Francis is a Solution Architect at GitLab, where he helps customers understand the product, extract the most value from it, and ultimately love it. He started coding at age 10 and his entrepreneurial zeal kicked in with his first paying client at 16. After graduating from Carnegie Mellon University, he embarked on a varied career that included VP of Engineering at a marketing automation startup, product management at a Content Delivery Network, and many freelance application projects. Francis has architecture, coding, and management experience and a deep knowledge of cloud, web, SaaS, and database technologies. He enjoys watching motorcycle racing, running in 5K races, riding trains, coding in Python, eating plant-based food, and drinking Southern California wines."