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blakeburch

262 karma · joined July 10, 2012

Enthusiast of new technology, data, automation, AI, jazz/funk, and board games. Currently looking for next opportunity to lead and grow a data team for an ambitious startup.

Previously: Co-founder @ Shipyard (www.shipyardapp.com) Head of Data Services @ PMG Digital Agency(www.pmg.com)

Get to know me - blakeburch.com Email me - small.tea5390[at]fastmail.com --- meet.hn/city/us-Austin

Socials:

- linkedin.com/in/blakeburch

- x.com/BlakeBurch_

- github.com/blakeburch

Interests:

AI/ML, Data Science, Gaming, Music, Privacy, Technology

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submissionscomments
blakeburch··on Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (March 2026)

  Location: Austin, TX, USA
  Remote: Yes, preferred. Open to hybrid in Austin.
  Willing to relocate: No.
  Technologies: 
    - Data Storage: AWS S3, BigQuery, GCS, PostgreSQL, Redshift, Snowflake
    - DataOps: dbt (Cloud/Core), Fivetran, Hightouch, Looker Studio, Metabase, Tableau, Hex
    - AI: Anthropic, Cursor, Midjourney, Ollama, OpenAI
    - Programming: Bash, GitHub, HTML, CSS, Python, SQL
    - Product: Arcade, Betterstack, Hotjar, Intercom, Retool, Segment
    - Web & Design: Descript, Docusaurus, Figma, Ghost, GitBook, Sanity.io, Webflow
    - GTM: Ahrefs, Apollo, Clay, Google Ads, Salesforce
    - Productivity: Airtable, Linear, Notion, Slack, Zapier
  Résumé/CV: https://bburch.my/resume
  Email: agile.desk3846@fastmail.com (masked address so I can filter out spam)
Hey - I'm Blake! I'm a seasoned technical product leader with 10+ years building AI-powered data products and B2B SaaS platforms. I was previously the first analytics hire at Roboflow (Vision AI), co-founder at Shipyard (data orchestration), and Head of Data Products at PMG Advertising Agency. My experience spans early-stage IC work to building a department of 12.

I'm looking for technical PM roles at mission-driven companies, ideally smaller orgs, where I can build from the ground up. I prefer a ~70/30 leader/IC split with a focus on AI and data-adjacent work. I'm open to any industry except advertising, gambling, crypto, and defense.

blakeburch··on Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (February 2026)

  Location: Austin, TX, USA
  Remote: Yes, preferred. Open to hybrid in Austin.
  Willing to relocate: No.
  Technologies: 
    - Data Storage: AWS S3, BigQuery, GCS, PostgreSQL, Redshift, Snowflake
    - DataOps: dbt (Cloud/Core), Fivetran, Hightouch, Looker Studio, Metabase, Tableau, Hex
    - AI: Anthropic, Cursor, Midjourney, Ollama, OpenAI
    - Programming: Bash, GitHub, HTML, CSS, Python, SQL
    - Product: Arcade, Betterstack, Hotjar, Intercom, Retool, Segment
    - Web & Design: Descript, Docusaurus, Figma, Ghost, GitBook, Sanity.io, Webflow
    - GTM: Ahrefs, Apollo, Clay, Google Ads, Salesforce
    - Productivty: Airtable, Linear, Notion, Slack, Zapier
  Résumé/CV: https://bburch.my/resume
  Email: agile.desk3846@fastmail.com (masked address so I can filter out spam)
I'm a seasoned technical product leader with 10+ years experience building data-intensive products and B2B SaaS platforms that drive adoption and scale.

I was previously the first product analytics hire at a Vision AI startup, Roboflow. Before that, I co-founded a B2B data operations tool, Shipyard. Earlier in my career, I was the Head of Data Products at PMG Advertising Agency where I built the team from the ground up. With a wide array of experience across Product, Data, and AI, I've led teams of up to 12 and have also been in the weeds as a department of one.

It's most important for me to work for a mission-driven company that wants to scale with bold and innovative approaches. I want to sink my teeth into tough problems, learn new things, and work with interesting and curious people.

