Chris Granger

High performance systems, database and compiler implementation, novel interfaces

HIGHLIGHTS

• Created the Light Table IDE, which influenced tools at Apple, Google, Microsoft, and many others.
• Built a database from scratch that could run games at 60fps and was 100x faster than the closest commercial offering. It powered a novel programming system.
• Prototyped a pipeline for Stripe Sigma that could handle more than the transaction volume of Visa on a laptop.
• Designed and implemented numerous natural language interfaces.
• Wrote blog posts that have been read by millions.

EXPERIENCE

• Jump - Principal
  2020 - PRESENT
  • Independent research and consulting in distributed systems, CRDTs, programming interfaces, NLP, and reasoning.
  • Built a product that translates natural language to relational queries based on ontological reasoning that executes in microseconds on commodity hardware.
• RelationalAI - VP Product
  2019 - 2020
  • Defined a position and vision for the company as an AI embedded database platform and led the design of novel tools to support it.
• Looker - Principal Engineer
  2018 - 2019
  • Worked with a small team to research, conceptualize, design, and prototype the future of Looker.
• Light Table / Eve - Cofounder and CEO (YCS12, a16z, Sam Altman)
  2011 - 2018
  • Built an IDE from scratch that was the most successful software kickstarter of the time and became a stated influence on the design of tools at Apple, Google, Microsoft, and many others.
  • Implemented 24 compilers, 34 environments/IDEs, 25 relational engines, 16 storage engines, 9 interpreters, dozens of parsers, and numerous standard libraries based on state of the art research.
• Microsoft - Program Manager
  2009 - 2010
  • Owned the C# and VB IDE in Visual Studio. Was tasked with designing the future of Visual Studio and laid the groundwork for the next decade of features for the IDE.

EDUCATION

• UNC Chapel Hill - B.A. German
  2005 - 2008
  • Entered college as a junior and took classes across dozens of disciplines, from Egyptology to advanced genetics and computer science. Graduated a year early.