Introducing Developer Evangelist Alex Goldman

Introducing Developer Evangelist Alex Goldman

Ahoy! I am a Developer Evangelist on the Startup Evangelism team. I’m based in sunny and beautiful Denver, Colorado. I have filled many different roles over the years and I’m thrilled to share my experience with you. But first, choose your character…

Scuba Instructor

Oddly enough, Scuba Instructor was my first professional designation! At the age of 19, when I was still working on my undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan, I completed the training necessary to be a PADI certified scuba instructor. I had been diving since I was 11 and despite never having lived anywhere near a coral reef, I had absolutely fallen in love with the sport. Fun fact: I proposed to my wife underwater!

Entrepreneur

I got into the startup game because I enjoy solving problems. Little did I know that my favorite aspect of building companies would be empathizing with customers in order to understand their needs. I founded several startups and all my jobs have been at startups or building startups within larger organizations. These roles forced me to wear many hats. One day I’m a lead developer, the next I’m working on marketing, and then I’m a product manager. But the most amazing part of working on startups was the community of builders!

Educator

While I only spend one summer actually getting paid to educate, this has been a theme for me in my volunteer work. Growing up in Chicago, I volunteered at the Shedd aquarium. I would educate guests by doing things like standing next to the sharks holding a shark's jaw bone and explaining how they had rows of teeth that would replace themselves. I also volunteered my time at the Phoenix public library, running 3D modeling and coding classes for kids.

Roboticist

I wanted to dive deeper into robotics - an area I have long been fascinated with! I attended grad school at Arizona State University, getting a masters in Robotics and Autonomous Systems and Artificial Intelligence. For my thesis, I worked with a lab specializing in building robots for exploration and scientific monitoring. Specifically, I built an autonomous boat and underwater drone to monitor the health of coral reefs in Hawaii.

Twilio Startup Evangelist

Now I get to bring all my experiences and learnings together to help startups use Twilio. I am diving into the Twilio APIs using Javascript and Python. I love to use Twilio Studio, the low/no code app builder, and the Serverless Toolkit for rapid prototyping. I’m also keeping in touch with Twilio’s IoT group to stay up on my hardware skills. I’m excited to jump into 2023 with live coding demos on Twitch, running events to support startups using Twilio, and getting more involved in the local startup ecosystem.

Want to be in touch? Here is where you can find me:

• Email: agoldman@twilio.com
• Hotline (call, text, or whatsapp): +1 (510) 944-1414
• Github: https://github.com/auman66
• Most socials: @auman66 

Alex is a Developer Evangelist on the Startup Evangelism team based in Denver, Colorado, USA. His favorite Twilio tool is the Serverless CLI plugin, which he uses for rapid prototyping. These days he codes in JavaScript, but he also has experience in C++ (robots), Python (AI & ML), and Ruby (web apps). Outside of work Alex loves reading sci-fi, cooking, live music, and spending time with his family. He can be reached at agoldman@twilio.com.