# Melkis Espinal > Founding Engineer | Lead Software Engineer | Technical Co-Founder | Architected 0β†’1 for $34M+ InsurTech | Co-founded bootstrapped IT company | Not every company needs VC money | πŸ“ New York-based | 🌐 Remote-First Location: New York City Metropolitan Area, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/melkis I help founders make technical decisions that scale - whether you're bootstrapping or raising capital. The journey: β€’ 2018-2022: Co-founded bootstrapped IT services company - built + sold without VC money β€’ 2021-Present: Founding Engineer at LOOP (InsurTech, $34M+ raised) β€’ Joined as employee #1 on technical side β€’ Architected entire backend AND frontend infrastructure from 0β†’1 with CTO β€’ Built for fast iteration and customer feedback β€’ Scaled through Seed ($3.3M) β†’ Series A ($21M) β†’ $10M note β€’ Built and led engineering team of 10 Why I'm different: β€’ I've succeeded at BOTH paths. I know what it takes to bootstrap profitably AND what it takes to build for VC scale. Most advisors push one path β€’ I help you choose the right one for YOUR situation, then help you execute (architect + code) What I believe: β€’ Not every company needs VC money. In fact, MOST don't β€’ The best path depends on your goals, timeline, and market. I've lived both. I can help you decide Technical depth: β€’ Architected 9-microservice backend + GCP frontend infrastructure from 0β†’1 β€’ Full-stack: Node.js, Python, React, Next.js β€’ Cloud: GCP (expert), AWS, Docker, Serverless, microservices, monolith β€’ Domain-Driven Design, REST APIs, data pipelines, security architecture β€’ Managed: Load Balancers, Cloud Armor, Secret Manager, Firestore, Firebase β€’ Led engineering team: hiring, firing, mentoring, OKRs, agile processes I can help at every stage: β€’ Bootstrapped founders: "Can I build this profitably without VC money? What's the lean tech stack?" β€’ Pre-Seed founders: "Should I raise or bootstrap? What's right for MY business?" β€’ Seed stage: "How do I hire my first technical team? Build vs buy decisions?" β€’ Series A: "What changes when you scale? How do we prepare for growth?" β€’ Established companies: "Need a senior full-stack engineer who can start immediately" Currently available for: β€’ Technical advisory for founders (bootstrap or VC path) β€’ Architecture reviews & system design β€’ Senior engineering contracts (full-stack, backend, infrastructure) β€’ Engineering team leadership & hiring support I'm not here to push VC funding. I'm here to help you build the right way for YOUR goals. 10+ years experience. Bilingual (English/Spanish). US-citizen. Remote-first. πŸ“§ DM me to discuss your project: β€’ "BOOTSTRAP" if you're building profitably β€’ "ADVISORY" for strategic help (any stage) β€’ "CONTRACT" for senior engineering / architecting / software design work ## Work Experience ### Lead Software Engineer / Engineering Manager @ LOOP Jan 2022 – Present Architected the backend architecture and microservices in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and selected the backend tech stack. Worked directly with the CTO on a recurrent basis to come up with software architectural decisions, as well as defining short- and long-term technical strategies and goals for the benefit of the company Worked closely with the Product Owner to plan Scrum Sprints with the necessary prioritizations. Lead, managed, and mentored a team of 5 engineers (3 Senior Software Engineers, 1 Software Engineer, and 1 DevOps Engineer) and reported directly to the CTO Screened resumes and interviewed candidates, which led to the hiring of: (3) Senior Software Engineers, (1) Software Engineer, (1) DevOps Engineer, (1) Frontend Engineer, and (1) Product Owner. They are all part of the backend team that I currently lead Experience in architecting microservices and using serverless backends Technologies Used: JavaScript ES5+, Python 3.7+, Google Cloud Platform (GCP) [IAM, Compute Engine, Cloud Run, FIrestore, Cloud Storage, Container Registry, API Gateway, Load Balancer, Cloud Armor (Network Security), Secret Manager, OpenID Connect (JWT), Serverless VPC Connector, Cloud NAT, VPC Service Control Perimeters], Node.js, Python Flask Web Framework, Docker, Microservices, Atlassian Jira, Bitbucket, and Confluence, Agile with Scrum. ### Senior Software Engineer @ LOOP Jan 2021 – Jan 2022 Lead, managed, and mentored a team of 3 engineers daily and reported directly to the CTO. Worked directly with the CTO on a recurrent basis to come up with software architectural decisions, as well as defining short- and long-term technical strategies, processes, and goals for the benefit of the company. Architected LOOP’s Engineering Bible, which points out how to use Atlassian Bitbucket, Jira, Confluence, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) products and services. This has led to a more streamlined onboarding process for incoming engineers. Worked closely with the CTO and Product Owner to enhance our Agile Development processes. Architected and managed an internal tool to ease the pain of manually underwriting by replicating data daily and showing relevant information in a simplistic manner. Technologies Used: Python 3.7+, JavaScript ES5+, Google Cloud Platform (GCP) [Cloud Functions, App Engine, IAM, Compute Engine, Cloud Run, Pub/Sub, Firestore, Cloud Storage, IAM, Container Registry], Amazon Web Services (AWS) [Lambda Functions, S3 Buckets, IAM, Container Registry], Python Flask, Docker, Webflow, React, Twilio Infrastructure & APIs, Atlassian Jira, Bitbucket, and Confluence, Agile Development. ### Software