About

I’m William Baxter, owner and operator of SuperScript since 1991.

SuperScript passed through various phases enroute to its current form: A provider of high-end technical typography; A producer of open-source networking utilities; A dormant site while other jobs took precedence; A blog about esoteric corners of the UNIX world; Home to a technology consultancy.

My experience and expertise are in linking business to implementation, starting with the vision and connecting it all the way down to technology delivery.

• Identify the main obstacles to delivery of the vision.
• Validate a clear set of business objectives.
• Communicate the business needs to everyone.
• Formulate roadmaps to fulfill those needs.
• Prioritize for implementation.
• Optimize the implementation value stream.
• Deliver technology providing business value.

A great deal goes unsaid in this list. If you’ve been there and done that you know what I mean.

Any business has opportunity to improve in several of these areas. My work with clients builds sustainable value-delivery systems.

Background #

Unlike many CTOs I did not grow up programming. I studied mathematics at UC Berkeley, and began programming on the department’s VAX 750⊕ Or maybe a VAX 780. through an ADM-3A terminal. I bought my first home computer shortly thereafter, having discovered that programming is the ultimate computer game. There is always one more level to reach!

A strong taste for the simple made me a lasting fan of UNIX programming. If you need expertise in Windows, I’m not your guy. If you want a simple, modular, and adaptable architecture that derives from problem-focused understanding, let’s talk!

Experience #

Programming launched me through many areas as a solo contributor, manager, and entrepreneur.

High-end technical book publishing at⊕ I received a letter, two checks, and a phone call from Donald Knuth for identifying bugs in $\TeX$. SuperScript using $\LaTeX{}$ for textbooks.

Network service utilities at SuperScript such as open-source UCSPI protocols for local domain and ssl sockets.

Email marketing platforms at CheetahMail where we built the worlds largest email service provider.

Infrastructure at Bloomberg, reimplementing the code-commit infrastructure used by more than 1700 programmers.

Mortgage at Bloomberg, where I owned the compute farms, led upgrades to the OASN batch client, and was technical liaison for Structured-Products API.

Non-relational databases at FocusDB, designing and implementing an event-streaming database.

Predictive systems at Proclivity. My team achieved 50-fold improvement in processing speed in the analytics platform.

Reservation systems at Tablet. My team rebuilt a failing system into scaling platform.

Fintech at Vertalo.⊕ An SEC-registered transfer agent. My team built an API-first, SEC-compliant data-management platform for traditional and tokenized securities.

Coaching #

I have built and coached teams with clients, coached executives, and managed engagements at many organizations, lifting performance at all levels. Clients include Consumer Reports, Time, Angie’s List, Hertz, A&E Networks, Goldman Sachs, St Jude Medical, Anthem, and Capital Group.

Programming Languages #

C, Lua, Node, Perl, PostgreSQL, Python, Shell, Terraform

Cloud Platforms #

AWS

Other Pursuits #

Austin CTO Club : The premier peer group for CTOs in Austin, Texas. Local senior technology leaders should join. Register for our events on Meetup.

Lean Coffee Austin : A biweekly open discussion forum, co-organized with Duri Chitayat, fellow veteran of the NYC Lean/Kanban lean coffee.

Shoto-Kai Karate : Practitioner and teacher. My practice started in 1987, and I ran a club in New York City from 2001 through 2010.

Instalore : A platform for capturing and sharing organizational lore.