Welcome!
Hi, I’m Chris. I’ve spent the last twenty-eight years helping companies large and small build and ship websites and applications. I’m comfortable on the front or back-end and have extensive experience building Web UIs and RESTful or GraphQL APIs. I’ve worked daily with React.js front-ends for nearly ten years now, and Node.js back-ends for longer than that, using first JavaScript and then TypeScript. Most recently that work has been in the AWS ecosystem (API Gateway, Lambda, DynamoDB, etc) but I have experience with several other back-end approaches. I’ve also worked with a variety of databases, including MongoDB, PostgreSQL, and MySQL. In addition to writing code, I’ve also served as a manager and mentor for developers of skill levels from junior to senior.
I'm based in Saint-Cloud, France, which is just outside of Paris. I’m a US Citizen with a permanent French visa. I am a native English speaker, et je parle français au niveau B1. I’ve been fully remote since 2010 and have extensive experience with distributed/asynchronous teams. I was employee #12 at GameSpy Industries and employee #4 at OkCupid. I have worked full-time for four more startups and contracted for several others.
Current Gig
Since October 2024, I've been a Sr. Customer Success Engineer for Embeddable, a developer-first embedded analytics platform. I write code daily, but I also work on docs, tutorials, and directly helping other developers incorporate our application into their applications. It's a great gig and you should consider working with us!
Previously on CloseBrace …
Once upon a time, CloseBrace was a JavaScript tutorial site that I created and ran. It had two core features - Five Minute React, a course in which I taught developers to build an entirely functioning front and back-end website using React.js for the UI, and JS Quick Hits, a tutorial series covering dozens of JavaScript basics in short, easily digestible videos/articles. You can still find all of the videos for the latter at the YouTube channel, and I’ve also linked some below!
JS Quick Hits
Looking for 115 videos on JavaScript basics using easy to understand examples delivered in bite-sized videos? I’ve got you covered. Here’s the entire playlist!
Contact Me
Want to get in touch? I'm always happy to hear from people. You can hit me up at . I read everything that comes in and respond to anything that needs response! You can also find me on LinkedIn, GitHub, and BlueSky.