Michael Gilson

I'm Michael Gilson, a software engineer in Phoenix. I've shipped a 99-player word game, a native iOS app, and a storefront that sold $100K in its first year.

I also spent five years running Desert Computing, building the workstations, servers, and office networks that local businesses depended on. I do my best work when I own the whole problem, from the first conversation to the thing running in production.

Open to
Forward deployed, solutions, and implementation engineering roles.
Previously
Head of Product, Gamer Soap
Founder, Desert Computing
Education
B.Sc. Computer Science
Arizona State University
Elsewhere

Selected work

Web app

Live

  • TypeScript
  • React
  • Node.js
  • Socket.io
  • Stripe
  • Firebase
  • Railway

word99.io

Word99

A word game for 99 players at once.

Word99 screenshot

A real-time multiplayer battle royale with server-authoritative game logic, matchmaking, accounts, and Stripe subscriptions. I designed and shipped all of it, from the WebSocket protocol to the CI/CD pipeline on Railway.

Players per match
99
Bundle
79 KB gzipped
First load
Under 2 s
Cross-region latency
Under 200 ms

iOS app

In development

  • Swift
  • SwiftUI
  • CloudKit
  • StoreKit

Pilly

A medication tracker that reads the label for you.

A native iOS app that identifies medication from a photo using AI, reminds you with notifications, and syncs across devices through CloudKit. It ships with an Apple Watch companion, a home screen widget, and in-app purchases through StoreKit.

Platforms
iPhone, Apple Watch, widgets
Sync
CloudKit
Payments
StoreKit

Smaller projects

  • Perfectly Paired Pets

    Client website

    Website for a dog training and matching business.

    Designed and built from scratch: layout, branding, image gallery, and content structure.

    perfectlypairedpets.com

  • TripAI

    Interactive map

    Fifteen road trips across four countries.

    Real road geometry from OSRM, transport cost comparisons, and photos pulled from Wikipedia for 87 villages in France, Italy, Japan, and New Zealand.

    JavaScript, Leaflet, OSRM

  • PawMeet

    Web app

    A social platform where the dogs make the introductions.

    Profile matching, local meetup discovery, and community features for dog owners.

    HTML, CSS, JavaScript

Experience

  1. 2024–2026

    Gamer Soap

    Partner and Head of Product

    • Co-founded a consumer products company and built the entire ecommerce platform on Shopify: storefront, checkout, and inventory management.
    • Passed $100,000 in gross sales in the first year through creator partnerships and campaigns tuned against real sales data.
    • Ran daily operations, including customer service, ad and graphic design, marketing strategy, and brand partnership negotiations.

  2. 2019–2024

    Desert Computing LLC

    Founder and Principal Technician

    • Founded and ran an IT services company: custom workstations, network configuration, Linux server deployment, and on-site hardware support for local businesses.
    • Deployed TrueNAS storage servers and managed office networks, from routers and switches to shared drives.
    • Contracted by Highform Inc. to design and build small form factor VR machines, then retained for ongoing hardware and software maintenance.
    • Repaired hardware and software across Windows and Linux, including specialized medical equipment for a veterinary clinic.
    • Ran concurrent client contracts end to end, from requirements and scoping through delivery, documentation, and support.

2019–2023

Arizona State University

B.Sc. Computer Science

Magna cum laude. 3.8 GPA in technical coursework.

Skills

Languages
Python, TypeScript, JavaScript, Java, C/C++, Swift, SQL, HTML/CSS
Application
React, Node.js, Socket.io, SwiftUI, REST APIs, Stripe, Firebase, Shopify
Systems
Linux (Debian, Ubuntu, Arch), Bash, Windows administration, TCP/IP networking, TrueNAS, Git, CI/CD
Hardware
Workstation and server builds, component-level diagnostics, small form factor VR systems
AI tooling
Claude, Cursor, GitHub Copilot