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Kevin Borders
Founder and CEO at minware
Kevin Borders is the Founder and CEO of minware, a company focused on making software engineering more accessible and efficient. Here are some key points about his background and experience:
Education
Kevin Borders holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering and a Ph.D. in Computer Science, both from the University of Michigan, which he attended from 2001 to 2009.23
Professional Experience
- Founder and CEO at minware: Since August 2021, Kevin has been leading minware, aiming to simplify software engineering for everyone, leveraging lessons from his experience in growing remote engineering teams.123
- Chief Technology Officer at Foreground: From March 2021 to July 2021, he managed a 40-person engineering team and oversaw architecture and technical business strategy.23
- Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Collage.com: From September 2007 to March 2021, Kevin played a crucial role in growing the company from its inception to $86 million in revenue, culminating in a private equity sale.123
- Security Researcher: He has worked in various security roles, including at the National Security Agency (NSA), Microsoft, and Arbor Networks.123
- President and Founder at Web Tap Security, Inc.: From September 2006 to May 2010, Kevin led this security-focused company.123
- Advisor at Cataphora: From January 2010 to December 2013, he provided advisory services.123
- Global Network Exploitation Analyst at NSA: Early in his career, from September 2001 to September 2004, Kevin worked in this role.123
Other Roles
Kevin also served as a Graduate Student Research Assistant at the University of Michigan from September 2004 to May 2009.123
Personal Preferences and Philosophy
Kevin is known for disliking buzzwords, open office spaces, company politics, egos, waste, and inefficiency, reflecting his practical and results-oriented approach to business and technology.1
Overall, Kevin Borders brings a wealth of experience in technology, cybersecurity, leadership, and business strategy to his role as the Founder and CEO of minware.
Highlights
CEOs: don't put your engineers in this position. I've been in it and it sucks. Track unnecessary fire drills and hold people accountable -- it's easier than you might think! https://lnkd.in/d5exu_rs
We’ve all seen someone drowning in urgent requests. Whenever a new task comes in, they stop and work on it – hoping to finish before the next interruption.
Everyone knows they’re overloaded, so they keep following up on Slack: “Is it done yet? This is really important, it’s for XYZ!”
So much time is wasted communicating and context switching that barely any is left for the work itself, which further exacerbates the problem. This overhead that would disappear if you just worked on the same tasks one-at-a-time in order is your interruption tax.
While it’s easy to see this happening first hand, actually measuring it so you can track the severity of the problem across an organization is tricky.
Read more here about how to calculate the cost of interruptions (on your own or with minware), and systematically manage prioritization as you scale your engineering organization:
