Emisonian

Software development & consulting

About

I'm Joe Emison. I build software. I've been doing it since mid '90s, starting with BBS door games. I lament the lack of continuing education in software development, and find that the best software developers are orders of magnitude more effective than the average. Oh, and most leaders have no idea how to tell whether their software team is average or excellent.

I co-founded and serve as CTO of Branch Insurance, a fully serverless insurance company. Before that, I co-founded BuildFax, the nation's leading building-permit-data aggregator (acquired by DMGT). I've been a CIO/CTO at DMGT, Chief Architect at Sabine River Partners, and back decades ago I wrote the award-winning Mutant Chicken Races and created EphPod, one of the first programs to make the iPod work with Windows.

I studied English and Mathematics at Williams College and have a JD from Yale Law School—which has been more useful than you might expect in software development.

Working from a city rooftop

Book

Serverless as a Game Changer book cover

Serverless as a Game Changer

Addison-Wesley · 2023

How to Get the Most Out of the Cloud. This book makes the case that serverless isn't just a deployment model—it's a fundamentally different way to think about building software. If you're still managing servers, provisioning infrastructure, or treating the cloud like a fancy data center, you're leaving enormous value on the table.

Paperback Kindle O'Reilly

Software I've Built

Branch Insurance

Cofounder & CTO, 2018–present

A fully serverless insurance company built from scratch. Branch bundles home and auto insurance, leveraging communities of members to constantly lower premiums and streamline claims.

BuildFax

Cofounder & CTO, 2008–2015

The nation's leading building-permit-data aggregator. I built the data collection, product, infrastructure, and ML models that drove the leading products for roof age used by insurers. Sold to Verisk.

InsightSQC

Software product

Statistical quality control and analysis software. Sold to ASTM.

BluePrince

BUILDERadius, 1999–2008

The first set of Windows and Web applications for contractors to apply and receive building permits over the Internet. Sold to Harris Computer.

Mutant Chicken Races

TrentSoft, 1996-2008

An award-winning Windows game featuring oversized, vibrantly colored chickens racing for glory. Winner of the 1996 Weird Software Contest. Still playable online.

EphPod

2001–2007

One of the first programs to make the iPod work with Windows, before Apple released iTunes for PC. Sold to Wind Solutions.

Speaking

Conference Talks

Podcasts

Writing

Medium

The New Stack

InformationWeek

Patents

Computer-Implemented Method for Determining Roof Age of a Structure

US 20160306808A1 · Issued Apr 23, 2019

A method for determining modeled roof age using a generalized linear model, accounting for tree height, proximity, and regional weather conditions. Developed at BuildFax.

Method of Using Building Permits to Identify Underinsured Properties

US 20160055594A1 · Issued Apr 23, 2019

Computer-implemented methods for identifying whether building permit information exists for a structure and estimating condition or insurance risk. Developed at BuildFax.

Get in Touch

I'm always interested in talking about software architecture, serverless, and interesting product challenges.

joe@emisonian.com