ENGINEERING YOUR MOONSHOT
From startups to NOAA. Stef navigates chaos,
ships measurable value, and launches products
to their breakout success.
Product-First Engineering for
Startups Moving Fast.
Startups Moving Fast.
Rochester, New York, USA
STEF OLTHOFF
[0] An Engineer for Growth
Growth-stage startups face a fork in the road.
- The wrong engineer can crash the product.
- A mediocre hire drains time and opportunity.
- The right partner unlocks exponential growth.
Stef has done that last one.
At Wisely, a restaurant-tech startup, he led engineering on a sentiment analysis product that generated $1.1M in annual revenue - one-third of the company's total. That product played a key role in Wisely’s $187M acquisition in 2021.
Stef went on to build numerous apps trusted by NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) to protect lives on our coasts.
Most engineers guess.
Stef demands contact with reality.
Stef thrives on customer conversations and testable hypotheses.
If your product is ready to go exponential, book a call below.
or reach out to stef@magicwords.dev.
[1] CLIENTS & PARTNERS
Stef's portfolio of clients spans acquired startups, hurricane hunters, and humble coupon-clippers.
Filter by:
Company
Location
Tags
AOOS
Alaska
#Ocean#Science
CeNCOOS
California
#Ocean#Research
Club Car
Georgia
#Manufacturing#Transportation
Gild Insurance
California
#Insurance#Fintech
Globe and Mail
Ontario
#Media#News
Hawaii Department of Health
Hawaii
#Gov#Health
IOOS
Maryland
#Ocean#Gov
MBARI
California
#Research#Ocean
NEAQ
Massachusetts
#Aquarium#Education
NOAA
Maryland
#Gov#Science
SaveOn
California
#Tech#Retail
SECOORA
South Carolina
#Ocean#Data
University of Michigan, School of Information
Michigan
#Education#Research
Wisely
California
#Tech#Startup
[2] STARTUP CASE STUDY
Alpha to Acquisition
WISELY is a Customer Intelligence platform for restaurants.
The mission: deliver hospitality at scale.
EXPERTISE
Machine Learning & NLP
API Integration
Real-time Data Processing
Product Strategy
Startup Growth
The Challenge
Modern restaurant groups track guest sentiment across Google reviews, Facebook posts, Instagram mentions, and more. Multiply that by 100 locations, and you're drowning in data. Hidden in that noise are insights that, if unlocked, could elevate the guest experience beyond what competitors can match.
Stef's Contribution
In 2018, Stef joined Wisely as one of six employees. He built Sentiment—a machine-learning guest review platform—from concept to reality, culminating in Wisely's $187M acquisition by Olo in 2021.
Sentiment ingests reviews from 10+ sources in real time via webhooks and distributed queueing. An NLP engine parses emotion and subject matter, surfacing answers to questions like: "How do customers feel about the new pad thai dish in New Orleans vs. Chicago?" or "Is service quality trending up or down over the last six months?"
With 10+ API integrations, managers can monitor and respond to every review online from a single dashboard.
Post-acquisition, Wisely now powers guest intelligence for 600+ restaurant brands.
[3] NOAA CASE STUDY
Responding to Risk
TRACER is a coastal emergency simulation tool for coastal communities, funded by NOAA.
EXPERTISE
Product Design & Strategy
Scientific Data Visualization
Full-Stack Development
Interactive Prototyping
Rapid MVP Delivery
The Mission
Coastal communities face increasing threats from oil spills, algal blooms, and drifting debris. Preparing for these events requires more than static reports—it requires the ability to simulate future scenarios and practice response strategies before lives and ecosystems are at risk. NOAA funded the development of a web application capable of running physics-based simulations of these emergencies, with the goal of equipping communities to respond faster and more effectively.
The Solution
Stef served as Design Engineer, a relatively new role that bridges product design with implementation. He led discovery sessions with coastal response authorities, conceptualized the product, and created interactive Figma wireframes to rapidly prototype in-app flows. These visual prototypes clarified requirements, reduced ambiguity, and ensured the design was validated before engineering began.
Once the design was set, Stef led full-stack development—building the UI, API, and database schema. Drawing on startup experience and a focus on client needs, he delivered the MVP in just four weeks, moving the project from discovery session to live demo on an accelerated timeline.
2D Particle Flow
3D Particle Cloud
[4] CONTACT