About Cousin Wil

I am a creative technologist who likes to try and learn to “make things” in various disciplines in my free time. Each unrelated expertise brings new ways to think about solving problems, be it with my day job or with making music, short films, photos zines (coming soon,) and oddball sound or video rigs.

Also, it’s just a ton of fun.

I grew up with a father and stepmother who were professional software engineers. They gifted me all the individual parts for a computer rather than a car for my 16th birthday, and I got grounded for the first time for creating a pirate BBS on my dad’s work from home computer. I was always very technically inclined from a very young age.

But, at the same time, I took every art class my schools had, would rate well in most disciplines (except sculpture/pottery), and would take additional college art classes in the summers. I loved drawing and painting, but as an adult I’ve felt more compelled by art forms, and/or roles within those art forms, that require deeper technical knowledge. It stimulates both sides of my brain, and allows me to use as much of my operational capacity as possible at once. Fun.

Professionally, I have been a senior engineer, product consultant, founder, and engineering leader for unicorn San Francisco startups, product engineering teams, multi-billion dollar public companies, fortune 500 companies. and global research engineering teams. I specialize in cloud software product and engineering, organizational theory, optimizing team workflow and chemistry, building tangibile culture for remote organizations, and particularly in process optimization for growing engineering teams.

Through my new company, M4RL (Made 4 Real Life), and its subsidiary M4RLvision & cineM4RL projects, I hope to produce audio/video content, sell custom made goods, rent affordable audio and video gear, and more!