About Me

profile photo

As a seasoned technology leader and hands-on software architect with 30+ years in the industry, I've built and scaled products for startups, scale-ups, and global brands alike. My foundation is deeply technical full-stack engineering, C#/.NET, distributed systems, and high-performance data platforms but over the years I've repeatedly stepped into CTO roles to lead teams, define product strategy, and turn ambitious ideas into shipping, scalable software.

Today, I'm the CTO of ShotDeck, where I lead the technical vision and modernization of the world's largest cinematic image library. My work spans AI-powered semantic search, large-scale media processing, cloud infrastructure, and building highly scalable systems that serve creative professionals worldwide.

Previously, I served as CTO of Megafans, an esports and competitive gaming platform that scaled to over a million users. There, I led multiple international engineering teams and built the tournament, payments, and real-time systems that enabled multiplayer competitions with cash, crypto, and digital rewards.

Beyond traditional engineering, I actively leverage AI and machine learning to solve real product problems from matchmaking and anti-cheat systems to embeddings, semantic search, and intelligent media tagging. I'm equally passionate about emerging tech, including blockchain and Web3, where I've launched NFT collections, collaborated with regulators on the first legal ICO in Canada, and led an Ethereum-based IDO raising over $2M.

At heart, I'm a builder who loves turning complex ideas into simple, reliable products and helping teams ship faster and smarter.

If you're into tech, startups, AI, or swapping stories over coffee (or a beer), I'm always happy to connect.

Download Resume Contact Me
Experience

  • Jan 2025 - Present

    ShotDeck (Worlds largest collection of high resolution cinematic media)

    CTO

    • Led complete rewrite of ShotDeck to a Flutter multi-platform

    • Architected AI-powered semantic search using embeddings, vector databases (pgvector), and hybrid metadata + keyword indexing across millions of cinematic assets

    • Built large-scale media ingestion, tagging, and ML pipelines for automated metadata and intelligent discovery features (Similar Images, technical tagging, search relevance, color matching)

    • Built Silo'd AI services to identify scene and clip boundries, allowing video playback

    • Designed parallel-run migration strategy enabling zero-downtime rollout alongside legacy systems with safe rollback

    • Consolidated cloud infrastructure across AWS and Cloudflare (R2/CDN), improving global delivery while reducing storage and bandwidth costs

    • Implemented automated CI/CD pipelines with GitHub and Azure DevOps for reliable, repeatable releases

    • Led distributed engineering teams and external AI vendors; established architecture standards, planning processes, and delivery discipline

    • Scaled the platform to support millions of images and high-volume creative users while improving reliability, performance, and maintainability

  • Jan 2019 - Jan 2026

    MegaFans

    Co-Founder, CTO, and Server-Side Developer for MegaFans, a leading esports mobile gaming platform

    • Oversaw the development of entire server-side API code, enabling players to turn any mobile game into a competitive, leaderboard-based challenge

    • Integrated AI-driven systems for player matchmaking, cheat detection, and tournament optimization, enhancing fairness and engagement

    • Graduated from TechStars Web3 Accelerator program

    • Utilized C# .Net Core 5.0, Web3 (NFT and ERC20 smart contract integration), and SQL Server to bring the platform to life

    • Successfully raised $2 million in an ERC20 token launchpad, including 2 NFT sales

    • Created partnerships with MetaVerse games and the Polygon blockchain

    • Implemented Azure DevOps CI/CD and Signal R for live tournament leaderboards

    • Served as CTO for a team of 15 developers

    • Strong passion for esports and extensive technical expertise driving the success of MegaFans.

  • Sept 2020 - July 2021

    7xPowered (Remote call centre software for Rogers Communications)

