Hey, I'm Cj, a self-taught developer from Cleveland

Hey everyone. I'm Cj, I'm 40, and I'm from Cleveland, Ohio. Born and raised, wouldn't have it any other way.

By day I work as a magnetic particle inspector, examining aircraft components for structural integrity. By night I write code. I've been at it since I was a teenager, decades of self-teaching, no CS degree, no bootcamp. Just a kid who got curious about computers and never stopped. I'm comfortable across multiple languages at this point, but the obsession has always been less about any specific stack and more about building things that actually work.

Right now I'm deep into my first full-scale app build, a cross-platform project with iOS, Android, and desktop versions. It's been about five months of 14-hour days, nights, weekends, and holidays. I'm completely bootstrapped, no investors, no team, just me. It's been the most challenging and rewarding thing I've ever worked on, and I'm getting close to launch.

Outside of code, I'm a gamer. PC, console, whatever's in front of me. Big sci-fi fan, the classics especially (Alien, Terminator, Matrix, that era). Other than that I'm usually just hanging out with friends or finding something new to get obsessed with for a few weeks.

Personality-wise, I don't take myself too seriously. My friends would probably describe me as sarcastic before anything else, which I consider a compliment.

I'm here to meet other builders, learn from people who've launched before, and get familiar with the community ahead of my own launch. Happy to chat about solo development, bootstrapping, or whatever.

Nice to meet you all.