RHYS
Hello Charla
I had used Duolingo for over 1,000 days straight and still found myself freezing up in real Spanish conversations. So I built the app I actually wanted — one that bridges AI practice and real life. Hello Charla lets you create custom scenarios, get live translation help mid-conversation, and record real interactions to study afterward.
Lead Developer
Led development of a production Solana dApp ecosystem from concept to deployment, owning both on-chain programs and full-stack infrastructure.
Moved to Montevideo, Uruguay
After spending several winters in Panama and falling in love with life in Latin America, I made the move permanent — relocating to Montevideo. The quality of life, safety, and the city's mix of culture and calm made it an easy call. No regrets.
Senior Developer
Multiple contracts across decentralized infrastructure, NFT platforms, reservation marketplaces, and full-stack SaaS.
RawrJar.com
Built a Solana-based tip jar with messages — on mainnet. Like Ko-Fi but for crypto. The on-chain player tipping mechanics caught the attention of the AlphaFC team and helped land the Lead Developer role. Shut it down to focus on AlphaFC full time — another side project that turned into a job.
Backend Developer
First backend hire when the company was under 10 people. Built a new API almost exclusively in Java 12, improved the legacy codebase, and built integrations for third-party cryptocurrency exchanges. Placed by the same recruiter — one of the few who brought a developer on every discovery call so he never missed technical nuance as a non-technical person placing technical people.
Consulting Manager & Developer
Two simultaneous contracts — a Chicago digital marketing agency (development manager) and a FinTech startup (developer). Both came through the recruiter who found TechRecruiterRatings.com — he liked that I had identified the same problems he was trying to solve and reached out.
Application Engineer
Hired full-time — the only Theron employee approached to become a Kirkland employee — on a mission-critical firm-wide C# .NET Core project. Consulted with end users, stakeholders, and directors.
TechRecruiterRatings.com
Built a review site for developers to rate third-party technical recruiters — solving a real asymmetric information problem I had experienced firsthand. Most developers have no way to know which recruiters are actually good before working with them. The site caught the attention of a recruiter who shared the same frustration — he hated what the bad actors were doing to the industry's reputation. That relationship went on to place me in two consecutive roles.
Developer
Sole developer resource on a Kirkland & Ellis firm-wide C# .NET Core project. Worked directly with client-side project managers, developers, users, and directors.
Junior Developer
Contract to complete a full-stack .NET Video Business Card application on Microsoft Azure. Finished ahead of schedule.
Series 3 License
Securities license for commodities futures contracts and options on commodities futures contracts. (Expired)
B.A. Economics
Started in entrepreneurship. After excelling in freshman microeconomics, I received a hand-signed note from the chair of the economics department — held the letter up to see the blue ink bleed through — inviting me to switch majors. I never regretted it. I have always been fascinated by systems: how they form, how they break, and why people behave the way they do inside them.
Taught Myself to Code
After working with a CTA and spending time with Bloomberg models, I resented having to go to a university lab just to run code on a terminal. It was just software. I found Quantopian — no GUI, just Python — and taught myself to script from scratch. That was the real beginning.
Improved a Bloomberg Model by 7%
Junior year, I was working for a Commodity Trading Advisor. A friend suggested I speak to her father — a former Managing Director at a large advisory firm. He showed me his Bloomberg models. Applying ideas from Shefrin's Beyond Greed and Fear, I reduced the number of stocks the model ended up with and improved its performance by 7% over a 14-year back-test. It was the first time I understood that markets were also a psychology problem.
Rhys Wash
Could not find a summer job — the University of Tampa started earlier than schools in Oregon, so I was back before any of my friends. I started my own power washing business instead. Made a higher hourly rate than any of my friends that summer. The name was obvious.
Taco Bell, Not McDonald's
My mom told me she would take me to Taco Bell for a kids meal — but not McDonald's. She owned Taco Bell stock and not McDonald's. I did not fully understand it at the time, but the idea that owning a piece of something could change how you saw the world stuck with me. That was the beginning of a fascination with markets that has never really gone away.
Hello Charla
I had used Duolingo for over 1,000 days straight and still found myself freezing up in real Spanish conversations. So I built the app I actually wanted — one that bridges AI practice and real life. Hello Charla lets you create custom scenarios, get live translation help mid-conversation, and record real interactions to study afterward.
Lead Developer
Led development of a production Solana dApp ecosystem from concept to deployment, owning both on-chain programs and full-stack infrastructure.
Moved to Montevideo, Uruguay
After spending several winters in Panama and falling in love with life in Latin America, I made the move permanent — relocating to Montevideo. The quality of life, safety, and the city's mix of culture and calm made it an easy call. No regrets.
Senior Developer
Multiple contracts across decentralized infrastructure, NFT platforms, reservation marketplaces, and full-stack SaaS.
RawrJar.com
Built a Solana-based tip jar with messages — on mainnet. Like Ko-Fi but for crypto. The on-chain player tipping mechanics caught the attention of the AlphaFC team and helped land the Lead Developer role. Shut it down to focus on AlphaFC full time — another side project that turned into a job.
Backend Developer
First backend hire when the company was under 10 people. Built a new API almost exclusively in Java 12, improved the legacy codebase, and built integrations for third-party cryptocurrency exchanges. Placed by the same recruiter — one of the few who brought a developer on every discovery call so he never missed technical nuance as a non-technical person placing technical people.
