24 years old · Cape Town, South Africa · Irish & South African citizen
Engineer · Founder · Marketer · Model
I see what needs to exist,
and I build it.
My biggest talent is agency. Marketing platforms, AI systems, mobile apps, entire businesses. All in production, almost all built by me alone. Penng went from idea to shipped product in eight months. One person.
My story
“Most people plan.
I ship.”
I've always been an inventor. My first business was at eight years old, selling brownies. By 16, I was on stage at the Tomorrow's Leaders Convention presenting the Fourth Industrial Revolution alongside a humanoid robot. Eight years later, I'm not presenting about the future anymore. I'm building it.
My most impressive accomplishment to date: Penng. A screen-free health wearable that went from idea to shipped hardware product in eight months. I designed the full-stack architecture, built a cross-platform mobile app with BLE hardware integration, reverse-engineered health scoring algorithms from industry leaders, wrote the entire Python/FastAPI backend, created five production web platforms, and built an autonomous AI system running 20+ scheduled jobs. Every line of code, one person.
I did all of that while working full-time as Head of Digital Transformation at Cape Media Corp, studying Software Engineering part-time at the University of Arizona, and playing competitive squash at provincial and international level.
A Levels + Modelling + Provincial Squash
Homeschooled through Cambridge A Levels: Chemistry (B), Maths (B), Physics (C), Economics (C). Started modelling at 14 with ICE Models. Selected for Western Province junior squash the same year.
Tomorrow's Leaders Convention
Keynote at 16 on the Fourth Industrial Revolution with a humanoid robot co-presenter. The talk that started everything.
International Squash
Competed in the British Open and US Open (U19). Continued representing Western Province at senior level from 2021.
University of Arizona
Started Software Engineering part-time. Currently in my fourth year.
Starlit Solution
Founded a digital marketing agency. Ran campaigns for multiple clients. Learned what should be automated the hard way.
Ultra Leads + Cape Media Corp
Built a lead gen platform from scratch. Joined Cape Media Corp as Head of Digital Transformation & AI Integration.
Penng launches
Idea in December 2024, shipped product by August 2025. Mobile app, backend, five web platforms, AI marketing system. Every system built solo.
Where I work now
Cape Media Corp
Head of Digital Transformation & AI Integration
A traditional media company. Paper processes, legacy systems, the whole dinosaur package. I brought in AI tools, built custom internal software, modernized infrastructure, and moved the company from 2010 into the present. The “tech meets traditional industry” playbook, running daily.
Co-founder & sole engineer
Screen-free health wearable. R1,950/year subscription. Hardware shipping. Every piece of technology behind it built by one person. The mobile app, the backend, five web platforms, the AI marketing system. No dev team, no agencies.
How it all connects
One engineer, one ecosystem.
Every system below was designed and built by me. They talk to each other.
Mobile
Health App
Flutter, iOS + Android
Web
Trainer Platform
Next.js, React
Web
Corporate Dashboard
Next.js, React
Core
Backend & API
Python, FastAPI, PostgreSQL, AWS
Autonomous
AI Operating System
Claude, 20+ cron jobs
Data
Analytics Suite
7 sources, dashboards
Growth
Quiz Funnel & Ads
Lead gen, nurture, retarget
The full ecosystem
Everything I've built. One engineer.
Penng Health App
- ●Bluetooth integration with hardware band (pairing, firmware updates, live data streaming)
- ●Reverse-engineered health scoring algorithms from industry leaders for strain, recovery, and sleep
- ●AI food tracking from photos, voice, or barcodes (Gemini vision + USDA)
- ●AI nutrition advisor with voice input/output (ElevenLabs)
- ●107+ workout types with GPS tracking and heart rate zones
- ●Habit tracker, community leaderboards, challenges, and social gamification
- ●Apple Health, Google Fit, and Strava sync
AI Operating System
+ OpenClawCreates
- Weekly blog posts, auto-generated and published
- Daily social media content
- Weekly newsletter drafts
- AI support responses (vector FAQ matching)
Monitors & acts
- Auto-pauses underperforming ads
- Scrapes competitor ad creative
- Reddit market intelligence
- Morning/evening Telegram briefings
- 7-source metrics aggregation
- Real-time conversion funnel tracking
Trainer Platform
Full management system. Client roster, workout programs, session scheduling, payment tracking, public profiles, custom subscription tiers.
Corporate & Club Dashboard
Unified dashboard for corporate wellness and sports clubs. Member management, group scheduling, billing, admin tools. Role-based access across five user types.
Unified Support Inbox
Single inbox pulling from email, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram. AI reads, matches against the knowledge base, and auto-responds or drafts replies.
AI Advisor
Conversational AI with custom knowledge bases, voice chat, and configurable personas. RAG-powered retrieval over uploaded documents. Text and voice input/output.
Analytics & Reporting
7-source data aggregation, conversion funnels, content performance, integration health monitoring. Feeds into the AI Operating System for autonomous decisions.
Business Knowledge Base
Product specs, brand guidelines, strategy, content calendar. Custom vault scanner resolving links and generating context bundles for AI decision-making.
Quiz Funnel & Lead Gen
Interactive quiz qualifying leads into automated nurture sequences. Cart abandonment, recovery emails, pipeline scoring. AI-generated ad campaigns.
Penng Backend & API
Auth (Firebase + JWT + OAuth), health data processing, payments (PayFast), notifications, Strava sync, and the MCP bridge to live production data.
Full stack
Before Penng
Starlit Solution
2023 to 2024
Digital marketing agency I started at 21. Ran campaigns across social, content, and paid ads for multiple clients. The biggest lesson: doing marketing manually for five businesses teaches you what should be automated.
Ultra Leads
2024
AI-powered pay-per-lead platform I designed and built from scratch. South Africa's first. Short-lived, but it proved I could take an idea, build the full product solo, and ship it.
Email Software Service
Email outreach platform that drafted personalised responses based on lead data in the database. Made it easy for sales teams to know exactly how to respond to each lead without starting from scratch.
AI Sales Companion
Conversational AI assistant for sales teams. Trained on product knowledge, objection handling, and pricing. Built to give businesses an always-on expert that sounds like their best closer.
Speaking
On stage at 16
Tomorrow's Leaders Convention, 2018. The Fourth Industrial Revolution. My co-presenter was Pepper, a humanoid robot that could read audience emotions in real-time. We used her to make a point: this stuff isn't coming. It's here.
Eight years later, I'm not presenting about the future anymore. I'm the one building it.
Education
University of Arizona
Software Engineering, Part-time
2021 to present (4th year) · 3.5 GPA
Cambridge A Levels
Homeschooled, 2016
Chemistry (B), Maths (B), Physics (C), Economics (C)
Competitive squash
British Open (U19)
2019
US Open (U19)
2019
Western Province Junior
2016 to 2020
Western Province Senior
2021 to present
VOB 1st Team
2020 to 2023
UCT 1st Team
2024 to 2026
Modelling
International model since 14. South Africa, Germany, Switzerland, Turkey. Year in the Caribbean. Comfortable in front of cameras, on stage, and in places I've never been.
I love what I do.
Building things from scratch, solving hard problems, working with people who care about the outcome. If that sounds like your world, I'd enjoy the conversation.