About Heri

Key facts:

• Born in one of the world’s poorest countries, Madagascar. I get the “scarcity” mindset from this, but also memories of beautiful white sandy beaches
• Spent teenage years in Nairobi, Kenya, a regional center in East Africa. From having to learn English to meeting people from all over the world, I learnt diversity and its benefits. Diversity makes us richer and more resilient, making us more sensitive to forces we did not know and might otherwise overwhelm us
• Went through “Classes Préparatoires Aux Grandes Écoles” and Engineering school in France. Like the Concorde plane, TGV, Grandes Écoles is one of France’s highest achievements, mixing excellence, hard work and elitism
• Played with the Internet early on, with Emoticons.free.fr and evry.depeches.free.fr. One was hilarious photoshopped pictures of me, while the other was my adventures as a foreigner, with non-politically correct comments about the French. Both drew early attention. This taught me the power of the Internet and technology.
• Started MontrealTechWatch.com, a technology blog covering tech and startups in Montréal, a key driver of the local startup community. At its peak, the blog attracted 10k daily readers. Also organized Montréal’s first ever hackathon (Blitzweekend), and then Montréal’s first StartupWeekend at Business School HEC.
• 2 photography exhibitions in Montréal, and as well as being the official photographer for Le Cypher X & Urban Science, one of Montréal’s top hip-hop group, and many local events.
• Crowdfunded millions of dollars for Montréal artists and local projects with SeedingFactory. We made videos, worked on their social media, marketed, made friends. Also worked as VP of Marketing for MakeAChamp, a crowdfunding startup specialized in athletes
• Membrer of artist collective Howl Arts! with the launch of several albums, books, graphic novels, movie works while being an active part of the Montréal underground art community
• Lost father to cancer while I was still navigating Montréal. From this, I am probably more sensitive to healthcare and health issues than most
• Senior/Lead/Staff Engineer for VC-backed startups such as Sonder, Klue, but also for global companies like Nasdaq or Decathlon. Additionally Software Consultant for many projects, from Airbnb/Uber clones to crypto trading platforms. I do not count the years coding anymore, but still get excited for new technologies or new patterns every now and then
• Maintains and operates a chalet on Airbnb, deep in Québec countryside. I build docks and Adirondack chairs, chase away beavers and mice, have fun with the kids and can tell you the minute differences between bedsheets from Costco or Ikea, or 7 reasons why Dawn is better.

So as you can see, I am comfortable in deep Quebec or France countryside, in a hacking space or in a neighorhood hip hop event. But due to my history, I am somehow allergic to alcohol (or at least at the level they are consumed in Western countries), debt and social norms.

Software work

I work on diverse open source software projects and also have ongoing consultancy work, taking vibe-coded apps to production: performance, security, and integrating complex systems together. Some of what keeps me busy:

• My own products. CastorOS, a digital butler for chalet owners with an AI concierge named Arthur, and My Challenge Coin, a family app where kids earn coins for real challenges. Both are on the App Store, built with React Native and TypeScript on Elixir/Phoenix backends.
• Speed experiments. How fast can a JSON API get in Rust, Crystal or plain Ruby? I benchmark it, then write up what I find.
• Making old and new systems talk. A C# console app that drives Sage 50, or a TypeScript sidecar that keeps a Rails app under an 80ms timeout.

Additionally, I’ve also worked with public companies and high-growth startups:

• Nasdaq Private Market, lead software engineer (from 2024). A trading platform for private-company stock. Took average API response times on holdings and orders from 30 seconds to 400ms.
• Klue, senior software engineer (2021 to 2024). Made the top five endpoints of the main Rails app 210% faster, and led the Slack, Teams and Salesforce integrations.
• Decathlon, senior engineer (2019 to 2021). Grew the open Sport Places API from 60,000 to 1.3 million places in 22 countries. Became team lead within 7 months.
• Playground, lead full-stack developer (2017 to 2019). Rails systems for Canada’s biggest venue of its kind, handling about 1.2 million sessions a day.
• MadMedia, Ruby engineer and consultant (2012 to 2017). Built MVPs with more than 20 founders. One of them, damava.com, is still running.

Day to day, that means Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL, TypeScript, React Native, Elixir and Python. I write about Rails, TypeScript, PostgreSQL and React Native.

Key lessons from life:

• Hard work pays off, both financially and mentally. Do something consistenly for a few years, and you will be on top of 99% of other people. You don’t have to and should not work like a mad dog, but regularly choosing to do your boring homework while others are watching Netflix will pay off on the long term. If you have to “keep” only one lesson from me, this would be it.
• Best memories come from simple ideas, where you “just do it”, based on simple needs and simple solutions. If you think something makes sense, and can’t come up with solid reasons why you shouldn’t do it in 5 minutes, just do it, now. Do no wait for days or weeks dreaming about it or trying to perfect “the” idea.
• There is no single best thing. Other people will be eager to tell you about something else that is faster, richer, or better. All these do not matter. What matters is the solution that fits best your particular set of circumstances.
• Leverage your abilities and skills. If you are a good speaker, don’t join an organization because it looks good on a resume but rather because this organization rewards good speaking. Better yet, make sure you have unique abilities. If everyone is doing php, don’t present yourself as another php programmer. A 15-year old kid will pitch to do your job for free, just for giggles.
• Embrace change. Change helps you grow and keeps life interesting. Make sure to have solid foundations though.
• Make sure to exercise regularly. Exercise is anything that’s hard and where you wish you’d chill at home instead. Running is exercise. Running or lifting weights will make you sleep better and live longer. Diet is exercise. Diets make us appreciate more food and is a good reset for our body. Similary, financial diets where you pledge to not spend anything for a period of time is exercise. It will help you appreciate what you have and you will like being independant from the crazy world out there.