Jon Thies

CTO · Co-founder · Passport Online Inc.
jon@jonthies.com

I build things that scale — from AI systems at Lockheed's Advanced Technology Labs to customer engagement platforms processing tens of millions of daily transactions, to the subscription infrastructure powering some of the internet's most influential voices. I'm a hands-on CTO who has taken multiple products from zero to market, navigated a successful acquisition (Net6 → Citrix), and genuinely love to code. I also hold a number of patents and publications across network security, mobile messaging, and AI — full list on LinkedIn.


Experience

Passport Online

Co-founder CTO

Passport is the subscription and membership platform behind Ben Thompson's Stratechery and the Stratechery Plus Bundle — one of the most successful independent media businesses on the internet, including Stratechery, Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Dithering, and Greatest of All Talk.

We co-founded and built the platform from the ground up: infrastructure, payments, access control, analytics, and the full subscriber experience. Passport's entitlement-based architecture gives creators granular, per-subscriber access control across multiple platforms — a fundamentally different model than the rigid subscription tiers offered by Substack or Ghost. Automattic (WordPress.com, WooCommerce) is a key partner, helping bring Passport to market through deep WordPress integration.

passport.online

June 2021 - Present

Model Rocket

Co-founder CTO

A software consultancy built on a simple idea: clients deserve the energy of a startup and the discipline of a seasoned engineering team. We specialize in taking products from concept to production in Cloud and Cloud Native environments (AWS, GCP, Azure, Kubernetes). Products we've brought to market include:

  • An Intelligent IoT Platform specifically tailored for environmental (air, water, soil) monitoring. We leveraged my background in Machine Learning, Cloud Infrastructure (using AWS) and Data Science to provide a toolset for agronomic analysis.

  • Advanced Human Body Measurement Platform using 3d sensors and mobile devices applied to Medicine, Physical Therapy, and Athletic Wear. This heavily mathematical product combines a wide array of technologies from 3d visualization, cloud based computations, microservices, and machine learning.

  • Clinical Trial Toolkit – A regulatory document management system used by universities and pharmaceutical companies to facilitate clinical studies.

  • Migrated several hosted SaaS applications from traditional datacenter deployments to serverless architecture on AWS.

Sept 2016 - Present

QWASI Inc.

CTO

Led the engineering team that built a highly scalable cloud-based customer engagement and analytics platform processing tens of millions of transactions daily across SMS, email, voice, push notifications, Twitter, and application events. Named a Top Mobile Messaging Vendor by Forrester.

QWASI's platform was used globally by TD Ameritrade, Bank of America, Macy's and Bloomingdale's, QVC, Marriott and Starwood Hotels, Harvey Nichols, Western Union, Domino's, Krispy Kreme, Syniverse, and thousands of other businesses worldwide.

Jan 2010 - Sept 2016

Citrix Systems

Lead Architect

Joined Citrix following the acquisition of Net6, whose technology became the Citrix Access Gateway — one of the world's most widely deployed enterprise VPNs. Worked in the Advanced Products Group developing prototypes and researching new product concepts across Citrix product lines, and served on the Citrix Patent Committee. Began incubating QWASI on the side before leaving to run it full time.

Dec 2004 - June 2011

Net6

Co-Founder

Co-founded Net6 with colleagues from Lockheed Martin. We built the world's first Hybrid-VPN, which led to an acquisition by Citrix Systems — the technology became the Citrix Access Gateway.

Nov 2000 - Dec 2004
Early Career

Lead Developer at CTNY (Creative Technologies New York) · Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Labs, where I began my career building AI systems for Naval electronic warfare, radar classification, and autonomous battlefield agents — long before AI was a buzzword.


Education

University of Pennsylvania

Master of Science, Computer Science

Taylor University

Bachelor of Science, Computer Science
Concentration: Artificial Intelligence

Skills

Expertise
  • Zero-to-One Product Development
  • Distributed Systems & Cloud Architecture
  • Machine Learning & AI Systems (Keras)
  • Building & Scaling Engineering Teams
  • Full Stack Development
  • Technical M&A — Founder Through Acquisition

Programming Languages & Tools
  • Go
  • Node.js
  • Python
  • React
  • Java
  • C++
  • MongoDB
  • PostgreSQL
  • MySQL
  • Docker
  • AWS
  • npm
  • Claude Code
  • Cursor

Interests

Apart from being an entrepreneur, engineer, and geek at heart, I enjoy being a husband to my beautiful wife, and father to my four children. At least every other summer I go off the grid and fish in Northwest Ontario with my dad, brothers and son. I love playing basketball and am an avid fan of the game. Even though my competitive basketball days are behind me, I still try to play a couple times a week.