Hey, I'm Isaac.

I'm a principal software engineer at Papaya Pay by day, and the founder of Yggdrasil, LLC — a small consulting firm I run on the side, helping startups modernize the legacy systems they're afraid to touch. I also built VenuNite, an iPhone app for discovering live music, concerts, and shows near you — shipped to the App Store in May 2026.

I co-host Never Rewrite, a weekly podcast for startup engineers about dragging old codebases into the present without burning the company down. Episode 120 dropped last September. The recurring theme: most "rewrites" are cultural problems with a technical disguise.

Music

After about a decade away from music I started taking vocal lessons at School of Rock Broomfield in late 2024. I now sing in the adult performance program — most recently a grunge season covering Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, and Tool. For prog metal vocals and false-cord screaming I work with two coaches: Chris Liepe and Mark Garrett of Kardavox Academy. I'm documenting the journey on a Substack called From Zero to Åkerfeldt.

Stack & tools

Day-to-day: PHP, TypeScript, Postgres. I have strong opinions about migrations, weak opinions about frameworks, and a soft spot for boring infrastructure. This site is built with Astro and deployed on Cloudflare Pages.

Get in touch

Email me at isaac@ygg.llc, or find me on GitHub and LinkedIn. I'm selective with engagements but always happy to talk about modernization, music, or both.