// About the dude

I'm
Walt

// Founder · Engineer · Writer · Still figuring it out

I've been writing code since 2002, building companies since 2017, and writing about both ever since. ThatSoftwareDude.com is where the technical side lives — JavaScript, CSS, React, C#, and the craft of building software. For the startup stories, the business thinking, and everything else — that's over at walterguevara.com.

Get in touch Personal blog
20+
Years coding
800+
Articles written
2
Startups founded
100s
Students taught

The Long Version

// Background

I wrote my first line of code in high school — a basic start/stop timer in Python. Nothing crazy. But watching a few lines of text make a computer do something felt like actual magic, and I haven't really stopped chasing that feeling since.

I spent my twenties doing what most developers do — working corporate jobs, learning frameworks, switching frameworks, learning the new framework, wondering when the right moment was to take a bigger swing. In 2017 I stopped waiting for that moment and went looking for it instead.

// The startup years

Nine years into the founder life now. I've co-founded two companies, served as CTO for both, consulted with early-stage startups on technical architecture, and spent a stretch teaching React for one of the largest online coding bootcamps in the country. None of it went exactly as planned. Most of it was better than I expected in the ways that mattered and harder than I expected in the ways that don't show up in the pitch deck.

"The gap between the founder you think you'll be and the founder you become is where all the interesting writing lives."

ThatSoftwareDude.com started in 2014 as a place to write down things I was learning. Over 800 articles later, it's become something I'm genuinely proud of — a resource that developers actually find useful, written by someone who is still in the trenches with them.

// This site

This site exists because I love the craft of building software and I want to write about it honestly. The tutorials, the deep dives, the framework comparisons, the opinions nobody asked for but I'm sharing anyway. If you're a developer looking for practical guides written by someone who actually ships code — you're in the right place.

For the other side — the startup psychology, the business decisions, the founder life stuff — head over to walterguevara.com. That's where that conversation lives.

The Journey

// Career timeline
2002
Origin
First line of code — a Python timer
High school. A basic start/stop timer in Python. Watching a few lines of text make a computer track time felt like actual magic. Never really recovered from it.
timer.py // circa 2002 
import time

def start_timer():
    start = time.time()
                        print("Timer started...")
                        return start

def stop_timer(start):
    elapsed = time.time() - start
                        print(f"Stopped. Time elapsed: {elapsed:.2f}s")

start = start_timer()
time.sleep(3)
stop_timer(start)
2003
Education
Attended university
Started pursuing a degree in computer science. Formal education that deepened the foundation I'd started building the year before.
2008
Career
First job as a software engineer
Joined the workforce as a C# developer. Spent the better part of the next decade in the corporate world, learning the craft from the inside.
2011
Career
The ASP.NET to MVC transition
Navigated the industry shift from Web Forms to MVC while being the go-to person for legacy systems. The bridge between old and new — a recurring theme.
2014
Milestone
ThatSoftwareDude launches
Started the blog as a hobby with no real plan. 10+ years and 800+ articles later, it's still going — and still a hobby that got a little out of hand.
2017
Pivot
Left the corporate world
Made the jump to startups and consulting. Started teaching React for one of the largest online coding bootcamps — and discovered that explaining things made me understand them better.
2021
Founder
Joined LeadrPro as CTO
Joined as co-founder and CTO. Built the stack from scratch, led engineering through early growth, and learned more about business in two years than in the previous decade.
Now
Present
Building, writing, consulting
Still building LeadrPro. Still writing here. Open to consulting with early-stage startups when the calendar allows.

Skills

// Tech I've worked with
JavaScript
20years
C#
20years
HTML / CSS
20years
React
9years
Node.js
7years
PostgreSQL
7years
SQL Server
18years
Next.js
2years

Active Projects

// What I'm building
// CTO & Co-Founder
LeadrPro
A B2B SaaS marketplace connecting software buyers with sellers through paid 1-on-1 demo meetings. Built from scratch — stack to scale.
Visit LeadrPro
// Owner & Writer
WalterGuevara .com
Personal blog covering startups, business strategy, founder life, and everything that doesn't fit on a dev blog. The human side of building things.
Visit WalterGuevara.com
// Owner & Builder
Pixel-Editor
A free online tool for creating and editing pixel art. Simple, fast, and intuitive — built the way I like to build.
Visit Pixel-Editor

How I Think About Code

// Writing philosophy
01
Clarity over cleverness
Code that's easy to read beats code that's impressive to write. Every tutorial here is written with that principle in mind.
02
Tools are means, not ends
Frameworks come and go. The fundamentals — problem solving, architecture thinking, clean abstractions — those transfer everywhere.
03
Teaching clarifies thinking
The years I spent teaching bootcamp students made me a better developer. You don't really understand something until you can explain it to a beginner.
04
Ship it, then improve it
Perfect is the enemy of done. Get it in front of users, learn what actually matters, then iterate. Works for products and for blog posts.
// Get in touch

Let's talk about something.

Open to conversations about consulting, speaking, collaborations, or just an interesting problem you're thinking through. My calendar opens up in intervals — reach out and we'll figure it out.

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