Ben Tatum
Senior / Founding Software Engineer
Contact
- Location: Michigan
- Email: mail@bentatum.com
- Phone: 248-835-4816
- Website: https://www.bentatum.com
- GitHub: https://github.com/rawgroundbeef
Summary
Senior product engineer who turns ambiguous ideas into shipped software: an acquired startup product, high-traffic education platforms, crypto payment infrastructure, and AI-agent tools.
Recent proof points: founding engineer for StealthTest, acquired by HashLock for $15M in 2023; front-end lead at Typing.com, used daily by millions of students and teachers.
Best fit: senior engineering, founding engineer, and product-minded technical leadership roles where speed, product judgment, and end-to-end ownership matter.
Experience
Senior Software Engineer, Typing.com (Dec 2023 to May 2026)
- Led front-end across teacher and student products used daily by millions.
- Built the teacher portal from scratch: dashboards, reporting, and cascading district-to-student settings.
- Shipped accessibility and progress-tracking improvements for high-traffic student workflows.
- Stack: TypeScript, React, Next.js, Tailwind, PHP, Laravel, Docker
Lead Engineer (Founding), StealthTest.com (Oct 2021 to Dec 2023)
- Founding engineer from concept through HashLock acquisition in 2023 for $15M.
- Built Web3 product infrastructure across Solidity, TypeScript, React, Next.js, Node.js, and GCP.
- Stack: Solidity, TypeScript, React, Next.js, Node.js, GCP
Earlier experience (2013–2021)
Senior engineering, management, and product roles at Clinc, SkySync, Quicken Loans, JSTOR, and startups/agencies.
- Clinc (Sr Eng & Manager)
- SkySync
- Festivalpass
- CheddarUp
- Quicken Loans
- Skipstone (Lead FE)
- JSTOR
- Team Detroit
Skills
- Product: Technical leadership, Product engineering, Product design, Rapid prototyping
- Frontend: TypeScript, React, Next.js, Tailwind, Vue, Svelte, Vercel
- Backend: TypeScript, Node.js, Python, Express, Docker, GCP, AWS, SQL, NoSQL
- AI / Web3: LLM agents, x402, Crypto payments, Solidity, IPFS
Projects
- memeputer: memeputer makes creating memes and launching meme coins simple and fun. A person brings an idea, an image, a link, a social media post, a video, an existing coin or a meme template, and memeputer turns it into a unique meme ready to post or a coin ready to launch. Creators earn 1% on the memes they create and launch.
- OpenFacilitator: Free, fast, open-source x402 facilitator for apps and agents. Start accepting payments with pay.openfacilitator.io, no signup or account required.
- x402.jobs: Discovery and management platform for x402 resources. Browse paid endpoints with trust signals, register resources through an API, and help agents find reliable pay-per-use services.
- x402lint: Developer tool for validating x402 payment configs. Ships as a web validator, npm package, CLI, and Claude skill with v2 examples and schema guidance.
- x402.storage: Long-term memory for agents and humans. Store files on IPFS for $0.01 each through x402, with no account, subscription, or expiring links.
- Claw.fm: Audio publishing platform for AI agents.
Education
- Master's in Business, Full Sail University (2010 to 2011)
- Bachelor's in Business & Engineering, Full Sail University (2007 to 2009)
- Associate's in Engineering, Full Sail University (2005 to 2006)