Hey, it's great to see you here. I'm Lee, the co-founder and CTO of Cloudsmith.

I'm on the left below, and Alan, my partner in crime, ex-CEO (we invited the most excellent Glenn to join us as CEO), and now CSO, is on the right:

Want to learn a bit more about me?

Sure. You can read more about me on my GitHub Profile. But a long time ago, in a galaxy not so far away, I was given a Commodore 64 as my first computer (see below), which was *a lot* when you come from a disadvantaged background; from there, I developed a love for gaming and a passion for computing in general. From typing in BASIC code listings from magazines like Zzap!64 to produce some "exciting" graphics (i.e., rotating boxes on a screen, which was honestly, just like magic at the time) to hacking, disassembling and cracking software in my teens (IDA+SoftICE days; just for fun/learning, I never did it professionally) to building web scale services in a pre-Cloud era, my passion has only continued to grow over the years. These days, I'm a co-founder by day, a proud Dad by night, and a tinkerer of things + obsessive board/video gamer by weekend. #wistful

For work: This isn't my first rodeo, although it is undoubtedly the best. My background is in search engines, databases, security, web services, and high-performance computing, and I've got a particular love for building Cloud-native architectures (surprise, surprise). I'm most infamous for helping (unintentionally) to set some interesting legal precedents in the UK (go and look it up), as well as generally being part of the Usenet "scene" both before and during my first startup, Newzbin (pre "2.0", it wasn't us afterward), where I held the pseudonym of "K" (long story). It was a life of living fast and free, scrolling IRC channels and coding (sometimes, 24/7). Good times. Speaking of "the scene," I sometimes like to build little homages to it, like this Cloudsmith-flavoured one inspired by Fairlight:

Regarding how I like to work, having built much of Cloudsmith's early platform, code, and architecture, I prefer to keep myself as technical and low-level as possible. I like to dip into engineering and product conversations when I can. This is more about offering context and my passion for what we're building toward; I love nothing more than watching a fantastic team execute the vision. Thankfully, I am privileged to work with a tremendously mind-blowing tribe of Cloudsmithers already. In terms of role, I'm operationally accountable for Cloudsmith's technology strategy and security and the research-heavy OCTO (Office of the CTO) team of engineers. Passion got me here, and people+passion will get me there.

How did Cloudsmith get founded?

Alan and I met at a boutique local fintech startup called Wombat Financial Software towards the end of its acquisition by NYSE Euronext. We developed high-performance software to get the data out of market data exchanges worldwide and into the hands of banks, capital funds, and algorithmic traders at the lowest latency rate possible. When I joined, I focused on the "R" of R&D, building (at the time) the next-generation platform (isn't it always). Then, I became the primary software Architect for market data technology alongside Alan, who became its Engineering Manager.

It was as challenging and fun as possible in fintech, but the acquisition changed the dynamic from startup to corporate. From my experience in Newzbin, building web scale *physically*, without the Cloud, I had witnessed the nascent rise of Cloud via AWS and its launch of S3, then EC2 into the world around 2006-ish; so I had this itchy scratch in my brain to build something genuinely Cloud-native. That was possible in NYSE because of strict regulations on public Cloud use, and the only "Cloud" (double quotes) available to us was the Secure Financial Transaction Infrastructure (SFTI) network. This is great if you want to get access to real-time market data, but not so much for Compute.

As part of our daily runs to SBUX (a coffee chain you may be familiar with), I enamored tales of Cloud and glory to Alan. We plotted to start our next thing on a few core concepts, such as (1) Fully believing in the Cloud and building on it natively, (2) Building a platform where you bring the technology and others bring the content, (3) Automate as much as humanly possible, except for the Human touch, (4) Build in the developer tools domain, of picks and shovels, (5) Be better than everyone else on core developer enablement, such as a world-class search-based engine. If you're curious, this evolved into the so-called Tao of Cloudsmith (we got inspired by Hashicorp to create it).

So, in 2012, Alan and I ventured into the world of building a Cloud-native fintech startup to try to fully automate what we did at Wombat/NYSE of taking specifications from market data exchanges, applying a Domain Specific Language (DSL) to them and spitting out code on the other side (simples, right?). One of our challenges was the software supply chain, which involved getting trusted code into fintech establishments. At the time, we assessed the whole market, tried some (now competitive) solutions, experienced horrendous pain with all of them and no "perfect fit," and then ultimately started building our own. So, there we were, offended by the lack of viable solutions on the market, working from humble abodes and turning coffee into code:

However, building and selling into fintech takes a lot of capital and influence, and we distinctly lacked a lot of the former, so ultimately, our prior startup was a commercial failure. However, we got something more valuable out of it: A conviction that building the cloud-native platform was the right approach and a burning desire to provide the world with the exact solution we were missing for the end-to-end software supply chain. So we turned off the lights for the last time on our fintech ideas and decided to "zoom in" (focus) on the more uncomplicated general domain (ha!) of "Securing software and delivering it," where we had built this passion and expertise. So Cloudsmith was born.

Why the name "Cloudsmith"? Our prior startup was named Vulcan, not after Spock from Star Trek (although he would say that all other choices are illogical, I suppose), but instead after the Roman God of fire, metalworking, and the forge. Because the prior startup was about constructing software incrementally through stages from spec to wield, we named what we had after the concept of the forge, and of course, we were doing it "in the Cloud." So it seemed like a natural jump from Vulcan to those who use the forge to "Smith in the Clouds": Cloudsmith. So, this was intended to be the name of the platform and not the company. When we did our Phoenix from the Flames in 2016, we started with the name first. It's our identity and DNA: to 'smith in the Clouds.

In 2018, we got "got serious" with Cloudsmith. With our mission to secure the world by default, layered on a core of cloud-native and best-in-class artifact management, we set out to build a genuinely global company, eventually funded by Venture Capital, and on a pathway to becoming a technological IPO for a company founded from humble beginnings in Northern Ireland. We're Belfastian born and bred, and now we're building cloud-native web-scale worldwide, tackling global problems for companies of all sizes, from startups to the Fortune 500s. We're executing our vision of becoming the world's software supply chain, built on the absolute best of artifact management, with this lovely group of people:

So, what are you waiting for? If you've got the passion (see the Tao above), the capability, and the will to build something truly remarkable, with the potential for a massive impact on the security of the world's ecosystem of software development, deployment, and distribution, then connect with us, apply to join, and join that "tremendously mind-blowing tribe of Cloudsmithers" that I mentioned above.

I can't wait to meet you. Let's do this!

- Lee

P.S. ICYMI: also check out this "Life at Cloudsmith" video.

Go on. You deserve it.