Who Is Lance Cleveland

Technologist, Entrepreneur, Advisor

More than 25 years ago I started my first “official” company, and eCommerce startup selling luxury goods online. “Official” is in quotes as I started moonlighting as a technical consultant with a d/b/a “LPC Consulting” back in 1986 providing personal and corporate consulting services for corporate executives at Cognos Corporation and several Boston-area tech companies.

Along the way I’ve created several successful startups, several of which were multi-million-dollar companies with a couple dozen employees. I’ve played a pivotal role in helping several technology companies built their teams and pitch decks from scratch to secure millions in funding. Today I maintain an ongoing SaaS business while providing fractional CTO services as part of Charleston Software Associates, LLC ; My eighth startup company in just over two decades.

Despite becoming a technology leader, entrepreneur, and advisor, I still identify primarily as a software engineer. That has been my lifelong passion and is the seed that started this journey when I was 12 years old and started hacking the Commodore 64 my parents gifted me. While I have had multiple periods during my 40-plus years working in the tech fields where “software engineer” was not my primary role, there has rarely been a month where I have not been writing code in some language working on a pet project.

My Principles As A Technologist

  • Technology should serve the greater good of humanity above all else.
  • Any tech we create should strive to make the best possible use of natural resources. 
    Every drop of water or watt-hour of power should yield the greatest possible results.
  • Implementation of technology should leave the world and the humans on it in a better place.

My entire life’s work in technology tries to incorporate those principles into my processes. They become part of how I operate with the technology: AI,  software development, solar projects, off grid concepts.     I strive to leave the smallest footprint on the planet as possible while realizing humanity is at the point where technology is not going away.  Technology is going to continue to expand and evolve.  Everyone working in technology should work with the following questions in mind:

  • How do we achieve our goal while making maximum use of the resources we consume?
  • Does this benefit humanity? 
  • Does the resource cost justify that consumption?

As stewards of technology that we bring to the public, DO NOT chase the almighty dollar. If you serve humanity and do so in a way that honors our place in the natural world, the financial benefits will follow.

Applying Those Principles In A Software Architect Role

  • Software should be functional first, aesthetics come second.
  • Systems should always be efficient.
    Squeeze every drop of performance from every routine.
    Maximize the output of every CPU cycle or memory slot consumed.  
    Efficient performance.
  • Software should always be self documenting, not only in the nomenclature but in explicit human readable comments.

My Principles As An Entrepreneur

  • Always lead with passion in your field.
  • Differentiate through innovation and excellence.
  • Realize your strengths and recognize your weaknesses.
  • Honor the strengths of others.
  • Be a part of the team.
    Follow when appropriate.
    Lead when called to do so.
  • Share what you learn and what you know.
  • Business is part of daily life, not a separate aspect of it.
  • “Work life balance” should flow naturally.

If you stay true to your principles and stay aligned with what is true to your calling, success follows in all aspects of life.

My Principles As An Advisor

  • Share wisdom and knowledge with others.
  • Do not judge others on their mistakes or lack of life experience.
  • Listen first.
  • Guide others in self reflection.
  • Help others find their path.
    Be aware that everyone has a different path.
    Their path will be different than yours.
  • Share your mistakes and what you learned.
    Mistakes are the best teacher.
  • Honor my limitations.
    Guide others to seek additional advice as appropriate.

Software Engineering Background

I’ve been writing software since I was 12. In 2022 I took a technical skills survey for a software development contract. Here is what they had to say:

Full Stack: Deep understanding (5+ yrs) of modern full stack development (Angular, Node, React, CSS, Less, Grunt, Bower, gulp) with readable, maintainable, performant code

Node, CSS, Sass (vs. Less), Grunt are part of the weekly routine.   Familiar with Bower, Gulp, and WebPack — using them in limited project tasks.  Familiar with Vue/Vuetify and Foundation as well as React. I’ve been used Ant Design with React in the past and now use Material UI for a lot of projects.   Limited exposure to Angular.

Agile: Experienced in lean startup, agile development practices

Employed this process in many projects in the past.

Containers: Accustomed to developing code in a CI/D environment using Docker

Good understanding of container-based deployments.   Have not used Docker but understand the concept.  Very familiar with virtual environments.  Using Virtualbox through Vagrant and VVV deployments regularly. My latest projects are Docker-centric. I’ve become well versed in Docker since this survey. I also deploy production software using AWS cloud services that include complex CI/CD pipelines with multiple deployments via Elastic Container Service.

REST: Experienced with RESTful API design and development

Use REST in multiple facets of the Store Locator Plus application as well as external services for the application.  Solid understanding of AJAX and SOAP.

Quality: I care about quality and you know what it means to ship and maintain high-quality code

Shipping production software to over 20,000 installed sites means code must be stable when released.   Unit and regression testing is part of the deployment process.  Full understanding of Selenium IDE and building a solid knowledge of automated web testing via Selenium Webdriver. I’ve also been using Cypress.IO extensively for end-to-end testing on recent projects. Playwright is the current E2E test environment of choice.

Data

I am well versed in structured database design having in-depth experience in several SQL databases especially MySQL and PostgreSQL as well as their open source variants like MariaDB and Aurora. I have been working with GraphQL and DynamoDB lately as part of the new projects learning Amplify application deployment leveraging their connections to AWS Datastore and Appsync among other tools.

AI Assisted Development

Since 2024 I have been continually researching, implementing, and adjusting my approach to incorporate artificial intelligence into software development and deployment processes. Extensive research and real-world testing of foundational AI models as well as custom-crafted solution stacks have made it into my workflow. Working with ACP, MCP, and RAG services and protocols is part of the process as well as routing to different models based on context hints have evolved as part of the methodology I have created to lower token, and thus general natural resource, consumption.