The Short Version
I toggled my first program into an Altair via front-panel switches in the late 1970s. In the 1980s, I ran BBSs when "online" meant dialing in at 300 baud. In the 1990s, I had two full T1 lines running into my house (3 Mbps total, when most people were on dial-up) because I was running servers before "the cloud" existed. By the 2000s, I'd upgraded to an 8 Mbps point-to-point microwave link feeding a 60-server data center in my basement, complete with dedicated cooling. I was running "the cloud" before AWS existed.
I spent the 2000s surviving the crash. I spent the 2010s fixing the messes left by "move fast and break things."
I served aboard the USS Missouri during Desert Shield and Desert Storm. The Navy taught me that systems don't care about your feelings. If you ignore physics, ships sink. If you ignore economics, startups die.
I don't sell "digital transformation." I sell reality checks.
Why "RoamingPigs"?
My late wife MJ and I donated everything we owned and traveled the world together for over eight years—until COVID forced us to pause. Just our backpacks and each other. We lived in Vietnam, made Tokyo's Shinjuku our favorite haunt, explored South Korea, found the best street vendors in Bangkok—chasing great food wherever we went. We called ourselves the Roaming Pigs.
It was the most rewarding and meaningful time of my life. I created The Mariajuanita Guzman Art Foundation in her memory, and I started RoamingPigs to help fund it. This is my tribute to her.
The spirit carries forward into how I work: go where the good stuff is, commit fully, never half-measure anything. I don't sit still. I don't stay in the corporate pen. I go where the problem is.
Operating Principles
The RoamingPigs Constitution
Physics Over Feelings
Latency is determined by the speed of light. Costs are determined by supply and demand. No amount of "Agile" or "Vibe Coding" can negotiate with these realities.
Code is a Liability
Every line of code you write is a line you have to debug, secure, and upgrade. The best architect is the one who talks you out of building the feature.
Scar Tissue Over Certifications
I don't have a certificate that says I know how to scale. I have the scar from when my system hit 30 million concurrent connections and didn't crash.
Skepticism is a Service
Vendors lie. Dashboards lie. AI hallucinations lie. My job is to be the professional skeptic who checks the chrome://sandbox and reads the assembly.
Margins Over Architecture
Beautiful systems that lose money aren't beautiful. Ugly code that prints cash is a masterpiece. I optimize for survival, not elegance.
History Repeats
I've watched the same mistakes play out across the dot-com crash, the blockchain bubble, and now AI. Pattern recognition beats novelty every time.
The Dot-Com Years
During the dot-com boom, I ran Core Logic Software, Inc. in Redmond, WA (1996-2004). Ex-Microsoft developers and testers. Clients like AirTouch Cellular, The Sci-Fi Channel, Preston Gates & Ellis.
We built products: Mortar Maker, CoreBA, RUM (a challenge-response spam solution that was ahead of its time). Then the bubble burst. I watched $5 trillion evaporate. Watched Herman Miller chairs sell for $20 at liquidation sales. Watched smart people cry in parking lots.
That's where the skepticism comes from. That's where the "show me the metrics, not the pitch deck" comes from. I've been burned by hype. I won't let you be.
Notable Scars
ZettaZing / ECHO
Architected a push platform that handled 30 million concurrent connections (simulated via 3,000 AWS instances). It didn't break. Designed to scale to billions.
Voice AI / DHS
Deployed speech recognition for the US Coast Guard in environments so noisy that standard ASR failed. This wasn't a demo; lives were on the line.
AMBIE (Building Now)
Acoustic intelligence for environments where standard ASR fails. Maintaining 90-95% accuracy where commercial systems drop to 14-40%. The next scar in progress.
MSNBC / Workbench
Built content management systems before "CMS" was a term. MSNBC's publishing platform in the mid-90s, when the web was still young and everything was being invented.
Current Roles
- Founder, AMBIE - Acoustic intelligence ASR (2025-present)
- Founder, RoamingPigs Inc - Technology consulting (2025-present)
- Founder & CEO, Barbarians, Inc - Software studio for startups (2021-present)
Patents (4+)
- Dynamic configuration of context-sensitive personal sites and membership channels
- Data encryption method
- System and Method for Data Analytics for Communications in Walkie-Talkie Network
- System and Method for Adaptive Environment-Aware Speech Recognition (provisional)
Engage
I am expensive because I am fast, and I am fast because I have seen your problem before.
If you want a "Yes Man" to validate your roadmap, hire a Big 4 consultancy. If you want to know why your cloud bill is $50k/month or why your AI agent is hallucinating, call me.
Book a Reality Check