Summary
Joel Friedman is a founder and CTO with 16 years of experience building back- and middle-office systems that prioritize low latency, reliability, and accuracy. Based in Chicago, he has led and shipped production software across startups and trading firms, including founding Aclaimant and earlier consumer-facing ventures like Piggy Back. Technically fluent in C#, Java, and JRuby, Joel brings deep hands-on expertise in performance-sensitive architectures and operationally robust backends. His background at DRW and Trunk Club reflects a blend of financial and retail domain knowledge, enabling pragmatic solutions for complex business workflows. Less obvious: he pairs entrepreneurial instincts with enterprise-grade engineering discipline, often bridging product needs and rigorous systems design. Joel holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of Michigan.
16 years of coding experience
8 years of employment as a software developer
Bachelor of Science (BS) Computer Science, Bachelor of Science (BS) Computer Science at University of Michigan