Hi! I'm Dave Kiss, and I make the internet. 👋

• 🔭 I’m currently working full-time with Mux
• 🌱 I’m currently learning about Realtime LLM interactions
• 😄 Pronouns: he/him

I had a pretty early start on this web stuff – I still remember the modem connection sounds of AOL 2.5 emanating from my eMachines desktop like it was yesterday. My first website was a Kool-aid fan site that I built in 2004 (yeah, it’s still up.)

However, it was 1995’s Spider-Man Cartoon Maker that was the real catalyst for pursuing my first dream of being a world class video producer.

For years, I was laser-focused on being one of the best videographers out there. I went to university to study digital media production. While I was there, I had to make a portfolio website to display my videos on and realized that I really enjoyed the challenge that building a professional website presented.

In 2011, I moved to Chicago and started working with a small 3D animation studio called Greyscalegorilla. We needed a way to showcase some videos on the company’s website, so I researched some options and wasn’t able to find a great solution. So I did what I always do in that kind of situation – come up with my own way to make it work.

Rather than building a tool that only worked for us, I thought it’d be a good fit for other companies that faced a similar task. With permission, I open-sourced the code and assigned a price tag to some of the more complicated features.

In 2012, I started selling my own software online and took a few years to grow the sales to a sustainable level. I did it by extracting my truth from the industry’s smartest brains, applying it to my ideas along the way, and finding out firsthand what did and didn’t work.

For 8 years, that was my full time job. The autonomy and creativity was unparalleled, and it provided the opportunity to explore my many other interests. However, working for myself became a little lonely at times, and doubly so during a pandemic.

In September 2021, I decided to combine my video production background, web dev chops, and passion for community into a neat little package and roll into a Community Engineering role with the fine team at Mux.

I get a ton of satisfaction from sharing what I know. Whether it’s helping you write your first few lines of Javascript, making your first online sale, or talking about the importance of meetups, I want to do my best to help you do better work and share what I’ve learned along the way.

• I value autonomy; my time is extremely important to me.
• I want to take ownership of the things that I make. I did not get in to creative work just to crank out work for someone else.
• I want to learn about the things that I care about the most – not the rigid requirements of what only makes someone else happy.
• I want more out of my life than sitting predictably at my office desk every day. I want to push, encounter new situations, and explore.
• I want to have input on what I should work on for the day. I don’t want to just rent out my brain space for someone else’s agenda.
• I want to collaborate with others who are just as passionate about working as I am.
• I believe in listening to my body and my mind. If I’m not feeling like I’m putting out strong work, I should stop and come back when I’m ready. I don’t want to be made to feel bad for taking workdays off.
• I believe in the importance of remote work, and I prioritize my work environment over a predictable commute and cubicle.
• I enjoy applying all of the ideas and inspiration that surround me to a project of my own.
• I believe that the time I spend working is, at best, indirectly related to the value of the things that I create.

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