Ricky Chilcott

Full-stack, product-focused engineer and entrepreneur.

Athens, OH | [email protected] | 440-223-5715

www.rickychilcott.com | linkedin.com/in/rickychilcott | github.com/rickychilcott

SUMMARY

Job History

Co-Founder @ Stoked (2025 - Current)
CTO/Operator @ Causey (2025 - Current)
Co-Founder/CTO @ Mission Met (2019 - 2025)
Co-Founder & Principal Software Engineer @ Rakefire (2011 - Current)
Technology and Facilities Manager @ Scripps College, Ohio University (2009 - 2017)

Education

M.A. in Communication Ohio University 2016 - Media Management
B.S. in Communication Ohio University 2016 - Audio-Music Production, minor in Business and Music

Top Technologies

Ruby, Rails, JavaScript, Sidekiq, PostgreSQL, Redis, SQLite, Turbo/StimulusJS

Additional Experience With

AI-LLMs, Node.js, Python, Docker, DevOps, CI/CD, TailwindCSS, Design Systems, UNIX Tools

Areas of Interest/Expertise

Ruby on Rails development
Web Application Performance and Operational Efficiency
TDD (Test-driven Development)
Mentoring Software Engineers
Online Payments + Subscriptions
Strategy Planning & Execution
Running a Business and Solving Problems
Self-maintaining systems

TECHNICAL SKILLS

Programming Languages

Ruby, JavaScript/Node.js, Scala, Java, C/C++, HTML, CSS, UNIX Scripting (zsh, bash, sh)

Frameworks

Ruby: Ruby on Rails, Sidekiq, Sinatra, Rack
JavaScript/NodeJS: Turbo/StimulusJS, Webpack, esbuild, React
Testing: RSpec, Jest, Capybara, TDD/Test-driven Testing, Integration Testing
Design Systems: Boostrap, Tailwind CSS, Storybook, ViewComponent, Phlex, Shoelace JS/Web Awesome
DevOps: Docker, Capistrano, Ansible, Puppet

Architecture/Infrastructure

Relational Databases: PostgreSQL, SQLite, AWS RDS
Hosting Platforms: Render, Heroku, AWS
Edge Networking + CDN: Cloudflare, AWS CloudFront
Webserver: nginx, Caddy
WAF + Network Firewall: Cloudflare, RackAttack, AWS
Application Monitoring: Honeybadger, NewRelic, Skylight, Rollbar
Business Intelligence: Redash, Posthog, Blazer
CI/CD: CircleCI, GitHub Actions, Jenkins

Operating Systems

Mac OSX, Ubuntu, Amazon Linux, iOS, UNIX Tools

Software/Tools

Bundler, Rake, Thor, Make, Jenkins, GitHub, Asana

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Co-Founder - Stoked

Athens, OH (January 2025 - Current)

Co-founded a bootstraped startup focused on brand advocate programs at Direct To Consumer (DTC) brands. Key customers include Bunch Bike and FounderWell
Implemented features in Rails using Event-based architecture based on Active Event Store
Developed an internal library based upon Literal and the command pattern and leaned into === type matching
Used Cursor, ChatGPT CODEX, and other AI code-gen platforms to increase development
Led customer discovery interviews, sales, marketing, and all non-technical aspects of the business.
Co-Led application architecture, product development, company strategy, and overall process improvement.

CTO/Operator - Causey

Athens, OH (April 2025 - Current)

With a change in ownership of Mission Met (sale to business partner), I am running Causey, largely in maintenance mode
Added SSO - OpenID Connect (OIDC) integration to the platform for enterprise customers
Expanded permissioning to include more grandular control
Address bugs and monitor performance of application

Co-Founder/CTO - Mission Met

Athens, OH (November 2019 - Current)

Co-founded a bootstraped startup focused on strategic planning software, training, and consulting for mission-driven leaders.
Designed and built the web-based Causey platform, growing it from concept to $120k ARR and securing partnerships with 10+ strategic planning consultants/firms and over 80 customers.
Led engineering team management, application architecture, product development, company strategy, and overall process improvement.

Notable Projects:

Built i18n and custom-labeling infrastructure to ensure strategic planning firms could customize for their clients and multi-language support.
Migrated from hosts from Heroku to Render.com + AWS RDS achieving operational efficiency and 30% cost reductions.
Developed an affiliate consultant program yielding 10+ ongoing relationships.
Designed an intential training program that transformed a junior engineer into a competent mid-level contributor within 18 months.

Co-Founder & Principal Software Engineer - Rakefire

Athens, OH (September 2011 - Current)

Developed in-house products and consulted on Ruby on Rails applications.

Notable Projects:

Developed a solar racking quoting tool for Ecolibrium Solar’s EcoX pitched-roof racking product (acquired by Unirac).
Developed a IOT Backend and GraphQL API for Glow.
Developed the a Healthy Heart score calculation system based on emerging research in food and lifestyle choice for Ohio University Health Sciences and Professions.
Developed a Radio Signal Visualizer Map for emergency radio comunication across the state of Ohio.
Developed a basic web-based digital signage platform and equipment check-in/check-out system for the Ohio University Patton College of Education.

Technology and Facilities Manager - Ohio Univesrsity Scripps College of Communication

Athens, OH (March 2009 - October 2017)
Oversaw the IT and Technical Production Operations for the Scripps College of Communication.

Managed, hired, and trained full-time IT staff and part-time student staff to maintain labs, staff computers, and equipment rooms.
Oversaw the security, patch management, configuration management, etc of 200+ faculty/staff computers and 200 computer lab machines across the college, in addition to several specialized video and audio studios and media suites.
Automated software deployment through Munki, Munkiserver, shell and python scripts, Windows GPOs, and other configuration technologies.
Managed a $500k annual budget for multiple college departments and led $120k in software procurement and IT upgrades.

Notable Projects:

Stood up a campus-wide (and transitioned to central control) a Munkiserver deployment that was used to deploy hundreds of software packages across 1,000+ Mac computers.
Managed the IT/Media budget and equipment installation for the Schoonover Center remodel of $800,000.
Coordinate the movement of 200+ faculty/staff computers and 150 lab machines during a multi-phase Schoonover renovation project.

EDUCATION

Ohio University, MA

Master of Arts in Communication, Media Management, and Media Marketing
Graduated: June 2016, Magna Cum Laude
Attended actively 2008 - 2009; finished in 2016

Ohio University, BSC

Bachelor of Science
Major: Audio-Music Production
Minors: Music and Business
Graduated: June 2011, Magna Cum Laude
Took several computer science classes

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

Rotary, Club of Athens Ohio, District 6690 Member and Strategic Planning Chair - [Aug 2023 - Present]
Leadership Athens County 2022-2023 Cohort participant - Athens County Foundation
Co-founder and manager of Athensworks, a co-op coworking space supporting local entrepreneurs since 2013

PDF version of this resume at https://www.rickychilcott.com/resume.pdf.

OPEN SOURCE

Below are a list of all of my open source contributions organized by repository and date. I
deeply believe in the importance of open source and utilizing, improving, and contributing
back to the community in a myriad of ways – code contributions, answering questions, and
evangelizing approaches, frameworks, and libraries.