Matt Stockton

Background

More than 20 years building software and data infrastructure, about a decade of it in machine learning and AI. Most of that has been at investment firms and venture-backed fintech companies, building trading systems, investment platforms, and the data infrastructure underneath them.

Current work

I run PragmaNexus. Most of my recent work is applied AI for investment research: document search and report generation, workflow automation, and data analysis tools. I also work with teams in fintech, healthcare and life sciences, and consumer software.

Experience

  1. 2024 to present

    Founder and Principal Consultant at PragmaNexus

    Work runs from technical assessment and prototyping through production build.

  2. 2021 to 2024

    Director of Engineering at Teamshares

    First data leader at a company moving small businesses to employee ownership. Built the data infrastructure that ingested financial data from nearly 100 businesses, and hired the first data team.

  3. 2020 to 2021

    Director of Data Science and Engineering at Racon Capital Partners

    Sole engineer for a quantitative macro investment strategy, working directly with the investment team. Owned the whole stack: terabytes of financial data, model orchestration, and risk tools for portfolio exposure.

  4. 2014 to 2020

    Director of Engineering at CircleUp

    Built and led the engineering team behind CircleUp's platform for sourcing and scoring consumer packaged goods companies for investment. Started with one data scientist and one engineer, and grew to analyzing more than 100,000 businesses.

  5. 2010 to 2014

    VP of Engineering at Harqen

    Joined as a full-stack engineer and grew into leading the team. Four of us ran the entire stack for an asynchronous video and voice interviewing platform, including the telephony infrastructure. Millions of applicants used it.

  6. 2009 to 2013

    iPhone Developer independent

    Launched six apps to the App Store. One passed 100,000 downloads.

  7. 2007 to 2010

    Senior Software Engineer at Stark Investments

    Built derivatives and credit default swap trading software for a $14 billion hedge fund, through the 2007-2008 financial crisis.

  8. 2004 to 2007

    Software Security Engineer at General Electric

    Started in the Edison Engineering Development Program, rotating through software, firmware, quality, and service. Then wrote software that made network-connected medical devices safer: authentication, authorization, audit, and intrusion detection. Filed several patent applications.

How I think about the work

Direct collaboration, working software early, and feedback from the people who actually use it. The plan changes as we learn more, and that is usually a good sign.

I spend as much time deciding what not to build as what to build.

Managing teams

A leader's job is to make good work easier: clear goals, direct communication, sound technical judgment, and room for people to own decisions.

I've started teams from one or two engineers more than once. The team should understand the systems it runs, be able to maintain them, and know whether they are working.

I write about this work in essays and a regular digest. For client projects, see Work with me.