Hello! I’m Mitch Myburgh.
I am a software developer specialising in fullstack app and webapp development in JavaScript/TypeScript and React/ReactNative. I have leadership experience, having taken on the roles of CTO in startups and lead engineer in a large public company, and in both cases lead small teams of engineers. I have excellent remote communication skills, due to the fact that all my employment has been remote. Additionally I have gained experience in user interface design and dev ops in my roles.
I have an honours degree in Computer Science from the University of Cape Town, and have founded a number of startups, then moved on to become lead engineer at the large cannabis and ecommerce company Lifeist building their video telemedicine application and their cannabis marketplace from scratch as part of a small team, while navigating a heavily regulated environment and rapidly changing requirements.
Following that I became one of the first engineers at Spinach Pay, a cannabis payments company, where myself and one other engineer architected and built a payment application from scratch over the course of a year, communicated with the client about their needs and participated in company decision making.
My hobbies include participating in game jams (timed contests where you build a game within a theme and time restriction) and geocaching.
Portfolio
My Skills
I am a highly experienced software engineer with a focus on JavaScript/TypeScript fullstack web applications using React and mobile apps using React Native. I have over 8 years of professional experience in building and releasing solutions.
Experience
I have been a professional software engineer for many years, having founded 2 startups during my university years and been involved in many more. Most recently I had a senior engineering, and leadership role at the publicly traded health & wellness company, Lifeist, and became one of the initial employees at fintech cannabis buy-now pay-later startup Spinach.
Senior Front End Software Engineer
WIP
Lead Engineer
Spinach is a payment platform providing direct bank payments and buy-now, pay-later services to users of consumables, particularly in the cannabis space.
As lead engineer I worked on the technical components of the system and architected our solution. I also communicated with stakeholders and other engineers to produce results.
As a team we built the payments infrastructure from the ground up using innovative technologies such as Plaid and Modern Treasury. We were also key in discussions around the business goals and objectives.
Spinach included a progressive webapp, backend, backoffice management portal, and experimental integrations with leading ecommerce providers in the space.
Technology: JavaScript, TypeScript, Node.js, React, Next.js, MongoDB, Plaid, Modern Treasury
Key Knowledge: Fintech, Banking, Payments
Contractor
I remain employed by Lifeist on an hourly basis to continue to provide support to their finance, and customer support departments.
Technology: JavaScript, TypeScript, Node.js, React, Next.js, MongoDB, React Native, SQL, PostgreSQL, AWS
Lead Engineer
I was the lead engineer, reporting on engineering progress to the CTO as well as managing the engineering team, including holding one on ones and making architectural decisions. I did this while continuing to handle my engineering tasks.
During my tenure as lead I continued development on our B2C cannabis ecommerce marketplace, and assisted in the production of reports and analytics for the finance and ecommerce teams, as well as assisting with guidance surrounding the telemedicine application
Technology: JavaScript, TypeScript, Node.js, React, Next.js, MongoDB, React Native, SQL, Twilio, Shopify, PostgreSQL, AWS, Vercel
Key Knowledge: Telemedicine, Video, Marketplace, B2C, Ecommerce
Senior Frontend Engineer
I was in charge of maintaining and extending the CannMartMD mobile and web apps as well as the backend. This app was a telemedicine app providing users with free video consultations. I was the sole developer in charge of this app and released numerous versions and improvements. I was later part of the team that rebuilt the B2C cannabis ecommerce marketplace from the ground up using Next.js and Shopify.
Technology: JavaScript, TypeScript, Node.js, React, Next.js, MongoDB, React Native, SQL, Twilio, Shopify, PostgreSQL, AWS
Key Knowledge: Telemedicine, Video, Marketplace, B2C, Ecommerce
CTO
An app where you pay to chat with subject matter experts, selecting them from a marketplace of options. I was the lead developer and developed the app and backend as well as an admin portal, I designed the UI/UX of the app. The app contains payment processing, voice and text chat. I also lead a small team of student developers.
Technology: JavaScript, Golang, Vue.js, MongoDB and Cordova, Twilio
Key Knowledge: Video, Marketplace
Founder & CTO
A startup I founded with 2 friends from University, it was an events and deals social network. It was sold. I was the CTO and coded the backend and management console, as well as a large part of the two apps, along with designing the UI/UX. The product included a front facing app and management console for deal owners, as well as a scanner app for use at Point of Sale for redemption of deals. I also built a simplified Reddit-like site for displaying deals as an alternative in Vue.js and Golang
Technology: JavaScript, Node.js, React, React Native, MongoDB, Golang, Vue.js
Key Knowledge: Social Network
Intern
I did a Holiday internship at OLX in 2015/2016, I worked in PHP and on the native Android app.
Technology: PHP, Android, Java
Key Knowledge: Classifieds
Founder & CTO
A job finding marketplace app and the first app I built. I built it from scratch including the UI/UX. It allowed users to find small odd jobs and take advantage of the gig economy. Powered by Parse and shutdown when Parse shut down.
Technology: JavaScript, Cordova, jQuery
Key Knowledge: Classifieds, Marketplace
Intern
Performed analysis of Facebook data and competitors using web-scraping techniques
Technology: Python, Node.js
Key Knowledge: Classifieds
Education
Computer Science Honours First Class
My honours project was in the use of embedded systems for education and I gained skills in programming C on the Arduino. Some of the courses I took were evolutionary computing, data visualisation, network security, computer vision, ontology engineering, information retrieval, distributed scientific computing, logic for AI and human computer interaction. I also took courses in professional communication.
Bachelors degree in Mathematics and Computer Science (Distinction)
In 2015 I was awarded a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Mathematics with a distinction in Computer Science from the University of Cape Town. I have a large amount of experience in Java and Python as they were the languages of instruction at UCT. I also did 2 years of Physics and courses in applied maths and statistics.
Awards
Class Medal (Top Student) in Applied Mathematics, second year computer science research project and third year computer science. Dean’s List (2012 and 2013, 2015) Certificate of Merit in first year Computer Science.
Projects
A small game I made for a game jam. Using a custom TypeScript engine.
A small game I made for a game jam. Using a custom TypeScript engine.
A small game I made for a game jam. Using TypeScript.
Playduino
My Honours Project: an investigation of the use of Arduinos in education. Included a basic C game engine and Arduino powered game console.
Celtic Knotwork GUI
My 3rd year research project. A Celtic Knotwork creation GUI that outputs a 3D model of the knotwork. Built in Python.
Testimonials
My Team
I have worked with some incredible people over the years, and would love to continue to work with them. The following people and I form a prebuilt team if that interests you.
Contact Me
If you would like to contact me then drop me a message using the contact form.
Or get in touch using my email, my contact number, or any of my socials.
See you!