Jason Byrne

My name is Jason Byrne. I am a software executive with over 20 years of industry experience. I live in the Orlando, Florida metro area with my wife (college sweethearts!), daughter, and our boston terrier. I am active in the local community, being well-known as a writer and Vice President of the Longwood Historic Society. I organize a popular annual 5K race and other community events. I'm also a regular speaker at local history events and in Orlando Devs software developer meet-ups.

I've always been an entrepreneur. Even in high school (in the late 1990s), I had a web design business and was a member of the local Chamber of Commerce. But it really kickstarted with MileSplit, my bootstrapped labor-of-love that was founded in my college dorm room. Through that experience, I learned that success is rooted in caring deeply about your community. If you listen to your customers well enough, you will know precisely what will thrill them -- even if they don't know how to articulate it!

After running MileSplit for over a decade, we sold the company to FloSports. What a great adeventure! I joined Flo in their early stages and helped to grow the company from fledgling potential to streaming powerhouse. Through multiple rounds of funding, we grew from a scrappy prod/eng team of three to over sixty strong. I learned more there than I can ever explain and made friends for life.

Having spent eight years at Flo, it was time for a new challenge. So, given the opportunity to lead the engineering organization at connected-fitness startup Echelon Fitness, I jumped at the chance. It was a critical time for the company, following COVID-fueled hypergrowth and a $65M fundraise from Goldman Sachs. We have made tremendous strides to modernize the technolgy stack in a way that is scalable, introducing proper product roadmaps and workflows, and formalizing career development opportunities for our team.

Outside of that, I love watching my little girl grow up (way too fast). Our family spends weekends at zoos, the farmers market, girl scout events, or other field trips. On our lazy weekends, I love playing Fortnite with my daughter, niece, and nephew. My wife and I met way back in 1999 at Wesley Fellowship, while attending Florida Southern College. She is a former high school guidance counselor turned awesome stay-at-home super-mom. She serves as Girl Scout troop leader, wins awards for her generous volunteer hours, has led various initiatives at church, and in general just takes care of us. Life is good!

• Florida History Blog - Where I publish my history articles
• Facebook Author Page - Where people follow my writing on Facebook
• Florida Heartland History - Facebook group I started
• Seminole County History - Another Facebook group I started
• Historic Longwood - Site I built and authored for the Longwood Historic Society, where I serve as Vice President, digital media chair, and race director for the Monster Dash 5K (our leading fundraiser).
• My work has been featured the following magazines and newspapers: Ah-tah-thi-ki Quarterly, Lake Mary Life, Tuskawilla Today, Reflections of Central Florida, The Hidden Coast, Sanford Herald (Florida), Sebring Historical Society Quarterly.