Alan Hartless (he/him)
Husband, Father, and Software Engineering Leader in Houston, Texas
Howdy! I'm Alan, a native Virginian who moved to Houston in '07. I love helping people and I love technology—and my career has been a blend of both. I started as a registered nurse while teaching myself to code on the side. After seven years in nursing, I somehow found myself as a founding engineer of Mautic, the first open-source marketing automation software. We shipped 1.0.0 in 2015 and were acquired by Acquia in 2019.
From there I pivoted into EdTech and now serve as a Software Engineering Manager at Khan Academy, on a mission "to provide a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere."
Outside of work, most of my time revolves around my husband, two teenage kids, and three cats. In the margins, I'm usually reading or listening to fantasy—Terry Brooks, Brandon Sanderson, Ben Hale, and Tolkien are my go-tos—or playing board and card games with friends. I'm also working on my first novels, catch Broadway shows when I can, and occasionally lose myself in an open-world video game (Horizon, Skyrim, Baldur's Gate 3, and the Zelda open-world games are some favorites).