# Tim Bornholdt > Early-Stage Product & Technology Strategist ​• I make software that helps people help people Location: Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/timbornholdt Hi there! 👋 I'm Tim Bornholdt. I help tech founders turn ambiguity into momentum. I’m a builder/strategist who translates mission into product direction and keeps focus when everything is still fuzzy. I guide early-stage teams through discovery, architecture, and go-to-market so their first version actually lands. I’ve played that role with startups like Yardstik (identity & safety), Kwikly (dental staffing), and TurnSignl (on-demand legal support). I’ve also led technical delivery for large organizations where reliability is table stakes (Medical Mutual of Ohio, UnitedHealth Group, Great Clips). My journalism background and years spent creating podcasts and television give me a unique advantage in communicating complex tech to investors, customers, and employees. I like working with mission-driven founders who care about people and want to build sustainably. If you're shaping a new product and need a partner who can speak both nerd and business, let’s talk. You can learn more about me on my website at timbornholdt.com. ## Work Experience ### Product and Technology Strategist @ Chinlock Holdings Jan 2023 – Present | Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area As a fractional CTO, I work with mission-driven organizations and entrepreneurs who have tough tech problems and need a nerd who can help them get clarity. Examples of problems I've worked on: - Created a tool which reads PDFs of post-operative surgical reports and uses a locally-running LLM to extract structured data - Improved an existing chatbot used by schools to find information about their special education programs and policies - Created a tool which scrapes information from a state traffic incident website and generates a blog post about each incident - Architected a major Rails upgrade strategy from Rails 5.2 to Rails 7.1 for a major consumer appliance manufacturer ### Senior Software Engineer @ Yardstik Jan 2024 – Jan 2025 | Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States Yardstik provides a background screening platform that helps organizations run fewer, smarter background checks through a combination of screening, fraud, and compliance products. I worked on the automation team, building systems to improve the speed, accuracy, and scalability of background screening workflows. Over the course of a year, our work increased the percentage of reports that were processed automatically from ~20% to ~70%, while also scaling overall report volume by more than 3x. I also built an internal tooling pipeline to label and categorize criminal charges as they entered the system. That data was used to train a machine-learning model that predicted charge subcategories, which then drove automated decisions within the screening workflow (e.g., ignoring low-risk charges or flagging higher-risk ones for review). This system directly contributed to higher automation rates and faster turnaround times. During my tenure, the team kept turnaround time below its target threshold for four consecutive quarters (the first time this had been achieved in company history) while significantly increasing throughput. ### Chief Technology Officer @ BIONIC GIANT Jan 2022 – Jan 2024 | Edina, Minnesota, United States Bionic Giant is a creative agency that helps brands grow by providing practical and cost-effective marketing solutions. As Chief Technology Officer, my job was to oversee the development team that executes for all of BG's clients. We used all sorts of technologies to meet our client’s needs including Wordpress, Ruby on Rails, Vue.JS, and React Native. My proudest achievement at BG was to help Bravo Wellness, a wellness plan administrator acquired by Medical Mutual of Ohio, navigate a tricky situation where they suddenly found themselves without a tech team. We were able to take the reins, stabilize the product, and help them branch out into a new, multi-million dollar line of business. My role also included understanding the role generative AI can play in an organization’s tech stack, and we helped organizations figure out the best way to utilize AI to make their team more productive. ### Co-Founder @ The Jed Mahonis Group Jan 2012 – Jan 2022 | Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area JMG is a software development consultancy focused on building custom mobile apps for iOS and Android. As a co-founder and partner, my role included a bit of everything: sales, marketing, business development, establishing and refining processes, software architecture, writing code, quality assurance, and account management. One thing I enjoyed doing was hosting 120 episodes of a podcast called Constant Variables, which tried to make app development approachable to non-technical founders. Some of the clients we worked with included Great Clips, UnitedHealth Group, Green Mill, Sanford Health, Little Free Library, TurnSignl, the National Sports Center, and AdoptAClassroom.org. ## Education ### B.A. in Professional Journalism, Computer Science University of Minnesota Jan 2006 – Jan 2010 ### High School Diploma Richfield Senior High School Jan 2002 – Jan 2006 ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/timbornholdt - Website: https://timbornholdt.com --- Source: https://flows.cv/timbornholdt JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/timbornholdt/resume.json Last updated: 2026-03-23