Heyo 👋, I’m Michael Mercer

About

I’m a frontend software engineer with more than 10 years of experience in architecting and developing applications and websites. I’ve led teams of engineers to build products for a variety of companies — from small startups (including my own) to large enterprises.

I’m currently helping Kairos bring radical participation to web3 by building word-class NFT tools for artists and businesses. Previously, I was the Director of Web Technology at The Starr Conspiracy and co-founder of VÖL and Shomego.

Generally speaking, I’m a techno-optimist, and I love thinking about the future and ways I can help build it. I’m a tinkerer at heart!

Notable Projects

Kairos

Fregg

VÖL

Shomego

Company: Kairos
Project: Campaign Builder

One of the issues we heard from NFT creators was that it’s hard to stay connected with their collectors, and existing tools were too cumbersome, or difficult, to setup. Kairos aimed to solve this by providing creators with tools to request email addresses from their collectors, compose emails and send them out — without leaving the Kairos platform!

The first step in this process is to verify current NFT holders of a collection, and then provide an optional email address input so they could stay connected with the creator. On the creator side, new UIs were added for displaying all current holders, when they were last verified, along with any emails collected.

Verify connected wallets on the blockchain

See all collector information, with option to export

The email builder tool allowed for quite a bit of customization, and came with sensible defaults tied to the collection color pallete and logos. Users can adjust settings like adding images, CTA buttons, email meta information and can type directly within the editor to adjust copy and font styles, which can all be seen updating and saving in real-time.

Creators can see a preview of their email before sending it out, and even request a test send to themselves, just to double check! Since emails are sent out using a queue of server jobs, the creator will also see the current status of the campaigns they have sent.

See what your collectors will see in their inbox

Creators were excited to have access to even more ways to connect with their holders, without having to setup anything else outside of Kairos, understand Etherscan or have any coding knowledge.

Company: Kairos
Project: Fregg

One of my favorite recent projects that I led the development for at Kairos is Fregg. It’s a web3 game that allows you to create dynamic NFT virtual pets that evolve with your daily care!

We wanted to push the boundaries of what people expect from an NFT, and make an experience that is fun and simple to use, without any prior experience with blockchain technologies.

See our blog post about the project for more details on how we designed this game, and competition we ran.

Auth provided by Kairos NFT verification

Real-time competition leaderboards

This project was unique in a lot of ways. It was the first application to use the Kairos Dapp Library, one of the first implementations of a dynamic NFT that changes every day based on the user’s actions, and was also part of a competition with a cash prize, where the entry fee was the NFT itself ($1 USD). You can read more about all that in a blog post I wrote.

It was great to see the positive community reaction to the project (including winning multiple design awards), and the way users continue to care for their Fregg long after the competition ended.

Company: VÖL
Project: Mobile App

“Where should we go for dinner?” “Do you have any recommendations for two days in Paris?” We’ve all been there. I set out to solve this problem with some amazing co-founders, and we created VÖL — a social recommendations app that helps you discover new places, both local and abroad.

With an emphasis on the social aspect of recommendations, we wanted to make it easy to share your favorite places with friends and family. You can create lists of places, and share them with anyone. You can also follow other users to see what they’re recommending.

As a lean operation with a small engineering team, we we were able to build a cross-platform mobile app that was available on both iOS and Android by using React Native with Expo. It has since become one of my favorite ecosystems to work with.

Company: Shomego
Project: Live Streaming Webapp

Near the end of 2020, a couple of friends and I were looking for a way to help some of our local venues that were struggling due to in-person restrictions. We wanted to create a way for venues to stream events, sell tickets, and accept donations. That’s why we created Shomego. Not only did we build a web3 streaming platform that allowed the audience to tip the venue using crypto, but we also provided a cost-effective hardware solution for venues to rent.

Built as a custom React app, with web sockets and web3 payment systems

We were able to build a fully functional streaming platform in a matter of weeks, and we were able to get a few venues on board.

Live stream chat, with audio and video party functionality