iOS Product Builder in the San Francisco Bay Area

I take iOS products from idea to App Store: product definition, UX, and the code to ship it.

Building great products since 2005 for companies including Sonato, Twitch, Hipmunk, Bebo, charity: water, Founder Dating, and more.

You want one person who can decide, design, and ship

You’re a small team or founder. You know your market and how to reach customers. You’d rather not coordinate a PM, a designer, and an iOS engineer to ship your app. The handoffs are where decisions get diluted and timelines stretch.

You need one person who can sit with a customer problem, decide what to build, design how it works, and write the code that ships it.

You’re looking for someone who treats product, design, and engineering as the same job.

I work best with small teams building close to their customers

I take bets on young companies where the work starts before the spec exists. I’m at my best thinking through the user experience, the purpose of the product or feature, and the bigger picture, not just as the engineer who implements a finished spec.

I take pride in the work I do and care deeply about the projects I engage in.

What I do

  • Decide what to build. Product scoping, MVP definition, picking what to ship next.
  • Design the experience. User flows, interactions, native iOS UX.
  • Build it. Native iOS app development with Swift and SwiftUI, from prototype to App Store.
  • Keep it shipping. CI, automated testing, release infrastructure.

Places I’ve worked

  • Sonato, Solo iOS, 2022–2026
    • Native iOS app for a hospitality platform serving private member clubs. Owned product, design, and engineering. Apple Wallet pass with NFC entitlement, offline-first architecture, UX across the whole app.
    • Swift, SwiftUI, PassKit, CoreData, Claude Code
  • Sourcetable, Engineer #1, 2020–2021
    • Spreadsheet/data product. Built the product and engineering process.
    • React, Node, Express, Jest, Mongo, Terraform, Docker, Rollbar
  • Magic, Inc., Product Engineer, 2019–2020
    • On-demand personal assistant. Built mobile and full-stack features. Engineering process, TDD, mentoring.
    • React Native/Expo, Express, Apollo GraphQL, JSDoc, React Navigation, Jest, Mongo, Docker, Mixpanel, Segment, Sentry
  • Hipmunk, Lead iOS Engineer, 2017–2019
    • Travel booking app. Led the iOS team. CI/release process, testing automation, hybrid JS/Native architecture, hiring, pair programming, mentoring.
    • Swift, Obj-C, XCTest, Fastlane, Bitrise, Fabric/Crashlytics, Firebase
  • Monkey Inferno / Zuno, Engineer #5, 2010–2011
    • Mobile e-card app for sending greetings. Built the iOS app and Python API. Viral growth flows.
    • Obj-C, Python, Tornado, MySQL
  • Bebo, Head of Mobile (Engineer #18), 2007–2009
    • Social network. Built mobile web from 0 to 4M DAU. Mobile SMS platform, A/B testing, scalability, viral growth flows.
    • Mobile Web, Java/JSP, SMS, SOAP/XML, Memcached
  • Digital Chocolate, Lead Mobile Engineer, 2005–2007
    • Mobile games for feature phones. Led game ports for Verizon, Sprint, Cingular, and Virgin.
    • Java/J2ME, C++, BREW

Businesses I’ve founded

  • Ready Time
    • Backward-planning app. Solo across product, design, and engineering.
    • SwiftUI, CoreData, XCTest, Fastlane
  • Little Memory
    • Personal diary app. Featured by Apple (Staff Favorite, Dear Diary, Apps for Writers). Solo across product, design, and engineering.
    • Obj-C, Rails, Rspec, jQuery, Mongo, Redis, Chef, Stripe
  • Dojo
    • Habit-building app. Co-founder across product and engineering.
    • Rails, Rspec, jQuery, HAML/SASS, Mongo, Chef

Software I’ve built

  • charity: water
    • The first social, scalable charitable donation platform. Developed and launched mycharity: water. The site raised $500k from 2,000 donors in 2 months.
    • Java/JSP, Tomcat, MySQL, Memcached, PayPal API
  • Twitch
    • Search backend microservice and data pipeline.
    • Go, Rails, Kafka, Kinesis, Elasticsearch, Algolia, AWS, Terraform, Puppet
  • Tuenti
    • Spanish social network. Built the messaging/SMS framework and carrier integrations. Key feature in the Telefónica acquisition.
    • PHP, SMS
  • RandTxt
    • iOS messaging app. Built the MVP with the future Firebase founders. Acquired.
    • Obj-C
  • Bonjournal
    • Travel journaling app. Featured by Apple.
    • Obj-C
  • LOOKBOOK
    • Fashion community. Web, iPhone app, SEO.
    • Rails, Rspec, Obj-C
  • Founder Dating
    • Co-founder matching platform. Web development and LinkedIn API integration.
    • PHP/LAMP
  • HYPEBEAST
    • SEO audit and consultation.
  • PhotoSugar
    • Photo browser for social media profiles. Web development, SEO, and organic search growth.
    • Rails, Rspec
  • Hugg
    • Social iOS app for sending well-wishes to friends. Built the MVP.
    • RubyMotion
  • FWD.us

Highlights

  • VC-funded startup co-founder (Dojo)
  • Multiple App Store featured iOS apps (Little Memory, Bonjournal)
  • charity: water raised $500k in 2 months from 2,000 donors
  • Bebo mobile web from 0 to 4M DAU
  • Tuenti acquired by Telefónica (key feature in the deal)

Testimonials

Ivan is a fantastic product developer who can take wireframe ideas and build an entire product. Not only will the engineering be solid but you will find that the UI/UX is thoughtful, effective, and visually pleasing. People that take pride in their work build better things and that’s Ivan.

– Brian Woods

Ivan was a key player in the rapid construction of a startup that would sell for nearly a billion. I would gladly welcome the opportunity to work with Ivan in the future and highly recommend him for the most demanding roles in the industry.

– Jose Hernandez

Ivan is an asset to any team building innovative product on the web or mobile. He can learn and apply new technology quickly and work independently to complete complex projects.

– Darius Contractor

Ivan is always excited about learning new technologies and is eager to create new tools and bring ideas to life.

– Jonathan Ritchey

Sponsorships

Nerd Tower is a proud sponsor of LUMA Ice.