons.dev · github.com/bigredwill

Software engineer and solo founder building skateboard.fyi, a research platform for skateboard print culture. Previously built web products, publishing systems, and acquisition flows at Glowforge.

Experience

skateboard.fyi · Solo Founder & Software Engineer

2025–Present

  • Founded and independently develop an archive and research platform for skateboard print culture; published 281 issues and 15,000+ pages as of October 2026.
  • Built magazine browsing, full-text search, annotation tools, and an ingestion pipeline combining local OCR, image derivatives, object storage, and database indexing.
  • Expanded into physical digitization in December 2025, establishing a DIY scanning workflow and developing tools to process and publish magazine scans.

Independent · Freelance Software Engineer

May 2023–Present

  • Overhauled osc.link, a real-time WebSocket control interface for multi-user media installations; streamlined GitHub Actions CI/CD.
  • Migrated hundreds of Glowforge pages into Builder.io using Next.js, React, and Bash automation. Built interactive maps, event scoreboards, and landing pages.

Glowforge · Software Engineer

Nov 2018–Jan 2023

  • Migrated the marketing website to Next.js with Lambda@Edge and Optimizely A/B testing; led the CMS migration from Contentful to Builder.io.
  • Built an email capture flow that increased user acquisition 10×; tracked web performance using New Relic.
  • Resolved performance bottlenecks with zero-downtime infrastructure updates, led a frontend monorepo migration, and published internal npm packages.
  • Mentored engineers, led a sitewide rebrand using a new design system, and built features for the laser-cutter design tools using Redux.

Avast · Software Engineer

Aug 2016–Sep 2017

  • Built high-traffic, accessible React applications and landing pages. Led a transition to component-based architecture, collaborated on a design system, and interviewed engineering candidates.

Skills

TypeScript, JavaScript, Astro, Preact, React, Next.js, SQL, Drizzle, Cloudflare Workers/R2, Docker, CI/CD, Swift / Apple Vision

Education

San Jose State University — B.S. Computer Science, 2016