About Aken

I am a self-taught experienced full-stack software engineer, with senior and lead roles at e-commerce, agency, and SaaS businesses over a 20 year career.

Along the way I created many passion project websites, from personal blogs to car club forums.

From 2018-19 I failed my first startup attempt: Nicheket, an eBay-like marketplace for toy collectors.

In 2023 I stayed self-employed after being laid off, and created a few different products now all available under my Cryode brand.

Heading into 2025, I intend to continue iterating on these and other products, ideally in a more focused and intentional way to achieve revenue and eventual stand-alone success. 💪🏼

Outside of my professional life, I:

• Am a husband, father, and cat dad 👨‍👩‍👧
• Play recreational tennis at an NTRP 3.0 level, working towards 3.5 🎾
• Collect LEGO, books, and other cars/toys/nonsense 🧱
• Love to watch Critical Role 🧙🏼
• Am an automotive enthusiast, currently driving a Tesla Model 3 Performance and a Kawasaki ZX-10R sport bike 🏍️
• Enjoy being terrible at drums and piano 🥁
• Travel when I can; most recently to Vietnam 🇻🇳

My most active social accounts are on Bluesky and LinkedIn.