Last updated: 2024-09-17
Hey, I'm Jared Scheib.
I'm passionate about building startups, hiking mountains, speaking foreign languages, Burning Man, emotional intelligence, and the beautiful & brave journey of mental health.
I'm a Lead Product Engineer & Tech Mentor living in the big pineapple, NYC. 🗽🍍
I love collaboration, teamwork, leadership, & striving to do somethin' big & good with an ambitious & high-integrity team — to make a real, needful, valuable impact in the lives of people & customers.
I've built & shipped technical & consumer products as an independent contributor, team lead, & many-hat-wearer at high-performing, VC-backed, Y Combinator-grad startups in NYC & SF, from pre-seed to Series C, including:
AI platform called Paperspace, acquired by DigitalOcean for $111mm in July 2023, for AI engineers to develop & deploy AI Observability platform called InfluxData, for DevOps engineers to monitor & manage system infrastructure, like Tesla Powerwall and PayPal's global server deployment Social async video community app called Pineapple for people to connect more genuinely in facilitated small groups Game prototype for an NYC media company to pitch for distribution by national newspapers
I'm humbled & proud that my work has made a difference in the lives of folks around the world.
work with me
As a Lead Product Engineer, I build technology for startups & clients with a mind for real customer value, iterating from proof of concept through validation to MVP, growth, and scale.
As a Mentor for Startups, Coding, & Tech Career, I support early-stage founders, engineers, product managers, & data scientists as a partner on their vision, goals, strategy, tactics, communication, skills, & day-to-day grind.
I'm open to work. Wanna chat? Email me or Connect on LinkedIn. 🤘🏼
testimonials
Product Engineering
from Adam Neuhaus, Founder & Creative Producer at Neuhaus Ideas:
Jared was engaged to build a digital game prototype and over-delivered on building the product on deadline. Also and more importantly, he added his own creativity to the process, which helped enhance the finished product.
Jared’s technical expertise mixed with his incredibly high EQ, allowed us to collaborate effectively. His thorough and transparent communication meant that we always knew where we stood on budget and timing, allowing us to focus on the creativity within the parameters.
I would wholeheartedly recommend Jared for a wide array of services.
Mentoring
from David, Product Manager at SF startup:
Before receiving mentorship from Jared, I felt completely paralyzed how to move forward in my career. Jared offered insights that provided me with immediate relief and perspective, and he was able to propel me forward in a way no one else was able to.
Jared helped me successfully navigate a job search, and I’m now 8 months into a Product Manager role at an established company. I would not have made this kind of growth, this quickly, without Jared.
from Ben, Software Engineer at Israel startup:
Read more testimonialsJared is able to grasp the unique challenge the student is facing, and to offer insight. As important - he is patient and friendly. Excellent mentor.
more about me
I'm a graduate of USC School of Cinematic Arts with a degree in film production, and also studied neuroscience as an inaugural member of the USC Brain & Creativity Institute.
I'm a graduate of Hack Reactor for coding & Product School for product management.
In addition to technology, I've directed, produced, & sold film, theater, events, & furniture.
I'm from Texas, lived a spell in California, was a nomad for a while, and now call New York City home.
Here I am in a pineapple onesie in go-to-market mode for Pineapple AF, doing street interviews in NYC. 🍍
In 2020, I founded Pineapple AF, a ridiculously serious technology & events startup rooted in supporting people to build community in their mental health journeys. 🍍✨ I drew Pineapple AF to a close by the end of 2023, having learned & grown a ton. I'm excited to apply my learnings forward to build early-stage startups.
Our mission at Pineapple AF was to create tools for people to have healthy relationships.
During the pandemic, we built Pineapple, a social async video app for people to discover genuine human connection and community via facilitated small group chat.
In early 2023, we produced mental health-positive events for building community & skills around emotional & relational intelligence.
This includes the hit meetup Emotion AI, a community forum about emotional intelligence, artificial & organic, as well as The Big Pineapple, a support group for New Yorkers living with Complex PTSD.
In late 2019, Pineapple AF started by producing pineapple restaurant pop-ups in NYC & LA.
