Kenny Cason .com
CTO / Co-Founder @ Arrived
Seattle, WA
github.com/kennycason
linkedin.com/in/kennycason
About Me
I love to learn and build all things. I enjoy the challenges of tech entrepreneurship, studying foreign languages and culture, and am proficient in Chinese and Japanese. I also enjoy math, game development, and art.
Technologies
My favorite programming language is Kotlin. I have spent most of my recent years using: Kotlin, Java, Typescript, HTML/CSS, LibGDX, Hadoop, Spark, Storm, Kafka, HBase, Map/Reduce, HDFS, Elasticsearch, Spring, React, MySQL, Git, Maven, ANTLR, IntelliJ.
Professional Experience
Arrived Homes
CTO | Co-Founder
2019 - Now
  • Buy shares of rental homes, earn passive income and appreciation. Arrived manages the properties.
  • Built V1 property trade platform and web app. Kotlin + Spring RESTFul JSON Api. React (Functional Components/Hooks) + Typescript. Hosted in AWS. Integrations with Auth0, Plaid, North Capital, Google, Slack, GitHub.
  • Successfully entered and graduated from Techstars Atlanta.
  • Raised $37 million in seed funding and debt financing.
Sprout Social
Senior Staff Engineer
2018 - 2019
  • Merged Simply Measured with Sprout Social to build integrated social media management solution.
  • Integrate Simply Measured technologies with Sprout Social technologies.
Simply Measured
Director of Engineering
2017 - 2018
  • Lead and build an engineering team of innovative and cutting-edge technologies.
  • Align engineering goals with company direction and requirements.
Principal Engineer
2016 - 2017
  • Merged DataRank with Simply Measured to accelerate growth and help win a bigger market.
  • Integrate DataRank technologies with Simply Measured technologies to build a next generation analytics engine.
DataRank
CTO | Co-Founder
2011 - 2016
  • DataRank provides an easy to use integrated analytics dashboard for analyzing all of the online conversations about your brands and competitors.
  • Helped build company from 3 people to 18 people.
  • Consistently grew company at a predictable and maintainable rate.
  • Successfully entered and graduated from Y Combinator.
  • Helped to design and engineer a state-of-the art Social Data search/analytics engine.
Lockheed Martin, Missile Defense National Team B
Software Engineer I
2010 - 2011
  • Develop and deploy software to test functionality of key components within Global Engagement Manager software in Java.
Software Engineer Internship
2007 - 2009
  • Developed test software witten in Java intended to coordinate an automated response to a ballistic missile attack against the United States and allies.
  • Developed distributed system message replay system so that we could mock out or simulate any existing service for testing in Java and MatLab.
  • Developed Unit Tests, Integration Tests, and the initial scripting of our CI/CD process using bash, awk, groovy, and other common Unix tools.
United States Marine Corps Reserve
Lance Corporal - MOS 2111 Small Arms Repairer/Technician
2004 - 2008
  • Small Arms Repair Technician School (Armory School) - Top Graduate
  • Job Responsibilities - security and maintenance to ordnance, ensure operational safety by teaching classes to other Marines while maintaining a SECRET CLEARANCE.
Education
Techstars Atlanta
2020
  • Arrived Homes
Y Combinator
2013
  • DataRank
University of Arkansas
2004 - 2010
  • B.S., Computer Science
  • Minor, Mathematics, Japanese Business, Asian Studies (Chinese)
As an undergraduate at the University of Arkansas:
University of Arkansas Game Development Club (UAGDC)
2004 - 2010
  • Served as both member and president, developing game software written in C/C++, Java, and PureBasic.
  • We used frameworks and libraries such as Allegro, SDL, Ogre3D, and OpenGL.
Military Past and Present on Campus (MPPOC)
2004 - 2010
  • Webmaster and officer, aided in raising funds for veteran students on campus.
Kansai Gaidai University 関西外国語大学
2007 - 2008
  • One year study abroad exchange program. Studied Japanese Language (L7 / Academic Japanese), culture, and business.
Awards & Achievements
Arkansas Business 30 under 30
2011
Advanced Chinese Business Speech Contest 3rd Place
2010
Elementary Chinese Speech Contest 1st Place
2006
Japanese Speech Contest - Runner Up
2005
Meritorious Mast. Top graduate of Armory School. USMCR
2005