Ben Dalziel

Technical product leader ∙ Platforms, and the teams that build them

San Marcos, California

It started with Legos. Constraints and creativity. Then design patterns as an engineer, and later multi-tenant platforms as a product leader.

The ability to create something where something previously didn't exist is still magic. Especially when it delivers outcomes.

Software can do real good, particularly when focused on lifting up the most vulnerable and least represented people in society. From helping someone who is unhoused find social services, to streamlining the logistics at a food bank, that is community building.

AI has brought that potential much closer than it has ever been. I can very quickly see what new tools make possible, and this is what I want to point it at.

I'm more excited about technology today than I ever have been.

Recent

  • 11x77

    eBird micro software

    Screenshot of map interface to the project
  • DEVxSD Lightning Talk

    Own Your Data: A better, cheaper DIY BI Stack

  • Caption Captain

    Tools for managing auto-generated captions in video content write-up

Experience

2017 – present
Chief Product Officer, Slytrunk · Remote

I was employee four, hired as an engineer. We were good at building the thing right, so I added the product function to make sure we were building the right thing, then design. In between I set the strategy for a fan platform that Williams F1 Team launched first and the U.S. SailGP Team later ran on with no new platform engineering. Most recently I wrote the AI strategy that changed how we build: engineers direct AI now rather than writing code by hand.

2025 – present
Product Lead, New Ventures, Trash Panda · Remote · concurrent

An early-stage consumer app, where I co-run product and work hands-on across the stack. I rebuilt the website through daily AI-assisted development, launched web-to-app subscription purchasing, and built the business intelligence layer end to end: a custom loader for each of nine sources, a database, and dashboards the company plans from.

Other relevant experience

Slytrunk
Software Engineer, iOS Architecture Lead · Hybrid
Yahoo! Sports
Senior Software Engineer · Sunnyvale, California
IBM
Software Engineer Intern · Hursley, England

Education

  • San Francisco State University

    MS Computer Science

    Specialism in Computer Science for the Life Sciences

  • Durham University

    BSc Mathematics & Computer Science

Elsewhere

Liverpool FC, yoga, comic books, and psychology. Live music, and collecting vinyl. Birdwatching and city planning. Dad to three kids, and family chef. I mostly drink decaf coffee, which people can have big feelings about.

Tech stack

VPN

NordVPN

Passwords

1Password

Socks

Gold Toe

Browser

Brave

Family

Bark

Snack

Boom Chicka Pop

AI

Claude

Editors

EmacsSublime Text

Database

TablePlus

Design

Figma

Music

Apple Music

Beatle

Paul