Kent Salcedo
About/Profile

About Kent

Kent is a builder-first CTO and founding engineer who specializes in taking ideas from 0→1 and turning them into products that actually ship. His work lives in the messy middle: unclear requirements, evolving teams, real customers, and real constraints.

He has led and built across AI, automation, and modern web stacks, with a focus on pragmatic decisions that compound over time instead of chasing trends.

Stylized portrait of Kent Salcedo in a futuristic mecha cockpit

Builder ID

Kent Salcedo

System Status: Shipping
  • Honolulu, HI
  • 0→1 Product Engineering
  • AI Automation
  • Full-Stack Dad
  • Available for select consulting / founding engineer work

Experience

  • luulive

    Jan 2026 to Present

    Founding Engineer

    Building early product infrastructure and shipping core features for a new venture.

  • /'gīdens/

    Aug 2024 to Present

    CTO & Founding Engineer

    Blue Startups Cohort 16. AI-enabled advisory platform for small business owners. Leading technical direction, product architecture, and hands-on development.

  • iPick.ai

    Aug 2024 to May 2025

    Developer

    Contributed to AI-powered product development and feature delivery.

  • SingleOps

    Aug 2020 to Aug 2024

    Software Engineer

    Production SaaS engineering for field service management software. Built and maintained features used by teams in the field every day.

  • Sudokrew

    Apr 2016 to Aug 2020

    Full Stack Engineer

    Created 14+ feature-rich web applications, 4 native apps, and augmented internal development teams for companies ranging from startups to Fortune 500.

Education

  • DevLeague

    Full Stack Web Development

  • University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

    Bachelor's Degree, Finance

Core values

  • →Systems that are understandable, not magical
  • →Teams that can move fast and sleep at night
  • →Shipping something useful before perfect
  • →Long-term thinking over performative hustle

Skills

  • Full-stack development
  • React
  • Next.js
  • TypeScript
  • Node
  • Express
  • PostgreSQL
  • MySQL
  • MongoDB
  • Supabase
  • AWS
  • GraphQL
  • Tailwind
  • Redux
  • D3
  • Leaflet
  • CMS / headless CMS
  • AI automation
  • Internal tools
  • 0→1 product engineering
  • Startup / product leadership

Location

Honolulu, Hawaiʻi

Hawaiʻi-rooted without being touristy. Remote-first experience building with teams across time zones.