# Brian H. Hough > Building epic tech & scaling the cloud | AWS Hero | 5x Hackathon Winner | 50+ AI, Cloud & Software Clients (work with us ↓) Location: Boston, Massachusetts, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/brianhhough MY LIFE’S MANTRA: “Let’s digitize our world for the better, together!” Halfway through my college studies at Boston University, I started to feel a fire inside me that said, “I need to do more.” Informed by my passion for social change and growth, I enrolled in a course that showed me how big data could be used as a catalyst to impact real social change. That was my game-changing moment. After graduating, I worked at the Harvard Kennedy School's center on American Indian Economic Development and built exhibits on Google's Art and Culture platform. It was an incredible opportunity that allowed me to use my newfound knowledge of big data, design, and digital platforms to turn case studies into 3D & immersive exhibits, making content more accessible to people worldwide. Additionally, I was the communications manager for 8 Decimal Capital, a $60 million blockchain venture capital fund. Seeing so many inspiring startups changing the world pushed me to learn and do more. Since then, I’ve been lucky to work with multi-sector global companies and teams that are changing the world by digitally transforming operations to increase efficiency, safety, and growth. Although I have been fortunate enough to achieve a lot professionally, I had that same fire inside telling me, “I need to do more.” I thought back to the days when I wouldn’t have touched computer science with a 10-foot pole. I asked myself, “Why?” And then, I remembered feeling that computer science and technology was intimidating and seemed to be reserved for people who were specialized and well-versed in the field. This is when I had my epiphany. Why don’t I use the knowledge and expertise I’ve gained over the years to help other people see the magic of how technology can transform our future? Cut to the liftoff of Tech Stack Playbook, a series I created dedicated to exploring topics such as coding, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud, and data – launching insightful, entertaining, and collaborative conversations with people about how they could use tech to empower themselves without the technical jargon. MY ULTIMATE GOAL: Make the world of technology more accessible through insightful and entertaining conversations. In the spirit of collaborative conversations, let’s talk! DM me on Instagram: https://instagram.com/brianhhough Here are 3 questions to break the ice: 1. What did I do to help victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2006? 2. How did I become a five-time Global Hackathon Winner and sought-after brand strategist? 3. What did I build for Google’s Art and Culture Platform? ## Work Experience ### CEO & Founder // Full-Stack Software Engineer @ Tech Stack Playbook Jan 2021 – Present Tech Stack Playbook® is an award-winning software engineering firm renowned for crafting cutting-edge solutions for enterprise and startup clients alike. As a dynamic media brand, we deliver impactful insights on building, deploying, and leveraging technology to our 20,000+ followers, featuring tutorials, case studies, and industry highlights. 𝗟𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲? 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗮 𝗱𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗲! 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗸: AWS, Docker, Python, Next.js, React.js, React Native, TypeScript, Node.js 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗴𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: ⦿ AWS DevTools Hero by Amazon Web Services ⦿ 5-time global hackathon winner ⦿ freeCodeCamp Top Open Source Contributor ⦿ Founded open-sourced CoronaTracker, featured in Decrypt: https://bit.ly/Decrypt-CoronaTracker 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗧𝗮𝗹𝗸𝘀: ⦿ AWS NYC Summit on Serverless & IaC: https://bit.ly/BHH-AWSNYCSummit23 ⦿ AWS re:Invent on Full-Stack Development: https://bit.ly/BHH-AWSreInvent2022 ⦿ AWS User Group on Amazon SageMaker: https://bit.ly/4b4qvfK ### Content Creator - Tech Stack Playbook® @ YouTube Jan 2021 – Present With a reach of over 10.4k+ followers across YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, blogs, and other social media platforms, the Tech Stack Playbook is a collection of