I'm primarily looking for technical product roles. I enjoy ideating solutions, building MVPs, experimentation, and orchestrating all of the work to achieve a strategic vision. I prefer a roughly 70/30 split between leader/IC. I prefer smaller organizations with the ability to build something from the ground up. Despite my background, I'd like to avoid working in the advertising space.

blakeburch··on Ask HN: Share your personal website
https://www.blakeburch.com

Always wish it had more, but priorities shift over time!

blakeburch··on Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (December 2025)

  Location: Austin, TX, USA
  Remote: Yes, preferred. Open to hybrid in Austin.
  Willing to relocate: No.
  Technologies: 
    - Data Storage: AWS S3, BigQuery, GCS, PostgreSQL, Redshift, Snowflake
    - DataOps: dbt (Cloud/Core), Fivetran, Hightouch, Looker Studio, Metabase, Tableau, Hex
    - AI: Anthropic, Cursor, Midjourney, Ollama, OpenAI
    - Programming: Bash, GitHub, HTML, CSS, Python, SQL
    - Product: Arcade, Betterstack, Hotjar, Intercom, Retool, Segment
    - Web & Design: Descript, Docusaurus, Figma, Ghost, GitBook, Sanity.io, Webflow
  Résumé/CV: https://bburch.my/resume
  Email: agile.desk3846@fastmail.com (masked address so I can filter out spam)
I'm a seasoned data + AI leader with 10+ years experience building high-performance teams focused on automation, analytics, and data-driven results. I'm the type of person who looks at complex data challenges and sees opportunities for radical transformation. Whether it's automating workflows, experimenting with AI, or creating novel ML models that drive efficiency, I'm all about pushing boundaries and turning data into a growth accelerator.

I was previously the first analytics hire at a Computer Vision startup, Roboflow. Before that, I was co-founder of a B2B data operations tool, Shipyard. Earlier in my career, I was the Head of Data at PMG Digital Agency where I built the team from the ground up. It's most important for me to work for a mission-driven company that wants to scale with bold and innovative approaches. I want to sink my teeth into tough problems and learn new things.

I'm primarily looking for data leadership or technical product roles. I enjoy ideating solutions, building MVPs, experimentation, and orchestrating all of the work to achieve a strategic vision. I prefer a 70/30 split between leader/IC. I prefer smaller organizations with the ability to build something from the ground up. Despite my background, I'd like to avoid working in the advertising space.

blakeburch··on Ask HN: Looking for headless CMS recommendation
I really enjoyed sanity.io a year ago. It had the best data structure flexibility by a mile, with the ability to have multiple user draft states and merge conflict resolution.

Other Headless CMS felt restrictive, with shared drafts or the requirement for all published items to have changes go live instantly.

Once you're set up with your schema, the UI is easy enough for non-developers (and you can customize it for them if needed).

blakeburch··on Show HN: I taught AI to commentate Pong in real time
Really fun to see! I'd love to have something similar for esports, like League of Legends or Rocket League. So much of the commentary feels like filler with stats and statements about a player.
blakeburch··on Password reuse is rampant: nearly half of observed user logins are compromised
I used to do this (10+ years ago), but once a few get leaked, everything else would get exposed if someone wanted to target you.

Much easier to just manage randomized passwords through 1Password.

blakeburch··on Didn't realize it was this bad
If the employer adds more friction with custom, upfront questions, they drastically reduce the quantity of applications while increasing the quality of those left.

If the employer doesn't post to job boards, they reduce the quantity of applications, but they increase those that found them "direct" and likely care more about the company.

It's not perfect, but the biggest issue right now is that both sides are typically trying to put as little effort in as possible.

blakeburch··on Egg prices are soaring. Are backyard chickens the answer?
Cool idea and tech! The idea of "plug and play" for chicken ownership is pretty novel. Bet my parents would love the smart cameras.

For EggsteinAI, did y'all build with CV tools like Roboflow? Or completely custom process? Would probably make for a fun read.

blakeburch··on Ray-Ban Meta glasses have sold 2M units, production to be increased
Is there anyway to bypass Meta on these? Or is there an open source version in the works?

Interested to see what could be done locally with always-on visual capture + LLMs. Not interested in sending that data to Meta.

blakeburch··on Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books
I was! Responded in a comment below. The public library serves the digital books directly through Amazon.

Either I'm missing something more obvious or the system I've seen libraries use for digital books over the past 10 years is more uncommon than I realized.

blakeburch··on Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books
Actual library that lends me ebooks (Austin). The library uses Overdrive (Libby) and anything provided in the Kindle format can't be downloaded directly from the Library's interface. You have to click a "Read now with Kindle" button which redirects you to Amazon, where you have to click "Get Library Book" directly from Amazon.com.

Epub can be downloaded directly from the library, but these have to be converted into a Kindle compatible format. I'm also unsure if every digital book copy has Epub as a format, since there are some digital copies that don't have Kindle format.

This has been true of all public digital libraries I've used in the past 10 years (Houston, Arlington, Fort Worth)

blakeburch··on Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books
From what the article says, that's doesn't appear to be true.

In order to download and transfer Kindle books from the Library, I have to first add them to "My Content" on Amazon, then from the Amazon interface click "Download & Transfer via USB". That's the only way to access the AZW3 files that get moved over to the Kindle.

blakeburch··on Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books
From what the article says, that's doesn't appear to be true.

