FRESCHER—
SOUTHERN, LTD.
Fractional CTO • Engineering Leadership • Product Leadership
Hey, I'm
Josh Knowles
Strong chance you've used software I've built.
Hopefully you've had a good experience with it! That's important to me.
Some cool highlights:
I was the engineering co-founder of One Drop, a service to help diabetics self-manage. I built the software foundations that led us through several fundraising rounds and an exit to Dexcom. Also won Best Design at Launch 2015.
I continue to enjoy working in the healthcare space and have led engineering on projects with companies like Mannkind and Lura Health.
I helmed front-end engineering to launch and grow A24's video-on-demand service. Won a Webby. I continue to work with A24 on other cool projects TBA.
Led development of Mr. Right, an interactive augmented-reality-game-app-thing for Paul Feig's Powderkeg Media. Nominated for a Webby...
Was founding engineer for social travel start-up Globe Thrivers — helped them work through early product choices, flesh out their team, and launch their first public product offerings.
I've done a lot of teaching at NYU's ITP and CU Boulder. Also co-taught an interactive design class for several years with Bob Giraldi at the School of Visual Arts. I've given talks at conferences all over, and regularly participate in the Yale CBIT Healthcare Hackathon as a mentor.
I've built tons of large-scale public space gaming projects over the years, including for the , , , and . And also an art commission for Bowdoin College that got a write-up in Smithsonian Magazine.
Built the first mobile apps for Consumer Reports and Thrillist way back in the day soon after the iPhone first launched.
Licensed my grad school thesis project — a public screen group gaming platform called PhonePlay — to iHeartMedia and ran advertising games for them in movie theaters and concert venues across the country.
I could keep going, but I'll leave it at that. Been doing this since 1995 so I have a lot of stories. I love it and I always enjoy hearing what cool and interesting things people are up to, so please feel free to reach out!
Core Beliefs
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01People first
People use software. Want great software? You've got to understand and empathize with the people who will be using it.
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02Build with care
Anyone can slop together janky code these days. To build great software, though, you've got to sweat the details and make sure every decision at every layer is made deliberately and accurately.
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03Design matters
Confusing, inscrutable, or ugly interfaces corrode your relationship with your users. If someone can't figure out how to use your software, they won't. If someone dislikes using your software, they'll look elsewhere.
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04Keep it simple
Complexity costs time and money.
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05AI is a power-up
AI saves a ton of wrench-work and unlocks powerful new product opportunities. But. You've still got to know what you're building, why you're building, and how you're going to get to where you need to be. That's the real work.
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06The edge: experience
Great software stands out for the right reasons. Working with an engineering and product leader with decades of experience means having a collaborator that can help guide you to the best possible end result.
On AI
AI has upended software engineering. The very nature of what it means to build software is evolving — and with it the costs and value of software. I love it. Technology and creative tools should be in the hands of the many. Everyone should get their hands dirty and enjoy making their ideas real. This belief predates the AI revolution: I have always pushed clients and non-technical coworkers to more deeply understand how software works. AI-assisted software engineering is a win for all of us.
If you'd like to talk more about how AI is affecting my own workflows and software products more broadly, I'd be more than happy. It's interesting stuff. I don't write much about it, but I do talk about it. A lot.
25+ Years of Clients & Collaborations
- A24
- Acoustigram
- Aiko
- AllTomorrows
- Area/Code
- Asia Society of Texas
- AsthmaSignals
- BBDO
- BimBam
- Chris Uphues
- Clude
- Cntxt
- Columbia University
- Community Wine and Spirits
- Consumer Reports
- Delta Airlines
- Diageo
- Don Julio
- Electrolux
- Endorphin Ventures
- Emojiary
- eToro
- Future of Storytelling
- Game of Thrones
- Gate F
- Giphy
- Globe Thrivers
- Glu
- GramercyOne
- Guinness
- Harvard University
- HBO
- Helleaux
- iHeartMedia
- InforMED Data Systems
- Introgen Therapeutics
- Jeep
- JJ Abrams' S.
- Kargo
- Lab of Misfits
- Laguna Gloria Austin
- Let's Do This
- Lincoln Center
- Lively
- Lolly Wolly Doodle
- Lura Health
- MannKind
- Marriott
- Melcher Media
- MKG
- MTV
- MTVu
- New Era
- New York University
- Nokia
- OK Go
- One Drop
- One Health
- OnkaWorks
- Plum CoOwnership
- Potion Design
- Powderkeg Media
- RedBull
- Relevent
- Rhizome
- Roadify
- Samsung
- ScreenVision
- SocialBomb
- Someecards
- Studio IMC
- Sunglass Hut
- T1DExchange
- TeamZapp
- Tessellate Studio
- Tesseract
- The Austin Museum of Digital Art
- The Hills
- The Little League World Series
- The Major League Baseball All-Star Game
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC)
- The Super Bowl
- The Texas State Lottery
- The University of Texas
- TheLuv
- THQ
- Thrillist
- TweedWolf
- Type/Code
- Under Armour
- University of Colorado Boulder
- Urban Bingo
- Verizon
- Vital Score
- Vivaki
- W_NDER
- Wired
- Yale University Press
- Young Women's Leadership Network
Let's Talk
If you'd like to chat — even just to toss around ideas — feel free to reach out: josh@frescher.com.