lessons, vlogs, and guides for navigating the wild world of tech. The Tech Stack Playbook is your guide to apps, software, and tech (but in a fun way, I promise). If you’re looking to dive deep into some of the industry’s best kept secrets that I give out FOR FREE around technology innovation, entrepreneurship, startups, and full stack development, then you’ll definitely want to subscribe. Check out the channel at: www.youtube.com/brianhhough ### Software Engineer (AI & AWS) @ The Motley Fool Jan 2022 – Present At The Motley Fool, I help design and build intelligent systems that power both internal tools and customer-facing platforms. My work spans full-stack development, LLM and agentic systems, data pipelines, and secure cloud architecture. Projects have included building chat interfaces for our internal AI assistant, developing scalable file-processing pipelines, optimizing Python workloads, and deploying infrastructure with Terraform, CDK, and Serverless Framework on AWS. I work cross-functionally with engineering, AI, and data teams to deliver tools that are fast, secure, and easy to scale — while also shaping best practices around testing, auth, and documentation. Tech Stack: Next.js, React, TypeScript, Python, AWS (EKS, Lambda, S3, EventBridge, AppSync), Terraform, Serverless, Snowflake, Databricks, Streamlit, Auth0, Okta ### Software Engineer (Web3) @ The Motley Fool Jan 2021 – Jan 2022 I built, launched, and owned FoolLabs, a token-gated web3 "learn and earn" education dapp. The overall goal was to build an autonomous, web3 platform that would teach early adopters of crypto how to learn, build, and earn in the web3 ecosystem, from wallet management to NFT utilization. To launch the platform, I led a private NFT mint with POAP for 1.1k+ Fools and then token-gated the platform with a handful of NFTs. Further, I created videos and articles as TMF’s in-house “crypto expert” on Basic Attention Token, MetaMask, & NFT Minting for 50k+ subscribers globally. This was also included advising and supporting the product teams, C-Suite, and advisors in building web3 infra. Tech Stack: TypeScript, Next.js, Node.js, AWS, Moralis, POAP, Gnosis Chain, Netlify ### Course Author (Python PCEP) @ Udacity Jan 2024 – Present As a course author for Udacity, I designed and taught the Beginner Python PCEP™ Certification Prep course — helping learners worldwide gain confidence in core Python programming concepts while preparing for the globally recognized PCEP certification by the Python Institute. This 7-lesson course blends Python fundamentals with practical project-based learning. From control flow and data structures to exception handling and functional programming, students build real-world skills and finish with an AI-driven data project showcasing their abilities using the Amazon Reviews dataset. I also brought my experience as an AWS Hero and software founder into the content, adding industry insights and a hands-on, builder-focused approach to mastering Python from the ground up. Topics Covered: Variables, Data Types, Control Flow, Functions, Lists, Tuples, Dictionaries, I/O, Modules, Exceptions, OOP, List Comprehensions, Generators, Regex, Functional Programming Final Project: “A Data-Driven Approach to AI and Python” — Analyze Amazon.com product reviews data, generate insights, and build a data science pipeline for AI product exploration. ### Co-Founder & Software Engineer (Full Stack) @ The Capital Jan 2022 – Jan 2024 (Acquired in 2024) Built and owned The Capital's refactor and migration process from Angular/Google Firebase to React/AWS to create a serverless social media article writing platform to allow users to build global brands and monetize their following. Tech Stack: React.js, Node.js, AWS (AWS Lambda, DynamoDB, S3, Cognito, IAM, CloudWatch, API Gateway, EC2) ### Front End Developer @ The Capital Jan 2021 – Jan 2022 • Front-end software engineer translating Figma wireframes into React.js code (formerly Angular) • AWS Solution Architect for a serverless backend (GraphQL AppSync, DynamoDB, Lambda, Cognito) • Designing a next-generation publishing platform for professionals in business, finance, and tech. A platform for tech-entrepreneurs, investors, and influencers who wants to build and monetize their personal brand. ### Chief Technology Officer @ Airblock Technologies Jan 2020 – Jan 2022 Building technology solutions to digitize aviation and aerospace. As the CTO, I am leading the technology development