Consulting Manager & Developer
Two simultaneous contracts — a Chicago digital marketing agency (development manager) and a FinTech startup (developer). Both came through the recruiter who found TechRecruiterRatings.com — he liked that I had identified the same problems he was trying to solve and reached out.
Application Engineer
Hired full-time — the only Theron employee approached to become a Kirkland employee — on a mission-critical firm-wide C# .NET Core project. Consulted with end users, stakeholders, and directors.
TechRecruiterRatings.com
Built a review site for developers to rate third-party technical recruiters — solving a real asymmetric information problem I had experienced firsthand. Most developers have no way to know which recruiters are actually good before working with them. The site caught the attention of a recruiter who shared the same frustration — he hated what the bad actors were doing to the industry's reputation. That relationship went on to place me in two consecutive roles.
Developer
Sole developer resource on a Kirkland & Ellis firm-wide C# .NET Core project. Worked directly with client-side project managers, developers, users, and directors.
Junior Developer
Contract to complete a full-stack .NET Video Business Card application on Microsoft Azure. Finished ahead of schedule.
Series 3 License
Securities license for commodities futures contracts and options on commodities futures contracts. (Expired)
B.A. Economics
Started in entrepreneurship. After excelling in freshman microeconomics, I received a hand-signed note from the chair of the economics department — held the letter up to see the blue ink bleed through — inviting me to switch majors. I never regretted it. I have always been fascinated by systems: how they form, how they break, and why people behave the way they do inside them.
Taught Myself to Code
After working with a CTA and spending time with Bloomberg models, I resented having to go to a university lab just to run code on a terminal. It was just software. I found Quantopian — no GUI, just Python — and taught myself to script from scratch. That was the real beginning.
Improved a Bloomberg Model by 7%
Junior year, I was working for a Commodity Trading Advisor. A friend suggested I speak to her father — a former Managing Director at a large advisory firm. He showed me his Bloomberg models. Applying ideas from Shefrin's Beyond Greed and Fear, I reduced the number of stocks the model ended up with and improved its performance by 7% over a 14-year back-test. It was the first time I understood that markets were also a psychology problem.
Rhys Wash
Could not find a summer job — the University of Tampa started earlier than schools in Oregon, so I was back before any of my friends. I started my own power washing business instead. Made a higher hourly rate than any of my friends that summer. The name was obvious.
Taco Bell, Not McDonald's
My mom told me she would take me to Taco Bell for a kids meal — but not McDonald's. She owned Taco Bell stock and not McDonald's. I did not fully understand it at the time, but the idea that owning a piece of something could change how you saw the world stuck with me. That was the beginning of a fascination with markets that has never really gone away.
Building Outside of Work
A developer who only codes at work stops growing. Building things outside of work means you get to try new stacks, experiment with ideas before they become mainstream, and stay genuinely curious — which tends to make the day job better too.
Hello Charla
I had used Duolingo for over 1,000 days straight and still found myself freezing up in real Spanish conversations. So I built the app I actually wanted — one that bridges AI practice and real life. Create custom scenarios, get live translation help mid-conversation, and record real interactions to study afterward. The AI reviews what you got wrong, highlights patterns in your mistakes, and helps you actually improve instead of just practicing.
Bad Email Crate
A Rust Cargo crate that validates email addresses against a list of over 10,000 known disposable email domains. Over 10,000 downloads and a community contribution.
RawrJar.com
A Solana-based tip jar with messages — on mainnet. Like Ko-Fi but for crypto. Accepts Solana and any SPL-based token with a message attached. Uses PDAs so no wallet needed on sign-up. The player tipping mechanics here caught the attention of the AlphaFC team and helped land the role. Shut it down to focus on AlphaFC full time.
TechRecruiterRatings.com
A review site for developers to rate third-party technical recruiters — built to solve an asymmetric information problem I had experienced firsthand. Developers have no way to know which recruiters are actually worth working with before it is too late. The site caught the attention of a recruiter who shared the same frustration. He went on to place me in two consecutive roles.
Swipe A Quote
My first app. iOS quote swiper — left to skip, right to save — with a free tier and a premium auto-renewable subscription via SwiftyStoreKit. Shut down now, but it was a great experience working with third-party payment APIs. I am still a fan of quotes — I have an Apple Note full of my favorites.
Writing
Posts are published here first, then cross-posted to Medium. Covers crypto, tech, expat life, and whatever else is on my mind.
Reading
Strongly Held Opinions
Lists
All lists should be rank ordered. An unsorted list is just a pile of items.
Engineering
Strongly typed languages are better. They force you to think through the code from the beginning — and that produces better code.
Engineering
All developers should be building something tech-related outside of work. It keeps you sharp, keeps you curious, and ensures you never lose sight of why you got into this in the first place — a love of building things.
Philosophy
We should all be more stoic. The world would be a better place with it.
Running
Making the transition from heel striking to midfoot or toe striking is a whole new world. It takes adjustment, but once it clicks you wonder how you ever ran any other way.
Running
Nike carbon plate running shoes are the only running shoes worth buying. My first pair were the Nike ZoomX Vaporfly NEXT% 2. Phil Knight and I went to the same elementary and high school and grew up in the same neighborhood — Eastmoreland, Portland, Oregon.
Tools
The Caran d'Ache 849 XL Ballpoint is the best pen ever made.
Reading
Everyone should read the news. People are often impressed by those who know what is going on in the world — and having a global sense of current events will never be a negative. The FT and WSJ are the best places to start.
Get in Touch
Happy to chat — feel free to reach out about anything.