Founder | Digital Product Builder
I’m a social entrepreneur and digital product builder. My mission is to build great big things that serve the builders, the users, communities, and society. I care about building (and helping others build) tech that brings more equity, access, and dignity.
💬 👉 To get involved with CivicReach.ai, drop a line: ✉️ chip@civicreach.ai
🛠️ 👉 Founder looking for one-on-one digital product help? Learn more: Digital Product Building for Startups
📚 👉 Interested in my next Tech for Founders class? Signup on maven.com.
📐 👉 Interested in the Research Triangle, NC tech community? You should be - follow me on LinkedIn for events/opportunities and follow our calendar for Triangle Tech Night events.
Guides
Engagements
The Amalgamation
🏛️ Government Tech
Product Advisor | Marketplace and Product Strategy, Product Architecture
🌐 Underutilized Small Business Collective
📰 Triangle Biz Journal: Startup's plan to get more contracts to minorities? Form a collective
Guaranteed Health
🥼 Digital Health
VP of Product and Engineering | Digital Health Product Strategy, Product Architecture, Technical Product Management
🌐 Hybrid End of Life Healthcare
🎧 Podcast: The human side of technology with Chip Kennedy of Guaranteed Health
Parachute Health
🥼 Digital Health
Product Manager | Marketplace and Product Strategy, Product Architecture, Technical Product Management
🌐 ePrescribing Healthcare Platform
📚The Next Chapter: Parachute Health
📰 Built In: 48 Healthcare Technology Startups and Companies on the Forefront of Modern Medicine
Tastemakers Africa
✈️ Travel
CTO | Marketplace Product Strategy, Product Architecture, Technical Product Management, Software Engineering, Data Science
🌐 Community and Travel Marketplace
📰 TechCrunch: Tastemakers raises $1M to sell Africa experiences to the world
Periodikal
🏦 FinTech
Product Advisor + Interim CTO | SaaS Product Strategy, Wireframe Prototyping, Product Architecture, Technical Product Management
NYC Office of Technology and Innovation
🏛️ Government Tech
Client Workshop + Engagement | Project Management, Mission + Brand Consulting
Collectively
Founder + Director of Studio | Team Management, Product Architecture, Mission + Brand Consulting, Community Engagement
GoodWerk
📣 Political Engagement Tech
Client Engagement | Product Architecture, Web Development, Social Community Engagement
Agritecture + AgTech-X
🌳 Environment Tech
Client Workshop + Engagement | Project Management, Mission + Brand Consulting, Community Engagement
Justice for Kurds
Client Workshop + Engagement | Product Management, Theatre Operations, Mission + Brand Consulting, Community Engagement
📰 Theatre Mania: Bernard-Henri Lévy to Present Looking for Europe at the Public Theater (Theater Mania)
Media
Resume
→ founder @ CivicReach.AI
→ host @ Triangle Tech Night
→ technology + product consultant for startups
→ advisor @ The Amalgamation 🪧
—
→ former VP of product and engineering @ Guaranteed Health 🧑⚕️
→ mentor @ Five One Labs 🇮🇶
→ mentor @ Gaza Sky Geeks 🇵🇸
→ advisor, former interim chief technology officer @ Periodikal 🧮
→ former product manager @ Parachute Health 🪂
→ caregiver to my Dad, ALS patient
→ former chief technology officer @ Tastemakers Africa 🌍
→ partner nyc open data week 2018 📈
→ speaker @ impact summit 2018 💡
→ founder and former director of studio @ Collectively 🚀
→ former lead software engineer @ Referrio 📝
→ B.S. computer science @ Case Western Reserve University 🎓
→ caregiver to my Uncle, long-term brain tumor survivor
→ former software engineer @ Lean Dog 🐶
→ former paper boy @ The Patriot Ledger 🗞️
About Me
I've spent 8+ years as an entrepreneur, product builder, and software engineer with a passion of helping startups grow their platforms, ideas, and communities.
From 2021 - 2023, motivated by pandemic lessons at the personal level and society level, I worked specifically with digital healthcare startups. As the VP of Product and engineering at Guaranteed Health, I lead healthcare product, engineering, and technology strategy and execution. I also worked at Parachute Health where I had the privilege of building and scaling their medical ordering platform for medical facilities, suppliers, manufacturers, and health systems, all to improve patient outcomes.
Pre-pandemic, I was CTO of Tastemakers Africa: a community platform centering Black experiences, Black voices, and Black stories across the world. It was the best startup I’ve had the opportunity to build with (and had the best founder I've had the opportunity to run a company with). We built a travel experiences marketplace at scale, created a global virtual community, and brought on fantastic investors - including Precursor Ventures and Flybridge Capital.
On the come up, I found my way in the startup world by founding and running a startup studio: Collectively. We brought on extraordinarily talented product designers and software engineers to work with startups, venture capitalists, and accelerators. We built digital products for some amazing mission-driven organizations and even ran discovery sprints for the NYC Mayor's Office. I’m most proud that we created a valuable community at the intersection of impact startups and product freelancers.
Outside of technologist-ing, I'm always (trying to be) training for my next marathon 👟, reading about politics 🇺🇸, and learning cooking from youtube 🍛.
As a product builder: I think the harder the problem, the better.
I care about clarifying + subdividing challenges, using + creating data ethically, and creating products that make us all better. I'm a resourceful nerd who loves focusing on user journey and business goals.
As a product leader: I think a product is only as good as the team behind it.
I care about building products that bring communities together, building teams that challenge and inspire each other, and scaling up while holding true to mission. I'm a team builder and an empathetic leader.
As a human: I think the internet is a beautiful place, in moderation.
I care about civic engagement, solving systematic societal inequalities, and supporting organizations that work with those who need it most. I'm a critical optimist - never losing appreciation for a challenge, while channeling the innate difficulty into motivation.
Causes I Support
Credits
My avatar is from Naddya Adhiambo Oluoch-Olunya from Nalo Studios (@nalostudios)
Notion Icons from NuttLabs
Photo Credits:
- Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash
- Photo by Liam Edwards on Unsplash
- Photo by Eduardo Barrios on Unsplash
- Photo by Barney Yau on Unsplash
- Photo by Levi Meir Clancy on Unsplash
- Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash
Links
Startup Tech + Product Consulting
Resource LibraryDigital Product Building for StartupsThe Library