In order to download and transfer Kindle books from the Library, I have to first add them to "My Content" on Amazon, then from the Amazon interface click "Download & Transfer via USB". That's the only way to access the AZW3 files that get moved over to the Kindle.

blakeburch··on Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books
This is... terrible news. This is primarily how I get books from the library. I found that if you keep the Kindle on Airplane mode and download + transfer them, they never expire.

Nothing malicious. I just can't read books arbitrarily in a 21 day period.

blakeburch··on I got OpenAI o1 to play the boardgame Codenames and it's super good
Love the idea! Just wish you could clarify a number like you do in codenames. Otherwise, it just keeps going until all of its options are wrong.
blakeburch··on How to improve your WFH lighting to reduce eye strain
Glad to hear someone else doing this. I feel bad not using the grow light to... you know... grow plants. But the light it provides in my office is lovely.
blakeburch··on I automated my job application process
The thought process was tracking all candidates (not having a user-submitted number). That tracking is already happening for most marketing analytics. I'm surprised I haven't seen it show up on the job application side.

As for the fave 5 idea - I don't see an easy way to game this if it's tied to a single user account. You would only be seen as prioritizing the company to the employer if you're actively prioritizing them. Most people are applying to way more than 5 companies simultaneously and don't know where their application stands for the company. It would be too risky to try and rotate it continuously.

blakeburch··on Ask HN: Spending Tracking Tools
I highly recommend LunchMoney (https://lunchmoney.app/). It's built by a solo developer who is very responsive and continues to make the app great. Lots of automation and ability to create custom classification rules. I've been happy for the past 3 years.

I've also heard good things about CoPilot (https://copilot.money/) but have not had the chance to experiment with it yet.

blakeburch··on Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (January 2025)

  Location: Austin, TX, USA
  Remote: Yes, preferred. Open to hybrid in Austin.
  Willing to relocate: No.
  Technologies: 
    - Data Storage: AWS S3, BigQuery, GCS, PostgreSQL, Redshift, Snowflake
    - DataOps: dbt (Cloud/Core), Fivetran, Hightouch, Looker Studio, Metabase, Tableau
    - AI: Anthropic, Cursor, Midjourney, Ollama, OpenAI, 
    - Programming: Bash, GitHub, HTML, CSS, Python, SQL
    - Product: Arcade, Betterstack, Hotjar, Intercom, Retool, Segment
    - Web & Design: Descript, Docusaurus, Figma, Ghost, Sanity.io, Webflow
  Résumé/CV: https://bburch.my/resume
  Email: agile.desk3846@fastmail.com (masked address so I can filter out spam)
I'm a seasoned data + AI leader with 10+ years experience building high-performance teams focused on automation, analytics, and data-driven results. I'm the type of person who looks at complex data challenges and sees opportunities for radical transformation. Whether it's automating workflows, experimenting with AI, or creating novel ML models that drive efficiency, I'm all about pushing boundaries and turning data into a growth accelerator.

I was previously co-founder of a B2B data operations tool, Shipyard. Before that, I was the Head of Data at PMG Digital Agency where I built the team from the ground up. It's most important for me to work for a mission-driven company that wants to scale with bold and innovative approaches. I want to sink my teeth into tough problems and learn new things.

I'll do my best work focused on a mix of data, AI, and product. I can seamlessly adapt between IC or management roles and I prefer to have a decent amount of time hands on. Smaller organizations with the ability to build something from the ground up is a big plus. Despite my background, I'd like to avoid working in the advertising space.

blakeburch··on I automated my job application process
What would you suggest changing?

I think the hard part is everyone knows that it's bad but no one has any ideas to combat the problem.

blakeburch··on I automated my job application process
I've personally found that even when I do my best to exude interest in the industry/company through custom question responses or the cover letter that auto-rejection is still the most common end result.

I'm still amazed that the applicant tracking systems don't provide employers with stats like "time spent on application" or "time spent on website researching". At least this would be a signal towards higher interest.

Heck, I'd love a "fave 5" system for employers. Something to flag extreme interest in working for their company. Companies would probably love to have a list of high-intent people to recruit, regardless of their current employment status.

blakeburch··on Ask HN: What should I do with meet.hn?
I'm definitely a fan of a monthly "Meet HN" thread that others have recommended, if dang would allow it. The ability to post local events and find others currently interested in meeting up could be invaluable.

The biggest bottleneck of the website is constant visibility. I have meet.hn on my profile. I haven't had anyone reach out about it. I kinda forgot that it was there. Having a "Meet HN" thread gives people looking for local connections a consistent and visible way to find others.

I currently run local events on Meetup.com (one personal and one professional). At the end of the day, the audience size there is always going to be larger than through something like this, so I do agree with sirobg that the best fit is for facilitating 1:1 conversations.

