Sign In

Kevin Curtin

Fractional CTO / Building new products

Kevin Curtin is a software developer with a strong background in Customer Success, having held roles as a Product Engineer, Systems Engineer, Technical Lead, and Engineering Manager.

He emphasizes the importance of understanding end-users and the significance of the software being developed. Kevin has hands-on experience utilizing technologies such as Ruby, Rails, Elixir, Phoenix, Postgresql, and Javascript in production environments.

He pursued his education at the Flatiron School and obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

Kevin Curtin was previously associated with Contently.

Highlights

Oct 26 · linkedin

Three months ago I left my job as VP of Engineering at Fanatics Collectibles with no real plan other than to take some time off and recharge.

Why did I leave?

The 2 1/2 years I spent at zerocool (acq. by Fanatics) and Fanatics Collectibles were a whirlwind. I built zerocool - a direct to consumer blind dutch auction experience for non-sports trading cards. We had 10’s of thousands of people sign up and bid on our first two product releases and I discovered the challenges of building consumer products. Post-launch we changed gears and started hiring and building what would become Fanatics Live - a live shopping XP for trading cards that launched in July. While this was going on, we absorbed the engineering org of Topps (also acquired) and set about trying to modernize the underlying tech for the business. There were mergers, acquisitions, spinoffs, re-orgs and lots and lots of growth - we went from 0-45 engineers in around 9 months!

I learned a ton, but was spending 99% of my time on things that didn’t give me energy: budget, legal CYA, building consensus w/ misaligned stakeholders, etc. - all things that are necessary when leading an org within a large company but that are far removed from the day-to-day work of actually building great products. I was climbing the wrong hill and needed a change, so I left.

What now?

I’m getting back to doing what I enjoy most: building great products with great people. Simple as that. Part-time, full-time, freelance - it doesn’t matter to me as long as we are building and using technology to solve problems. Think of this post as a beacon to folks I’ve collaborated with in the past: I want to hear about what you’re working on and how I can help.

Related Questions

What is Scoped, and what does it do?
How did Kevin Curtin transition from Fanatics Collectibles to founding Scoped?
What are some key projects Kevin Curtin has worked on at J.P. Morgan?
What skills does Kevin Curtin specialize in for digital marketing?
How has Kevin Curtin's career evolved over the years?
Kevin Curtin
Kevin Curtin, photo 1
Kevin Curtin, photo 2
Add to my network

Location

Syracuse, New York, United States