Don Bonaddio

I started in a neurosurgery research lab

My career began on a University of Pittsburgh research team of engineers, neurosurgeons and neurophysiologists. While finishing my master’s in electrical engineering, I programmed the systems that collected and analyzed research data, some of it live in the operating room. I also co-authored peer-reviewed papers, including one in the journal Stroke.

Then the systems behind the early web

In 1994 I joined Boeing Information Services in Virginia, where I designed NASA Headquarters’ intranet infrastructure and led its firewall rollout. At MCI, I oversaw hosting engineering for more than 800 servers across four states, supporting Fortune 100 web launches. Later I directed around-the-clock engineering at Convergys, where the team grew from 7 to nearly 50, and at Comcast (Streamsage), where we cut development turnaround from weeks to days.

Much of that work was standards: SLAs, QA, change control and honest outage reports.

Then I crossed the counter

I spent seven years at Apple Retail in Pittsburgh, working up to Genius and solving problems face to face. After that came an Amazon fulfillment center, and now the pro desk of a home-improvement store, serving contractors.

You learn different things on that side. When software gets in someone’s way, you’re the one standing in front of them.

Now I build the apps I wanted

In the early mornings and evenings, I design, ship and support iPhone apps myself, building them with Claude as my AI coding partner. Most began with a frustration at home or at work: a dinner plan nobody could agree on, a warning light in the driveway, a schedule retyped every week. I’ve added a few games too.

I’m not trying to build a unicorn. I want to build software my family uses, that respects the people who use it, and that I’m still proud of in five years.