Hi! I'm Nuno Balbona

Full-stack developer , sysadmin, and technical founder, with a passion for software that connects people. ✌

Get in touch or Download resume

👨‍💼 Experience

  • Freelance Developer [Sep 2022 - Present]

    • Bootstrapping a SaaS product, currently unreleased
    • Doing some additional freelance work

  • CTO at Widitrade [Dec 2021 - Sep 2022]

    • Led full-stack team of 3 developers: assigning tasks, solving questions and issues, and monthly 1:1s; with a global understanding of the company and it’s needs
    • Managed hiring processes
    • Filled various roles depending on the company needs like contributing code, maintaining and deploying infrastructure, code reviewing…

  • Full-Stack Developer at Widitrade [2020 - Dec 2021]

    • Maintained legacy ecommerce platform, which sells millions of euros monthly, using Symfony
    • Developed a new platform from the ground up using Laravel and Vue.js
    • Eventually promoted to CTO

  • Freelance Developer [2020 - 2020]

    • Worked on personal projects, currently unreleased.
    • Developed new CuriousCat webapp and native apps (+4.5 stars) iOS App, Android App

  • Full-Stack Developer at vonvon inc. [2018 – 2020]

    • Developed new features for CuriousCat, and kept an availability of +99.9%
    • Developed multiple systems using nodejs microservices to improve CuriousCat's safety, like blocking questions from bad agents, moderation for images/reports, and more.
    • Helped increase ad revenue by working with different partners and running experiments.
    • Developed multiple other social websites/apps, like Beacon.

  • Technical Cofounder at CuriousCat [2016 – 2018]

    • CuriousCat is a Q&A social network used by more than one and a half million people every day, where you can ask and receive questions, sometimes anonymously.
    • I cofounded CuriousCat in 2016, and we were acquired by Vonvon Inc. two years after.
    • Developed MVP with PHP + JQuery, and migrated to a SPA using Vue.js as the app got more complex.
    • Ran experiments to drive user retention and acquisition.
    • Scaling was one of the main challenges, as we sometimes reached +40k concurrent users. It currently serves +2B requests per month.

  • Freelance Developer at Webmonster [2014 – 2017]

    • Developed company websites and webapps for multiple multinationals and local companies like Danone/Dannon, and Interporc.
    • I developed sites from scratch, and improved existing websites using PHP, WordPress, jQuery, and Vue.js
    • Customer support, answering tickets and fixing issues with the client's websites + emails.

🕵 Up close and personal

👨‍🏫 Education

I started programming at age 11, and taught myself how to code by developing tools and games. I pursued a CS degree for a couple of years, but dropped out to focus on work.

Incomplete list of things I'm skilled in:

  • Programming Languages: Typescript and PHP. I also have used in a small scale other languages like Rust or Python.
  • Frontend: Vue, React, React Native, Redux, Webpack, Vite, SASS
  • Backend: AWS, Linux, Node.js, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, Memcached, Laravel, Symfony
  • Languages: Professional English, Native Spanish and Galician
  • Personal skills: I'm a hard worker and have a strong work ethic. I like to do things well, even if it sometimes means moving fast and breaking things. I'm independent and resolute but also love to work in teams, getting help and helping others.

👨‍🔧 Personal projects

  • Brawlmance

    • Brawlmance provides statistics for the videogame Brawlhalla
    • It has mantained a small but steady user base of about ~5k monthly users for many years, coming from recurring users and SEO
    • It crawls millions of players every day, and keeps track of the global trends
  • react-native-web-refresh-control: An implementation of React Native's RefreshControl for web, since react-native-web does not provide one at the moment
  • Is-on-water: An API for determining if a point on earth is on water (ocean, river, or lake), or land. Developed thanks to the ASTWBD v001 dataset
  • Worldex: Geoguessr-inspired geo-guessing race game, where you have to find your way to the finish line as fast as you can, from an unknown urban location. Supports multiplayer lobbies using a Node.js server and websockets
  • Scrambled Words (mobile only): Endless Scrabble word game
  • Palabrio: Wordle clone built with Typescript and Svelte
  • sync-contributions-calendar: Merge your GitLab's contributions to your GitHub contributions calendar
  • vue-i18n-scanner: vue-18n-scanner analyses your Vue.js source code in order to report unused keys, missing translations, and update your translation files
  • Conway Engine: A performant JS engine for Conway's Game of Life
  • twitch-drops-lurker: Get twitch drops without the hassle of having a tab open, using Puppeteer.
  • JS Launchpad: Library that uses the Web MIDI API to interact with the Launchpad Mk1

🧙 Trivia

  • I was born in 1997, and grew up in a tiny town in Galicia, Spain
  • Thanks to Galician being my mother tongue, I understand Portuguese fairly well
  • My favourite emoji is the lil cowboy guy 🤠