and scaling of the company's software and products. Learn more about the exciting technology we're building at: https://airblocktech.com ### Senior Software Engineer @ Airblock Technologies Jan 2020 – Jan 2020 Recruited to support Airblock Technologies to build the product from ideation and UI/UX prototyping to front-end and back-end development. I led the creation of the UI/UX user flows and wireframes, as well as the initial front-end demo for the app. This transitioned into work on the back-end, setting up the architecture maps and back-end infrastructure to make the app features work. ### UI/UX Lead & Co-Founder @ CoronaTracker Jan 2020 – Jan 2021 Coronatracker is a progressive web application that lets users track and monitor their health symptoms and learn about COVID-19. I was one of the three founding members that created the app and helped to scale this project to 280+ global contributors across 4 countries, 5 states and 10+ languages. I led the UI/UX design, prototyping, wire-framing and overall app layouts. I rendered out elements, built out a design brand guide and worked with the front end and back end teams to build out the app. We use a number of technologies in our tech stack, including Blockstack, AWS and MongoDB. ### Social Media Coordinator @ V2 Communications Jan 2019 – Jan 2020 - Social media strategist and social media account manager for companies at all stages, from stealth mode to publicly-traded. - Create highly-effective communications programs that map to our clients' business strategies and goals. - Design media campaigns to engage local, national and global audiences while ensuring proper cross-account branding guidelines and messaging profiles. ### Chief Communications Officer @ 8 Decimal Capital Jan 2018 – Jan 2019 | San Francisco Bay Area - Media, written and digital content creator for a $60 million AUM venture capital fund of 40+ portfolio companies in 7+ countries. - Created all multimedia digital content and managed all social media accounts. - Produced research videos which have reached 22,000+ viewers. - Achieved immense corporate media followings: 171%+ on Twitter, 1250%+ on Medium and 93%+ on LinkedIn. - Wrote and edited research articles & whitepapers which were published in mainstream outlets, including Reuters, Forbes, LA Post, HackerNoon and the 8 Decimal Blog. ### Project Coordinator, Google Arts & Culture @ Harvard Kennedy School Jan 2018 – Jan 2019 | Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development - Designed and created Google Arts & Culture’s first digital exhibits on global governance, business, and economics Native Nations case studies. - Exhibits combine 360-degree video, Google Earth, Google StreetView, and digital imagery which I sourced or created with Adobe CC for global publication. - Created promotional video, digital marketing, and PR deliverables. ### Researcher @ Harvard Kennedy School Jan 2016 – Jan 2018 | Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development - Aided faculty on state taxation research for the U.S. government. - Created and distributed weekly social media & email-newsletters. - Designed media campaigns to engage 51k+ people on social media. ### Peer-Reviewed Researcher @ Boston University Jan 2019 – Jan 2019 - Presented at Boston University’s 2019 Emerging Media Studies Conference ### Research Assistant @ Boston University Jan 2018 – Jan 2019 ▶️ Currently analyzing government websites according to the dialogic modes of communication to understand how websites engage, interact, and build conversations with their returning and first-time visitors. ▶️ Drafted a comprehensive, modern diagram of the public policy process which combines public affairs, public relations, governmental communication, and advocacy stakeholder groups. ## Education ### Bachelor of Science in Communication, Public Relations, Political Science Boston University ### Certification in Principles and Practices of Big Data Boston University College of Communication ### Auditor (J-Term) in Native Americans in the 21st Century: Nation Building I Harvard Kennedy School ### Boston Cohort Winter 2021 Founder Institute ### Startup School Online ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/brianhhough - Portfolio: https://www.BrianHHough.com - Portfolio: https://www.BrianHHough.com/Blog --- Source: https://flows.cv/brianhhough JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/brianhhough/resume.json Last updated: 2026-03-28