# Will Turnage — Founding Engineer > Founding engineer who ships production software, designs systems, and builds products from zero to one. 20+ years building across startups, venture studios, and product companies. ## Contact - Email: will@turnage.co - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/willturnage/ - Wellfound: https://wellfound.com/p/wubbahed - Website: https://turnage.co ## How I Work ### Ship end-to-end I work across the full stack — React frontends, Python and Node backends, Postgres and MongoDB, AWS and GCP. I own features from first commit to production and care about the details at every layer. ### Build with AI intentionally I bring the same engineering rigor to AI that I bring to everything else: ship it, measure it, and be honest about what it can't do. ### Thrive in ambiguity I've co-founded startups, built products inside venture studios, and shipped software at scale. I'm comfortable when the problem is unclear and the roadmap doesn't exist yet. ## What I've Built ### Platebook (2026 — present) Founder and sole engineer. Multi-agent meal planning app with a preference modeling system, hierarchical food taxonomy, and five-stage recipe processing pipeline. Hybrid architecture (70-80% deterministic, 20-30% LLM-powered) to balance reliability with intelligent recommendations. - Stack: TypeScript, React, Fastify, Supabase, Cloud Run, Pub/Sub, Anthropic SDK ### BruceAI (2025 — 2026) AI-powered supplier compliance platform for food manufacturers and copackers. Built intelligent document verification, automated supplier onboarding with real-time progress tracking, and a centralized compliance dashboard for instant audit readiness. Backed by 1848 Ventures. - Stack: React, Python, OpenAI, Fine-tuned LLMs, AWS ### Promoly (2024) AI-optimized grocery promotions. Built predictive modeling and big data analytics to help retailers optimize their weekly promotional mix for maximum revenue and profit. Backed by 1848 Ventures. - Stack: React, Python, H2O.ai, Predictive Modeling, AWS ### ReMo (2023 — 2024) Led engineering to replatform an edTech SaaS product from the ground up — cloud migration, user interviews, data model restructure, AI capabilities, and a completely rebuilt interface. - Stack: TypeScript, React, Next.js, MongoDB, Atlas App Services ### DutchPot (2022 — 2023) Co-founder and founding engineer for a B2B SaaS startup focused on compliance for foodservice and hospitality. Built the product, cloud architecture, and launched a customer-facing pilot through the Roux Institute Founders Residency. - Stack: TypeScript, React, Next.js, Firestore, Cloud Functions ### Frequency Breathwork (2020 — 2022) Fractional CTO for a breathwork studio pivoting from in-person to online. Built the Vimeo OTT channel and supporting infrastructure during the COVID pandemic. - Stack: TypeScript, Next.js, Sanity.io, Vimeo OTT, GraphQL ### Umami.AI (2019 — 2020) Dynamic recipe engine that merged ingredients and instructions for Japanese meals. Researched NLP, prototyped AI technology, built a serverless API, and managed an offshore front-end team. - Stack: React, Python, TensorFlow, Spacy, NLTK, AWS Lambda ### Mado (2016 — 2019) CTO for a B2C video chat startup connecting kids with grandparents. Built the engineering team, pivoted from Android hardware to mobile app. Two patents issued from this work. - Stack: Swift, Kotlin, Python, Flask, Docker, AWS CloudFormation ### Punchfork (Advisor) Recipe aggregation startup. Advised on technology. Exited to Pinterest. ### VitalScore (Advisor) Health tech startup. Advised on technology. Exited to Phreesia. ## Work History ### 1848 Ventures (2024 — 2026) Venture Builder in the Innovation Engine team, developing early-stage, AI-powered products for small and medium-sized businesses. Shipped BruceAI (supplier compliance for food manufacturers) and Promoly (AI-optimized grocery promotions). 1848 Ventures is a B2B SaaS venture studio backed by Westfield Insurance. ### I&CO (2016 — 2024) Founding engineering partner at a global innovation firm and product incubation studio with offices in New York, Tokyo, and Singapore. Shipped software across all client engagements and internal products. Built and ran the engineering practice — hiring, onboarding, culture, and technical direction. Acted as hands-on CTO for multiple pre-seed and seed-stage startups including Mado, Frequency Breathwork, and Umami.AI. ### R/GA (2006 — 2016) Ten years building digital products and services across web, mobile, retail, and experiential. Started as an engineer on the Nokia account, grew to lead an engineering team of 40+ in the NYC office. Worked side-by-side with creative and strategy teams and mentored engineering talent. ### Sony Music (2000 — 2006) Led engineering for an internal New Media team building experiences for Sony Music's roster of 2000+ artists — enhanced CDs, PSP titles, online games, websites, and campaigns. ### Accelerators & Advising Technical advisor to startups including Punchfork (exit to Pinterest), VitalScore (exit to Phreesia), and CHRGR. Mentor for five accelerator programs through R/GA Ventures and Techstars. Roux Institute Founders Residency participant. ## Education ### University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Master of Computer Science (MCS), December 2006 ### Boston University Bachelor of Science (BS), Television & Film, May 1995 ## Patents ### US10855952B1 User engagement computer system for enhancing user engagement via video chats using one or more of the following: detecting user presence, automating the establishment and/or scheduling of video chat sessions, providing a kids mode with safeguards for children who video chat, providing visualization of storytelling, providing shared digital interactions via a shared interactive screen, and actively measuring user engagement during a video chat session. - https://patents.google.com/patent/US10855952B1/en?inventor=William+Turnage ### US10140367B2 Apparatus, method and computer program product for characterizing an individual based on musical preferences. - https://patents.google.com/patent/US10140367B2/en?inventor=William+Turnage ## Talks & Publications ### Eight cooking apps I made and never released For the past decade, much of my work focused on foodtech and has been featured in Fast Company, Ars Technica, and Food+Tech Connect. This Medium piece chronicles several ideas I prototyped, but ultimately did not release. - https://medium.com/@wubbahed/eight-cooking-apps-i-made-and-never-released-e70da76767a6 ### Brainstorming Technology First Developed the "Brainstorming Technology First" workshop and methodology at R/GA to help business, design and engineering teams collaborate on new ideas that are both innovative and feasible. Featured at SXSW, 99U, and on Wharton's Marketing Matters podcast. ### Public Speaking SXSW, 99U, JSConf, Taiwan Creative Week, Edible Institute, Carnegie Mellon, UC Boulder, MEMS Executive Congress, LEPE Annual Conference, and the Wharton Marketing Matters Podcast. ### Press FastCompany, 99U, Ars Technica, Digiday, Mother Jones, NYTimes ## Technical Skills ### Languages & Frameworks TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, React, Next.js, Node.js, Fastify, Flask, Django, Swift, Kotlin ### AI & ML OpenAI, Anthropic SDK, Fine-tuned LLMs, Multi-agent systems, TensorFlow, Spacy, NLTK, H2O.ai, NLP, Predictive Modeling ### Databases PostgreSQL, Supabase, MongoDB, Firestore, Redis, AWS Aurora ### Infrastructure & Cloud AWS (Lambda, ECS, CloudFormation, Amplify, Cognito, S3), Google Cloud (Cloud Run, Pub/Sub, Cloud Functions), Vercel, Docker ### Other Git, CI/CD, Serverless architecture, REST APIs, GraphQL, Design systems, Agile/Lean methodologies