    Software Development Manager and Server-Side Developer

    • Moved all products onto Azure

    • Successfully transferred development team into Microsoft Devops

    • Automated Release Pipelines from GIT Repo merge

    • Azure Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment

    • Rewrote entire backend server API code all main products

    • Restructured Azure hosted MSQL Databases

    • Implemented SignalR for real time communication

    • Twilio SMS 2 way communication between customer & client

    • Introduced WEBRTC video

    • Realtime Chat between Team Leads and Sales Specialists

    • Automation of reports to Rogers

    • Increased speed of existing API by 7000%

    • Developed a credit card payment system for Rogers

    • C# .Net5 backend

    • Redis Cache brought in for fast efficient responses

    • Hired developers and built out a QA team

  • Oct 2016 - Jan 2019

    RewardMob

    Co-Founder, C.T.O, Blockchain and Server-Side Developer

    • Founder & Owner of Blockchain based Esports mobile gaming platform

    • 200,000 Users and 40,000 DAU

    • Deployed node on the Waves Blockchain

    • Created our own company crypto currency

    • Implimented Waves and Tron Blockchain

    • Raised over $2.5 million in funds

    • Ran the first ever legal ICO in Canada

    • C# .Net WebAPI 2 backend

    • C# .Net Core

    • Gift Cards to winners

    • Zendesk Integration

    • Microsoft SQL Server Database

    • Hosted on Microsoft Azure

  • Jul 2011 - Oct 2016

    QHR Technologies

    Senior Systems Developer

    • EMR

    • Created an ETL tool for migrating medical data

    • Written in C# for conversion of various data platforms (MS Access, Oracle, My SQL, Advantage RDBMS, FoxPro, 4D, Google Calendar, Excel, CSV and fixed length files) to MS SQL Databases

    • Created a document converter to convert Word (.doc and .docx), Tiff, Jpg, Bmp, WordStar, Foxit, PDF, RTF, and CSV into PDF to allow for viewing in Accuro - QHR's EMR software document viewer

    • Created proprietary forms using Angular JS. The forms included digital signoffs and added security layers which I developed using Java, HTML and Java script

  • Feb 2001 - Jan 2011

    TRW Automotive

    European Lead Developer

    • ERP for large multi national automotive and aerospace manufacturer

    • C, UNIX, INFORMIX ESQLC/4GL & C# and Adobe Flash, large scale Informix Database

    • Responsibilities included management of the development team and sourcing and design of new projects

    • Developed an EDI system for our clients

    • Implemented a Lot Trace system, which labels and identifies every gear by barcode produced by TRW. This created a 200% speed increase in production and allowed the traceability of every part produced by the factories

    • Increased the efficiency of processes including invoicing, SOP and finance processing by up to 200%.

  • Motorola

    European Lead Developer

    • European Lead developer for The Dolphin Telecom project based in Germany and Israel.

    • Creating test software and firmware for Motorola handsets

    • Ability for test engineers to diagnose the entire network based on GPS and signal strength measures.

    • Microsoft Visual C++

    • Microsoft Visual Basic

  • Vodafone

    UK Lead Developer

    • Developed a new billing system in ESQLC and Informix 4GL which increased efficiencies by 500% over the legacy system.

    • Rewrote the Call Processing system to automatically retrieve call files from Vodafone & Cellnet networks. This increased efficiencies by 300%.

    • Developed additional programs for corporate customers to assist in reporting of data.

    • Managed the migration of new billing systems onto a global system. This required the writing of a legacy system in VB to allow viewing of the old data.

    • Managed a team in developing a separate billing system for the National Health Service (NHS).

    • Developed the first Pay as You Go plan

  • Orange

    Analyst Programmer

    • Developed their first billing system in ESQLC and Informix 4GL in UNIX.

    • Designed and developed billing processes which resulted in reduction of space requirements by 70%.

    • Designed and developed barcode technologies which resulted in faster and more accurate delivery of billing

  • MAX International

    Jr to Analyst Programmer

    • C Code working on an ERP system

    • Informix and Oracle databases

Education

  • North American Bachelor's Degree Equivalent

    Brunel Tech, Bristol England

    Bachelor of Technology (BTech) in Computer Programming

    City and Guilds in Computer Science

  • High School

    Marlwood School, Bristol, England

Years of Tech Skills

Development
32
Databases
32
C#
10
.Net
20
.Net Core
20
SQL Server
20
Azure
4
ETL
20
C/UNIX
20
Web3 Blockchain
3
HTML
5
Leadership
24

My Industries

EMR
6

Years

ERP
19

Years

Gaming
4

Years

Telecoms
7

Years

Let's Work Together

I am available for freelance.

Contact Me

Where I have Worked

ShotDeck
Megafans
RewardMob
QHR
7xPowered
TRW
Motorola
Vodafone
Orange
Infor

A few testimonials

Nicola Austin

Colin did an incredible job writing our ETL tools for the DataTeam at QHR. It stands in his testiment that they are still being used on a daily basis today.

Nicola Austin

Data Team Manager, QHR

Jeff Donnelley

I have worked with Colin for several years on multiple projects and consider him best in class with regard to lead programming design, development, infrastructure and trouble shooting. Colin is easy to communicate with and works well at every level to help create a supportive team environment. I continue to work with Colin as he consistently operates at the highest level within any organization, to produce top shelf software that is effective and solid state.

Jeff Donnelley

CEO, Megafans

Andrew Bodis

Rock Star!

Andrew Bodis

CTO, The Development Factory

Want to Talk?

Always available for coffee...

Kelowna, BC, Canada


[email protected]