Background & direction
About
Worcester, MA
The short version
I'm Valentine Rogers, a full-stack engineer based in Massachusetts. I've been building web and mobile applications since 2012. I've built engineering culture from scratch more than once, and it's left me with strong instincts for what actually matters: architecture decisions that won't need to be undone in six months, delivery that doesn't burn out a small team, and knowing when to build something simple versus when it's worth doing right the first time. These days I work directly with founders and business owners as a technical partner, taking the time to understand your business before recommending anything, so the solution actually fits what you're trying to build.
I also run Dunwell Labs, my own product studio, where I build and ship things end to end: architecture, code, and the parts that come after launch.
What I believe
Most of the problems we deal with come down to too few people holding the power, responsibility, and resources that should be available to everyone.
The more people who hold real ownership and power, the more resilient things become, whether that's a company, a community, or a family. The more tools individual people and small organizations have to serve the people around them, the more that responsibility and power gets spread out instead of concentrated in a few hands.
This shows up in the work I choose. I look for projects that give people more control over their own tools, data, and direction in life and I try to work with companies whose business model reflects that same intention.
How I got here
- 2010 – 2012
Brand Management, IT Support, and Database Marketing
Worked as Brand Manager for a startup, moved into IT support at Meditech, and then into database marketing for a consulting firm.
- 2012 – 2014
Arcadia Healthcare Solutions
Started in healthcare data, building ETL pipelines and quality improvement tools for clinics.
- 2014 – 2018
OfferLogic, then Ampion
Set technical direction and working culture from the ground up at each, before there was a playbook to follow. It left me with strong instincts for what actually matters: clear architecture decisions early, sustainable delivery, and code review that teaches rather than just catches.
- 2018 – 2019
CarePort · hospital go-live tooling
Built after an acquisition to serve as the technical implementation team. We stayed a small, focused group, and I mentored the engineers on it while we built tools that reduced engineering risk during client go-lives and let us safely shift high-stakes implementation work to analysts, supporting hospital onboarding volume that grew tenfold. That range, building something from nothing and helping something already in motion scale, is exactly what I bring to a business engagement: I can tell early whether you need a quick fix, a rebuild, or something in between.
10× go-live capacity - 2019 – 2022
Awaken180° Weightloss
Principal engineer on a small team, working closely with a technical product owner on architecture and day-to-day direction. Built and evolved the backend Rails APIs behind internal coaching tools and a consumer mobile app, added error monitoring and CI pipelines that cut down production incidents.
- 2019 – present
Dunwell Labs
Founded my own product studio, where I build and ship things end to end. Two products have grown out of it so far: Kumbuku, a personal operating system for intentional living, and WayBetterLists, a collaborative family list app live on the App Store. Alongside that, I take on client work for small and medium-sized businesses.
- 2022 – 2026
The Gnar Company
Worked on a series of long-term client projects, spanning government platforms, e-commerce, and logistics. For over a year of that, I also managed multiple client projects on a weekly rotation, building directly with product owners and end users to fill the product-management gap for clients without the budget for a dedicated PM. Helped one team scale from 2 to 15+ engineers on a government platform without losing what made it work, and mentored an engineer on a client's staff through pairing and code review.
What I'm building now
Dunwell Labs
Dunwell Labs is where the values above turn into actual software.
Kumbuku
A personal operating system for intentional living. It helps people clarify what they value, commit to how they want to grow, and stay accountable through daily practice, the project where I get to build exactly the kind of tool I believe in.
WayBetterLists
A collaborative list app for families, live on the App Store. Forced good judgment in contained ways, like a duplicate-aware merge protocol so a shared grocery list doesn't turn into a mess when two people add milk at the same time.
Who I work with
Let's talk
I work best with founders and business owners who know their business but want a technical partner they can think out loud with, someone who'll ask what you're actually trying to achieve before writing a line of code. If you're weighing a technical decision, stuck on what to build next, or need someone to just take something off your plate and build it right, I'd like to talk.
Get in touch