CJK

rabid.audio | github.com/rabidaudio | linkedin.com/in/cjulianknight

Education

Georgia Institute of Technology - Atlanta, GA
B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Fall 2012 - Spring 2015

Berry College - Rome, GA
B.A. Dual-Degree Program, Fall 2009 - Spring 2012

Experience

Co-founder & Chief Technical Officer, FIXD Automotive

August 2015 - August 2023 | Atlanta

FIXD Automotive is a company that makes car ownership as easy and affordable as possible for the everyday driver. The flagship product is a Bluetooth OBD-II sensor and mobile app that diagnoses car problems, explaining error codes in simple language. While there, the company grew rapidly, being the fastest growing lower middle-market company in Georgia in 2018. As of Q3 2023 it had grown to around 30 employees, graduated from ATDC, and sold around 2 million units, all while remaining profitable and never raising any outside capital.

Lead Software Engineer, TechJect

May 2015 - August 2015 | Atlanta

Returned to TechJect after completing my undergrad program. Lead a team of 3 software engineers. The team overcame several technical challenges:

Consultant, RabidAudio

May 2015 - August 2015 | Atlanta

After completing my undergraduate degree, I founded a technology development consultancy. Embedded electronics and software development, specializing in IoT and Bluetooth electronics products, pro-audio projects, and full-stack web design.

Electrical & Computer Engineer, TechJect

May 2014 - December 2014 | Atlanta

TechJect designed consumer drones, including the Robot Dragonfly, which was the first crowd-funded project to break $1 million in funding. The company was run and largely staffed by Electrical Engineering PhDs. Joined the company as the only non-firmware software engineer while still in undergrad.

Developer, GetNotes

January 2014 - June 2014 | Atlanta

Joined an Atlanta Ventures-funded startup during their progress through the Flashpoint accelerator at Georgia Tech. The company offered crowd-sourced audio-to-text transcription as a service. Worked directly with the CTO to build and manage a web application in the Zend PHP Framework. Implemented new application features and patched bugs in a rapid development cycle. Advised on technologies and company direction, lead initial research into machine-learning algorithms for automated transcription. Through the Flashpoint program, learned a rigorous customer discovery processes.

Distributed Systems/AIX Co-Op, Norfolk Southern Corporation

September 2012 - August 2013 | Atlanta

Worked on a number of different projects over two co-op sessions.

Student Supervisor, Technical Support Desk, Berry College OIT

Aug 2009 - April 2012 | Mount Berry, Georgia

Provided technical support for faculty, staff, and students via phone, email, and in person. Created and managed service requests and directed departmental calls.

Awards

Forbes 30 Under 30, 2019

Included along with co-founders on the 30U30 list in the Manufaturing & Industry category in recognition of the growth of FIXD Automotive.

Finalist, Static Showdown 2015

Solo submission for Static Showdown 2015, a 48-hour hackathon for static apps. QuickComments.js, a drop-in comments system for websites. Built comments system, Grunt tasks, documentation, and demo website. Roughly three times faster than Disqus.

Winner, Music Hack ATL 2014

As part of team of 4, in 24 hours, created Rockscör, an aggregator of data for bands to estimate their audience size and influence in different markets for marketing and tour planning. Wrote entire application as the only technical team member, integrating data from 5 REST APIs.

Best Hardware, HackBurdell 2014

Solo submission for Georgia Tech Invention Studio hackathon that served as precursor to HackGT. Built an MP3 player for attachment to car stereo, with driver-friendly interface.

Organizations

Admin, Fourth Strike

November 2023 - Present

Fourth Strike is a not-for-profit record label with the goal of promoting queer music. Building a custom tool for tracking accounting and royalties owed and paid for hundreds of artists across dozens of records, and leading an audit of existing records.

Volunteer, Code for Atlanta

January 2017 - March 2020

Code For Atlanta, a local brigade of Code for America, is a group of civic-minded technologists, designers, and topic experts using our skills to improve Atlanta and the world. As a Project Lead volunteer, lead teams working on various projects during our regular hack nights.

Organizer, Startup Exchange

August 2013 - May 2015

Startup Exchange is a student organization to foster entrepreneurship and hacker culture at Georgia Tech. Co-founded the Maker team. Developed and maintained the website, taught classes on web development with Ruby on Rails to students, organized three and attended over a dozen hackathons.

Talks