Mike Bifulco

About Mike Bifulco

I’m the cofounder and CTO of Craftwork, a home painting company working to build the kind of brand in residential painting that homeowners actually recognize and trust.Home services have trained people to expect chaos: vague timelines, poor communication, and work that may or may not match what was promised. We think that should be better.At Craftwork, we’re trying to build the painting company people wish already existed. One that feels professional from the first estimate to the final walkthrough.Our work is about people as much as it is about paint.For homeowners, we’re often being invited into the place where they feel safest: their home. That trust deserves to be taken seriously.For the painters doing the work, the industry has a long history of instability, low pay, and limited paths forward. We’re trying to build a company where the crew can count on consistent work, fair pay, and the opportunity to build a real career.My background before Craftwork was mostly in software. I worked on developer platforms and products at Google, Stripe, and Microsoft, and earlier cofounded smpl, a coworking software company that was acquired by Proximity in 2020.Along the way I developed a deep interest in the human side of technology: UX design, cognitive psychology, behavioral economics, and the role emotional intelligence plays in building good systems. Software works best when it respects the people using it. The same is true for companies.Outside of Craftwork, I write Tiny Improvements, a weekly newsletter for founders and builders about product design, developer experience, and the strange overlap between software and the rest of the world. Get it sent to your inbox at https://mikebifulco.com/subscribeI’m also a cofounder of APIs You Won’t Hate (https://apisyouwonthate.com), the largest community on the web for developers building APIs. We produce a newsletter, a podcast, and OSS resources like https://openapi.tools with the help of our community.

Experience

1. Co-founder, CTO

   Craftwork

   Jan 2023 — Present · Charlotte, NC, US

   Craftwork is a modern painting company that uses technology to simplify repair and renovation projects for homeowners. Our services are available in Charlotte, NC, and Raleigh, NC.My role at Craftwork is to guide our incredible product team as we build software that helps homeowners book home painting projects, while making life better for our sales, operations, and fulfillment teams.Our stack: ruby on rails, next.js, trpc, postgres, react-native, and a sprinkling of LLMs and computer visionOur engineering team consists of full-stack devs, UX designers, front end developers, machine learning specialists, and mobile app developers. Many of us wear more than one hat, and we ship updates rapidly as our business evolves.

Education

• Y Combinator

  S23 Batch

• University of Connecticut

  BSE, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science

  2005 — 2009

• DePaul University

  Master's, Human Computer Interaction

  2011 — 2014

Skills

• Javascript
• C#
• Css
• User Interface Design
• User Experience
• Jquery
• Html
• Web Development
• Mobile Applications
• Sharepoint
• Asp.net
• Sql
• Vb.net
• Silverlight
• Interaction Design
• Node.js
• .net
• Visual Studio
• Python
• Asp.net Ajax
• Html5
• Lactose Intolerance
• Asp.net Mvc
• Html/Xml
• Linq
• Team Foundation Server
• Windows 7
• UX Design
• Usability Engineering
• Kinect
• Ajax
• Sql Server
• Windows
• UX
• Angular.js
• Responsiveness
• Visual Design
• Brand Design
• Brand Development
• Open Source Development