About me, Judson Dunne
Full-stack engineer, entrepreneur, CEO, Ironman 70.3, and Vermonter.
Let’s build something togetherWhat I do outside of coding:
I just love being outside. Along with coding, I am most definitely (for better or worse) fully addicted to the outdoors, fitness, and pushing my body and mind.
And my development follows in parallel with this love. Locava exists because I kept finding sick places and wanted my friends to experience them as well. RidgeSync exists because I planned one too many trips across four browser tabs and a paper map.
I grew up on a farm in Vermont
HARTLAND, VERMONT
Harlow Brook Farm
I grew up on a small farm in rural Vermont. Along with the occasional TV show, I spent almost all my time outdoors, picking blueberries and building forts.
EVER SINCE I WAS VERY LITTLE
My fascination with building things
Ever since I was very little, I LOVED building things. I was obsessed with Legos, melting down metal in my home made foundry and as I got a bit older, making things in software.
WHEN I TURNED 14
The blacksmith shop
I decided I wanted to build a blacksmith shop. But not just a regular one, a traditional style. So when Covid hit, I spent hours collecting rocks from the property, and learned how to and laid a 6 foot tall, 3 by 8 foot stone wall, with the rest of a blacksmith shop around it.
THE BUSINESS
Misty Mountain Forge
And Misty Mountain Forge was born. I started with the basics, progressively getting better and better, until I was able to make real, useful products. After some outreach support from my mom’s Facebook page, I launched my own website, and orders started flying in. I learned quickly that it’s a lot harder to manage inventory, work management and the things that come along with a real business.
JUNIOR YEAR
CS50, then Dartmouth
After running Misty Mountain Forge for 3 years, I decided to find a new way to build things, still with my hands, but in software. Junior year of high school I took Harvard’s CS50 class that was credited through my high school, and instantly fell in love. So much so, that I convinced a Dartmouth professor to allow me to take his software engineering class at the nearby Dartmouth college while I was still only 17. From that moment onward, I knew building software was what I wanted to do.
EASTON, PA
Lafayette
I moved to Pennsylvania to attend Lafayette college, where I majored in computer science. Here I worked on a few projects, but very soon, I found what I wanted to spend my time doing.
FRESHMAN YEAR
A very rudimentary prototype
I had always been obsessed with cool locations, whether it was a swimming hole, an amazing restaurant, or just a damn good sunset view. But I had always struggled to find and share them with my friends. After putting my new found coding and software skills to use at the start of my freshman year, I built a very rudimentary prototype. I tested it on some friends and it was immediately a hit. Not only did they use it to see what their friends were doing, they used it to genuinely get outside. The fact that I was able to make a meaningful impact on someone’s day through the software I built, was to put it lightly, addicting and deeply fulfilling.
THE NEXT YEAR
Off to the races
And so I was off to the races. I spent the entire next year learning how to code a full production social media app at scale. Through trial and error, online lessons, help from mentors/teachers, I built out full iOS, Android, and web platforms to support the growing user base. In the fall we officially launched a beta user round.
THAT SPRING
The launch
That spring we geared up for our first official launch. We entered in Lafayette’s Big Idea pitch competition and came first place, the day before launch. And when we launched to Lafayette’s campus, it was immediately a hit. We were featured in the newspaper, gained hundreds of users overnight, and eventually grew to over 30% of the entire student body having downloaded our app.
THE NEXT 2 YEARS
Scaling up
Over the course of the next 2 years after, we scaled to thousands of users, raised a seed round, and at peak, I hired and managed a team of 8.
THE BREAK
Taking a break
However, despite me putting every waking hour into Locava for the past 3 years, mainly due to revenue model problems, and scalability, I decided I had to take a break. Locava is still alive and is still slowly but surely organically gaining users, but it was time that I focused on something new.
NOW
RidgeSync, and what’s next
In the time following, I quickly realized how much I can do with the skills and expertise I’ve learned from Locava on a problem and product with far less technical debt. I built the first version of RidgeSync fast, a backpacking trip planning application, and took it to a web planner, an iPhone app and an Apple Watch companion. And now, I’m looking to take the software scaling and teamwork skills I learned not just at Locava, but throughout my life, to a team of other people.
Racing the 70.3
I have always been into running. If I am honest though, I got bored doing the same form of cardio every single training day. So when my girlfriend challenged me to try a half Ironman, I knew I had to do it.
For months I trained three or more hours a day. My swim and my bike came on fast, and I got fully addicted to pushing each of the three disciplines as far as I could take it.
Hiking places I probably should not…
Ever since I was a kid I have loved hiking and being outdoors. Summer hikes with my family, and then with my friends.
This past winter, mountaineering videos on Instagram and a running joke with my friends about actually doing it built into a real itch, and it turned from a joke into something a lot more serious fast. We trained for it properly: mountaineering skills, avalanche training, ice traversing.
Then we set out on our first winter hike. Hike after hike we got more advanced and took on more technical mountains.
Solo in a Pennsylvania forest with an axe, a hand saw, paracord, a knife, and a limited amount of food.
Watch on YouTube ↗
The shop I started at fourteen
I still remember the exact YouTube video: someone building a homemade forge in their backyard and melting down aluminium cans in it. I talked my dad into driving me to Home Depot for the materials, and by that afternoon I was melting metal.
When Covid hit later that spring I decided I needed a real shop. I spent an entire month hand dry-laying and jointing the walls of my own blacksmith shop, and then I could finally forge steel. While I kept building it out, I was accepted to apprentice with a master blacksmith in town and started learning to do it properly.
After months of learning correct technique I started making my own products, and launched Misty Mountain Forge later that year.
My mom posted about it on her Facebook page and orders started flying in. I learned what it actually takes to manage supply, customer relationships and the quality of what you send out, all while I was still fifteen.
A short film we made about the shop when I was a lot younger. I put an absurd number of hours into it.
Watch on YouTube ↗
Hooks, hardware and openers, forged one at a time.
Ivy Hook with flame top
$25.50$30.00
Ivy Hook
$25.50$30.00
Large Hook
$20.00$25.00
Medium Hook with spade end
$15.00
Medium Hook
$15.00
Small Hook
$13.99
Vermont Style Bottle Opener
$25.00
What I do when I’m not at a screen
Now the work side
10 things I’ve built and run, each with a full breakdown.
let’s build something together
I’m looking for full-stack engineering roles, or anywhere I can bring my experience building and scaling products to a team that wants to put something real in front of real people. I always answer other founders.