Engineer @ LOOP Jan 2021 – Jan 2021 Founding Engineer (Engineer #1) after the CTO Architected and produced internal applications that were key to our Series A Round success (21M VC Round) Enhanced our Referral Program by creating an API Layer that serves as the middleman between our data collection and the referral program API. This is to give our users a quick and better user experience. Architected a solution to replicate (data replication pipeline) telematic data from an AWS S3 Bucket all the way to a GCP Storage Bucket in an efficient, secured, and scalable way. Lead Engineer for our team in the Twilio 2021 Q3 Hackathon. We won 1st price and we built a modern contact center that included a Phone IVR, a Webchat, and SMS communication channels (Twilio). Built a few more data pipelines in a scalable and secure way. Technologies Used: Python 3.7+, JavaScript ES5+, Google Cloud Platform (GCP) [Cloud Functions, App Engine, IAM, Compute Engine, Cloud Run, Pub/Sub, Firestore, Cloud Storage, IAM, Container Registry], Amazon Web Services (AWS) [Lambda Functions, S3 Buckets, IAM, Container Registry], Docker, GrowSurf API, Webflow, React, Twilio Infrastructure & APIs ### Software Engineer @ LOOP Jan 2021 – Jan 2021 Created an Engagement Tool that measured how much credit score is costing people on car insurance. Deployment: https://www.ridewithloop.com/measurewhatmatters. Created Documentation on how to use Google App Engine (GAE), Cloud Run, Cloud Endpoints, Firestore, and Cloud Scheduler, all which are Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Components. Integrated a Referral Program (GrowSurf) with the company's domain and adapted all forms to be able to take advantage of the program. Technologies Used: Python 3.7+, JavaScript ES5+, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Docker, GrowSurf API, Webflow ### Co-Founder @ Scan Genius Solutions Jan 2020 – Jan 2022 Oversee company operations along with team. Introduced TeamGantt project management tool to manage a team of 5 employees in six figure (USD) projects. Introduced Odoo enterprise resource planning tool for centralization and to ease administrative and daily operation processes. ### Co-Founder & Software Engineer @ Scan Genius Solutions Jan 2018 – Jan 2020 | New York City Metropolitan Area Redesigned and implemented the company's website by using a carefully put together process, which included briefing, wireframing, designing, and implementation: https://www.scangeniussolutions.com/ Architected internal web apps that increased company’s productivity by automating tasks. These included keeping track of employee working hours and being able to quote projects based on customizable company parameters. Proposed and designed web app that monitors online connectivity status for registered computers; web app notifies recipients of connectivity loss in real-time to provide technical support due to the importance of network connectivity for such computers; technology includes NodeJS, Angular, Twilio voice/text API, SMTP automated emails, and sockets. Architected software that monitors refrigerator temperatures and humidity to avoid food spoiling; software collects environment data using Java software that runs on Linux using a Raspberry PI and temperature / humidity reading sensors; Java software stores collected data in a cloud MySQL database; data is monitored in real-time to alert if temperature and/or humidity are outside the recommended range; used in over 30 supermarkets. Technologies Used: MongoDB, Express.js, Angular, NodeJS, JavaScript, Java, MySQL ### Software Engineer @ Fiber Mountain Jan 2017 – Jan 2018 | Cheshire, CT Implemented a front-end web prototype that communicated with RESTful API to be showcased to a *Fortune Top 3 Company*. The showcasing of the prototype resulted in a multi-million contract for the company. This was achieved during a 2 days timeline. Internationalized the front-end and back-end software. The full stack is now able to support multiple languages without software engineering changes. This allowed the company to expand by selling the product all over Latin America. Implemented a secured RESTful API to allow web clients to communicate to the backend. This resulted in the replacement of the front-end desktop application for a web-based application. Fixed bugs, eliminated memory leaks and race conditions, and implemented new features. Created Python 3 script to automate RESTful API testing. Technologies Used: Technologies Used: Java 8, Multithreading, JavaScript, Python 3, HTML, CSS, Bootstrap. ### Research Fellow @ Quinnipiac University Jan 2016 – Jan 2016 | Hamden, CT Proposed, designed, and implemented a web-based weather service for Quinnipiac University; web application collects weather data from weather stations deployed in two different campuses, stores the data, and presents it to the Quinnipiac community through a website. As a result, students and staff now have access to accurate weather data; version controlled using GitHub This project was later presented and published at the Consortium for Computing Sciences In Colleges, Northeastern Region Conference (CCSCNE ’17), The College of Saint Rose, April 7, 2017. Technologies Used: MeteorJS, JavaScript, MongoDB, HTML, CSS, Bootstrap. ## Education ### Bachelor’s Degree in Software Engineering Quinnipiac University Jan 2015 – Jan 2017 ### Hunter College Jan 2011 – Jan 2013 ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/melkisespinal --- Source: https://flows.cv/melkis JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/melkis/resume.json Last updated: 2026-03-23