The builder behind the products.

I'm Mike Paulus. I build apps, websites, and campaign systems from scratch. Based in Fort Collins, Colorado.

I spent twelve years in hospitality building training programs and managing P&Ls before moving into tech sales. At every company since, the same thing happened: I'd get the sales job, hit the number, and then quietly build the systems I wished someone would give me.

GTM frameworks other reps adopted. Referral engines. ROI calculators. Upsell automations. Lead enrichment platforms. The numbers always came from the systems, not from working harder.

Currently at Dagster Labs as a GTM Engineer, but the title undersells the work. I designed and built a complete conference campaign toolkit (11 routes, 2 APIs, shipped solo in 3 days), a revenue intelligence platform adopted by the entire sales org in its first week, and marketing collateral systems used across the sales org. Every project owned end-to-end: problem identification through design, architecture, production deployment, and iteration.

Custom code over templates. Thoughtful design over defaults. Quality and speed, both. The right amount of complexity is the minimum needed to solve the problem well.

I take on a limited number of projects at a time so each one gets the attention it deserves. Every engagement starts with understanding the problem deeply before writing a line of code.

Primary stack: Next.js, React, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS. PostgreSQL, SQLite, or Drizzle ORM on the backend. Deploy to DigitalOcean (PM2 + Caddy) or containerized environments. For AI features: Claude API, Twilio, Deepgram, ElevenLabs.

Also build automation systems with n8n, integrate with enterprise tools (Salesforce, Snowflake, HubSpot), and have deep experience with the modern GTM stack.

Taking on consulting projects. If you have something worth building, I'd love to talk.