Funny enough, I am meeting with someone from HN in Austin next week, but it was purely serendipitous from a cold outreach email where we happened to be working on a similar project and realized we were in the same city.

blakeburch··on Build Something You Believe In: The Music of Sid Meier's Civilization
Y'all weren't kidding. After the first full track I knew I couldn't treat it like background music. I just gave the album an uninterrupted listen this morning.

I had an outpouring of emotion. Incredibly moving.

Thank you both for sharing.

blakeburch··on Honeycrisp apples went from marvel to mediocre
I eat apples almost every day and have found that some growers are just simply better than others.

Have you ever looked at the sticker brand on your apples? If not, pay attention next time. Rainier has the best Honeycrisps. They're phenomenal. All others pale in comparison.

This realization made my wife and I pay more attention across all of our produce. We'll choose to buy produce based on the brand that's currently in stock. It feels absurdly picky, but I find it refreshing to at least know why a batch of brussel sprouts, apples, oranges, etc. tasted more bitter or less flavorful than normal.

It makes sense when you think about it. People care where their coffee beans come from, with flavor preferences of one region versus another. Why shouldn't we have flavor preferences based on who grows our produce?

blakeburch··on Every board game rulebook is awful [pdf]
As an avid board gamer, I think one of the biggest factors is page count. A big rule book makes the game feel less approachable. In the example provided at the bottom, the rewritten rulebook is ~50 pages. The original is 24. It doesn't matter how well it's written if it scares people off.

I find that many people are so afraid of reading game rules that they'd rather watch 15-30m how to play videos. It's telling of the industry that these videos are typically better learning resources than the rulebooks themselves.

My favorite rulebooks have 1-page rule references at the back or scannable columns on each page that summarize the main text.

As someone who enjoys technical documentation writing, I think board game rulebook writing would be a rewarding experience. Not exactly sure how to get into that field though...

(I have yet to read this in full, but I'm excited to dig in)

blakeburch··on Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (December 2024)

  Location: Austin, TX, USA
  Remote: Yes, preferred. Open to hybrid in Austin.
  Willing to relocate: No.
  Technologies: 
    - Data Storage: AWS S3, BigQuery, GCS, PostgreSQL, Redshift, Snowflake
    - DataOps: dbt (Cloud/Core), Fivetran, Hightouch, Looker Studio, Metabase, Tableau
    - AI: Anthropic, Cursor, Midjourney, Ollama, OpenAI, 
    - Programming: Bash, GitHub, HTML, CSS, Python, SQL
    - Product: Arcade, Betterstack, Hotjar, Intercom, Retool, Segment
    - Web & Design: Descript, Docusaurus, Figma, Ghost, Sanity.io, Webflow
  Résumé/CV: https://bburch.my/resume
  Email: agile.desk3846@fastmail.com (masked address so I can filter out spam)
I'm a seasoned data + AI leader with 10+ years experience building high-performance teams focused on automation, analytics, and data-driven results. Imagine having a data leader who can not only build robust data infrastructure but can also explain why it matters to the entire organization. That's me. I'm the person who looks at complex data challenges and sees opportunities for radical transformation. Whether it's automating workflows, experimenting with AI, or creating novel ML models that drive efficiency, I'm all about pushing boundaries and turning data teams into growth accelerators.

I was previously co-founder of a DataOps tool, Shipyard. Before that, I was the Head of Data at PMG Digital Agency where I built the team from the ground up. It's most important for me to work for a mission-driven company that wants to scale with bold and innovative approaches. I want to sink my teeth into tough problems and learn new things.

I'll do my best work focused on a mix of data, AI, product, or operations. I can seamlessly adapt between IC or management roles. Smaller organizations with the ability to build something from the ground up is a big plus. Despite my background, I'd like to avoid working in the advertising space.

blakeburch··on GenChess
I'm on Android using Chrome and got the following error.

"Access blocked: GenChess’s request does not comply with Google’s policies"

Kinda funny to run into that error for a product published by Google.

blakeburch··on Show HN: I am Building a Producthunt alternative
Glad to see someone working on an alternative!

Personal note - I used to be a pretty frequent user of ProductHunt. Some folks I worked with jokingly called me the SaaS King. If you had a problem, I knew of 3 tools to potentially solve it.

The biggest reason why I stopped using ProductHunt was because people opted to submit and upvote low quality "list of X" aggregation services and minor updates, not real products. Hopefully you've thought about how to refine the curation.

Also, agreed with the feedback from muhammadusman about having a product page. Right now, it's just a list of links with synopsis - not enough to intrigue me to explore further.

blakeburch··on Europeans spend 575M hours clicking on cookie banners a year
Thanks for sharing this! I've always wondered why the browsers themselves can't implement this type of feature to improve the web. I assume it's some legal factor.
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