Taking contract builds Remote
AI at every step after the idea
iOS, web, backend and the AI features inside them, built and shipped by one engineer. 17 years shipping software; the sole iOS engineer behind Rumble Studio.
Hiring full-time? See my résumé PDF
Rumble
Imgur
DocuSign
Workday
WalmartTaking contract builds
I take on 2–3 contract builds at a time, remote from Roanoke, VA (Eastern time).
Idea to launched iOS and/or web app, including the backend.
Assistants, summaries, agents, and Claude/MCP integrations in the product you have.
Proof: Marv and “Catch me up” on Men of Hunger. Autodemia’s model routing keeps AI spend below revenue.
A stalled, buggy, or rejected iOS app, unstuck and shipped.
Rate: $150/hr, or a fixed price per scope. How I build
Products I built end to end
AutodemiaAI study partner. 260+ merged pull requests in its first week. Case study 
Men of HungerAPI, web, iOS, and Android, plus Marv, its AI assistant. Case study Rumble StudioSole iOS developer. 2,000+ creators within months of launch. Case study Also open to remote, full-time Founding Engineer, Product Engineer, AI Engineer, or Forward Deployed Engineer roles.
How I build
AI coding agents, mostly Claude Code, do most of the typing. I own the product decisions, the architecture, and every code review.
Lint, type checks, and tests run on every pull request. If they fail, it doesn’t merge.
AI features ship with cost and quality controls: model routing, usage caps, and tests.
The same person takes it from design to the App Store, so nothing gets lost in a handoff.
Latest big project Shipped
I built Rumble Studio for iOS from scratch as its sole developer, then shipped every update on iPhone and iPad. The same iPad app runs on Vision Pro, with custom UI so eye tracking can highlight each control.
2,000+ creators adopted Studio by May 2024. Some who went live with it:
More creators in the Studio case study“The Rumble Studio feature is incredible. Effortless streaming on multiple platforms at the same time.”
Building now
Meet Marv
Marv is the AI assistant I built for Autodemia and Men of Hunger. He’s the same character in both, plain and direct, but he does a different job in each.
On AutodemiaOn every screen
Ask from anywhere (⌘J). He already knows the lesson, question, or card you’re on.
Explains and checks
Answers from your own sources with checked citations, and grades your work without handing you the answer.
Builds things to try
Makes interactive widgets with sliders and challenges, and finds real images to learn from.
Talk or argue
Talk to him out loud, or argue with him: he takes a wrong side and you have three turns to change his mind.
On Men of HungerCatch me up Case study
Briefs a long thread from its replies, images, and the public profiles of the people in it. It’s his main job.
Chat and current events
Message him, or @marv him in a thread or group. He knows what’s happening on Men of Hunger right now and searches the web for the news.
Tasks and a morning brief
Hand him a task and he checks his own work before calling it done. Your morning brief only arrives when something changed. Anything he’d change for you waits for your OK.
For admins
Answers questions about site data and analytics, and drafts newsletters, report reviews, and verification calls for a person to approve.
He gets better on his own in both. Once a day he reviews how his answers landed, from corrections, pushback, and reactions, and writes himself plain-language lessons. Nothing private makes it into them.
The personal side of building
I build with AI at work, but I also use it to solve problems at home, preserve family history, and keep track of my finances.
I’m building an AI biographer for my memoir. Custom tools connect letters, photos, stories, and interviews through a graph of people and relationships, developing the book, a wiki, and a family tree.
Letters add a voice. Connections give it context.
I use household agents with my wife, connecting Linear home tasks, calendars, and email. A morning brief helps us get going. Evening wins help us close the day.
What’s coming up. What needs attention.
I use AI to organize my income, spending, expenses, and assets into a clearer picture of my finances.
Less scattered. More understandable. Illustrative workflow · no account data
Career
2009 to today. Drag through it, or use the arrow keys.
Northern Kentucky UniversityWorkdayDocuSignImgur
Layer
Eligible
AD:60
Airside MobileWalmart Labs
Supersapiens
Rite Aid
CallinRumble2023 – 2026
Lead iOS Developer (Studio) · Senior iOS Developer (Video)
Sole iOS developer for Rumble Studio, a livestreaming app that streams to six platforms at once, adopted by 2,000+ creators by May 2024. Built it from scratch to the App Store with the backend and design teams, set the iOS technical direction, and owned every update on iPhone, iPad, and Vision Pro.
Joined via Callin acquisition · May 2023
Excerpt from James Whitney’s recommendation
…John single-handedly built the Rumble Studio app from the ground up.
James WhitneyStudio Lead at RumbleManaged John at Rumble Read the full recommendation Outside of tech Husband 3 kids and counting Landlord
