About

James Howard

I’ve been working on internet projects since I dropped paper airplanes for pixels in 1996. I love building things online and helping people improve their business. I aim to distill good data to make good decisions and discover the untapped potential of people.

Currently

I’m Technical Architect at Slingshot Aerospace, since July 2026.

Previously

I was VP of Operations at TicketCity, the oldest privately-owned secondary ticket marketplace. TicketCity also has a robust inventory business. From 2017, I helped increase the use of technology and automation across the organization. As head of the technology team this included projects like AWS migration from in-house hosting, marketplace transformation to a third party inventory and customer service supplier and help in automating paid advertising campaigns and bidding using GCP’s BigQuery. As acting head of marketing, I managed affiliate partnerships, affiliate integrations, social media and content strategy.

Before TicketCity, I was Chief Technical Officer at Open Mortgage. At Open, I helped grow the company from 30 to 300 employees across 44 states.

Besides working in mid- (Open Mortgage) and large-sized (State of California) organizations, I’m also a startup veteran. I happy to share my experiences with companies like BoLS Interactive (a top 1500 web publisher), for those times when they get in over their head and acquire some odd combination of technologies that requires unraveling. I’ve started my own business and participated in creating and selling large internet projects.

Prior to moving to Texas, I created and managed web and video projects for Hollywood properties like Fox Searchlight, Jerry Springer and COPS. I also co-created the online member management and event registration portal for the National Auto Sport Association.

Additionally

I still have a love of automobiles and a garage full of tools from my racing days. A native Californian, I earned my degree at UCLA and lived on both coasts before settling in the middle, moving to Austin in 2007 with my wife and two children.

Find me on LinkedIn. More details on my experience are on the CV.