Judson Dunne

1. Founder & CEO

   · Locava

   From 2023 · Team of 8

   Locava helps you discover and share the coolest spots around you, from hidden swimming holes to scenic overlooks. Join thousands exploring amazing places.

   • 10k+ organic users, zero paid acquisition
   • ~50% weekly retention
   • 8,000+ posts created by users
   • 742k lines of TypeScript across the monorepo

   TypeScript · React Native · Expo Router · Fastify · Next.js · Zod · Firestore · Redis · Google Cloud Run · Cloud Tasks · BigQuery · Mapbox · ML Kit · sharp · OpenTelemetry

   Full breakdown→

2. Founder & developer

   · RidgeSync

   Side project

   An all-in-one backpacking trip planner. Use RidgeSync to plan mileage and elevation, camping sites and water sources, and much more.

   • 3 platforms: web, iPhone and Apple Watch
   • 7 trail datasets built from raw OpenStreetMap
   • 100% of a planned trip works with no signal
   • 120k lines of TypeScript

   TypeScript · React 19 · Vite · Expo · Expo Router · watchOS · Supabase · PostgreSQL · Mapbox GL · Valhalla · Turf.js · PMTiles · TanStack Query · Tailwind · RevenueCat · PostHog

   Full breakdown→

3. Head of User Interface

   · SpaceOna

   Oct 2023 to Apr 2025 · Philadelphia, PA · remote

   Head of UI for eighteen months, turning IoT sensor data into a live answer about physical spaces.

   React · Tailwind · UI/UX · Design systems

   Full breakdown→

4. Lead Product Manager

   · Insight Lab

   Spring 2025 · Easton, PA

   Lead PM on a cross-disciplinary team turning U.S. Census data into policy recommendations.

   Azure ML · GenAI · Python · Product management

   Full breakdown→

5. Founder · Blacksmith & Head of Marketing/Sales

   · Misty Mountain Forge

   Apr 2020 to Jun 2023 · Hartland, VT

   The blacksmith shop I built at fourteen and ran for three years, on the Ottauquechee River.

   • Age 14 built the forge myself
   • Hundreds of pieces forged, listed and shipped
   • 3 years run as a business
   • Coal → gas converted the shop

   Wrought iron · Production · Marketing & sales · Teaching

   Full breakdown→

6. Creator

   · throttlekit

   2026

   A rate-limiting library with three algorithms behind one API, and tests for the cases that bite.

   TypeScript · Jest · GitHub Actions

   Full breakdown→

Lafayette College

Computer Science (BS) · Class of 2027 · Easton, PA

After running Misty Mountain Forge for 3 years, I decided to find a new way to build things, still with my hands, but in software. Junior year of high school I took Harvard’s CS50 class that was credited through my high school, and instantly fell in love. So much so, that I convinced a Dartmouth professor to allow me to take his software engineering class at the nearby Dartmouth college while I was still only 17. From that moment onward, I knew building software was what I wanted to do.

Based

Easton, PA · Quechee, VT

Studying

Computer Science, Lafayette ’27

Coding since

Age 12

Forging since

Age 14

1. 2025

   Pre-seed round raised

   Locava

   Hired and led a team of eight: two full-time engineers and six interns.

2. 2025

   1st place, Big Idea Pitch Competition

   Dyer Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Lafayette College

   $1,500 prize for Locava, with Will Gottfried ’27 and Ethan Melgar ’27.

3. 2024

   1st place, Lehigh Valley Hackathon

   Lehigh Valley, PA

   24 hours, built and shipped on the theme of helping the local community.

4. 2023

   Best Visual Design, Rivalry Hackathon

   Lafayette College × Lehigh University ACM

   With Jack Marich ’27 and Kevin Nusom ’27.

Languages

• Python
• TypeScript
• JavaScript
• Kotlin
• SQL
• HTML/CSS

AI & ML

• GenAI workflows
• LLM agents
• On-device ML (ML Kit)
• Vector search / embeddings
• Azure ML

Backend & data

• Node.js
• Express
• REST
• GraphQL (Apollo)
• Firestore
• PostgreSQL
• Firebase

Cloud & infra

• Cloud Run
• Cloud Tasks
• Cloud Build
• GitHub Actions
• Wasabi (S3)

Frontend & mobile

• React
• Next.js
• React Native
• Tailwind
• Kotlin Multiplatform
• Jetpack Compose

Testing & observability

• Jest
• Espresso
• XCTest
• Regression suites
• Telemetry

• The Lafayette · April 18, 2025

  New student-made app to highlight local spots↗

• Lafayette — the alumni magazine · 2025

  App alert↗

• Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation · April 10, 2025

  Innovation Showcased at Lehigh Valley Pitch Competitions↗

• Dyer Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Lafayette College · April 2025

  Big Idea Pitch Competition — 2025 winners↗

• Lafayette College ACM chapter · 2024

  Rivalry Hackathon↗

• Apple · Listed since 2024

  Locava on the App Store↗

What do you actually build?

Whole products, not one layer of one. On Locava that meant the Node backend behind a GraphQL and REST API, both native mobile clients, the Firestore data layer with vector search, the Google Cloud infrastructure, the CI pipeline and the design system. I’m most useful where nobody has drawn the boundaries yet.

What kind of role are you after?

Full-stack engineering, or anything where the job is to take a product from nothing to something real people use. I’ve done that twice now and it’s the part I want more of — startups, founding-engineer seats, small teams that ship. I always answer other founders.

Do you lead teams, or just write the code?

Both, and the second one took more learning. At Locava that was eight people — two full-time engineers and six interns — which meant scope, sprint planning, code review, and writing decisions down instead of keeping them in my head.

How do you like to work?

Small scope, short loops, real users early, telemetry from day one. Locava had logging and crash tracking before it had a launch date, and that’s the only reason I could debug production and ship features in the same week.

What’s the blacksmithing about?

Misty Mountain Forge — a real shop on the Ottauquechee River that I built at fourteen and ran as a business for three years. It’s on here because it’s the first thing I made that strangers paid me for.

What are you doing when you’re not working?

Training, mostly. Swim, bike, run, and a lot of Vermont dirt roads. In winter it’s summits in the Whites with crampons and an axe.