I build for the physical world.

I work on autonomous machines, new infrastructure, and experiments that test whether ambitious ideas can work.

Play.

Tools and experiments that made an idea concrete.

Notes, musings, and dreams.

Short notes

What I took with me.

  1. Infodesk

    Chief Product Officer (CPTO)

    Leading product and engineering taught me that strategy has to survive contact with the company carrying it out. Technical ambition is useful only when the organization can finance it and deliver it.

  2. App Annie, later data.ai

    Head of Data.ai Labs

    We built machine-learning systems at very large scale. The model is only a small part of the job; data pipelines and repeatable operations determine whether it becomes a product.

  3. Tangoe

    Director of Product Management & Operations

    At Tangoe I learned how distressed turnarounds narrow choices when time and cash run short. Private-equity rollups taught me that integration creates value only when it preserves what made the acquired companies work.

  4. FedEx

    Senior Engineering Advisor

    It wasn't like the Tom Hanks movie. A huge organization taught me that politics and inertia are engineering constraints. A sound idea goes nowhere unless people can adopt it without stopping the operation.

Education

  • MS, FinanceIndiana University Bloomington, Kelley School of Business
  • Certificate of Applied MathematicsIndiana University East · Summa Cum Laude
  • Bachelor's, Information Systems & MarketingUniversity of Memphis · Magna Cum Laude
Brett Bonner

And a life to enjoy.

Guitar, lap steel, dobro. Family, two dogs, and evenings on the water.

Say hello.

Questions, ideas, or a hard problem worth solving.

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The scene

An imagined future San Francisco, with my family.

Adapted from "San Francisco from Treasure Island" by The wub, 18 July 2023, CC BY 4.0. Future architecture, family, and animation are AI illustrated. Geography is approximate.