From 2020 to 2022, I also founded, designed, produced, & shut down Bizmuth, a furniture collection of beautiful solid wood tables, case goods, and accessories that embody stories of transformation, inspired by the metal crystal bismuth, which I've loved since I was a kid.
I've mentored software engineers & product managers. I've advised startups & small businesses.
Before Pineapple AF, I helped build growth technology startups as a software engineer, product manager, and many-hat-wearer. Two were VC-backed Y-Combinator companies, Paperspace and InfluxData. At InfluxData I built a cloud DevOps platform for observability, i.e. cloud software infrastructure to monitor & keep up systems by capturing, visualizing, & analyzing real-time & historical time series data. At Paperspace I built a general-purpose cloud Artificial Intelligence platform for teams & individuals to build, train, & collaborate on machine learning & deep learning models. Both of these products are technical tools used by other software engineers & AI/ML/DL engineers.
Prior to tech & events, I was an artist-entrepreneur in film, theater, & fine art. One of the movies I directed, produced, edited, & distributed is The Mayor, a 70-min documentary about old people living life to the fullest in a retirement community in Texas, especially focusing on an 88-year-old tailchaser back on the dating scene.
I also directed & dramaturged plays for the stage. Two of my theater works are Doodu Boy & Wrestles with Machista. Both are one-person, autobiographical plays – hilarious & dramatic stories of personal transformation & growth – performed by the person whose story it is, & woven from the fabric of their lives, like personal documentaries on stage.
In addition to film & theater, I co-founded & ran Cecelia Webber Art, where I championed Cecelia's artwork by making it accessible online, believing in its appeal. It went viral, and I managed, sold, & distributed her visual fine art around the world. Check out Cecelia's beautiful art about humanity's intimate connection to nature.
As a consultant & advisor, among other ventures I helped my parents start & grow their Texas cookie company, Eileen's Pralines – ask for the pineapple one! 🍍
Feeling resonant? I'd love to hear from you. Contact me
You can find more about me & watch some of my short films below.
past things i did
films i directed
videos i deep-faked
more about me
moments i documented
more testimonials
Engineering
from Michael Desa, Founder of Equall AI:
Jared is a product developer who understands the intersection of technology and storytelling. His background spans software engineering, filmmaking, and entrepreneurship - a combination that proves useful in creating products that resonate with users.
In my experience working with Jared, I've observed his ability to translate complex ideas into coherent product features. He approaches product development holistically, considering not just the technical aspects but also user experience and market fit.
Jared's strength lies in his versatility. He can code an AI application one day and produce a community event the next. This range allows him to see connections others might miss. He's built everything from open-source database tools to social platforms focused on mental health.
What's notable about Jared is how he thinks about products. He doesn't just build features; he considers the narrative they create for the user. This storyteller's mindset, applied to product development, results in experiences that engage users on a deeper level.
In a team setting, Jared is effective because he communicates well across disciplines. He can explain technical concepts to non-technical team members and translate business requirements into actionable development tasks.
If you're looking for someone who can bridge the gap between vision and execution in product development, Jared would be a solid choice. His combination of technical skill, creative thinking, and focus on user narrative is rare and valuable.
Mentoring
from Seth, Senior Full-Stack Engineer at NYC startup:
I was early on in my software engineering career and was struggling to see the “big picture” of how different parts of a project connected together. I was unfamiliar with best practices, problem solving paradigms and heuristics to solve intermediate to complex problems at work.
I reached out to Jared because of all of his top tier reviews and after meeting him in person and going over what I wanted to accomplish, he created a general plan and a timeline designed around my goals and schedule. We worked on real-life coding challenges that I was facing at work.
The experience was overwhelmingly positive - so much so that my company reached out to Jared to set up an official contract for code mentorship on my behalf for an extended period of time. Jared was knowledgeable, honest and ,most importantly, patient. Along with pair programming to solve the problems in front of me he also gave tips on how to become a more discerning developer and problem solver for the inevitable next coding problems I would face.
Jared is very quick to understand code which has been shown to him and can break down a complex issue, even when it is being explained sub optimally by a beginner.