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FRESCHER—
SOUTHERN, LTD.

Fractional CTO • Engineering Leadership • Product Leadership

A24
BBDO
Consumer Reports
Delta
Diageo
eToro
Giphy
Globe Thrivers
Google
Harvard
HBO
iHeartMedia
Lab of Misfits
Lolly Wolly Doodle
Lura
MannKind
MTV
New Era
Nokia
NYU
OK Go
One Drop
Plum
Samsung
Thrillist
Under Armour
UT
Wired

Hey, I'm
Josh Knowles

Strong chance you've used software I've built.

Hopefully you've had a good experience with it! That's important to me.

For example: If diabetes has been a part of your life there's a chance you've used the One Drop app. We helped diabetics track and maintain their health. I was the engineering co-founder and part of the team that defined the product offering, helped lead them through launch, rapid growth, and exit to Dexcom. Health tech is important to me — it's an area in which you really feel like you're doing good and helping people — so I continue to lead engineering on health tech software initiatives for companies like Mannkind and Lura Health.

Or If you're into films: I've worked with A24 over the years to launch products like their video-on-demand service. Got a Webby Award for that. I also helmed engineering on a goofy interactive movie-app-augmented-reality game called Mr. Right with Paul Feig's Powderkeg Media. Nominated for a Webby for that...

Travel? I lead engineering at social travel start-up Globe Thrivers through their formative years — launching their first product offering and helping to build out their team. I also took over the fractional CTO role at vacation home co-ownership company Plum for a couple years — a rare non-founding experience during which I took over and modernized their existing software products and built and released their new Concierge product.

What about games and sports? If you've been to a Super Bowl, Major League Baseball All-Star Game, NBA All-Star Game, or Little League World Series in the past decade or so, you may have played one of my public space installation games. Virtual batting cage. Virtual pop-a-shot. Large-scale multiplayer Jeopardy-style trivia installations. And a long time ago I built gaming projects for companies like Electrolux and the MTV show The Hills. And in grad school I was in groups that won two different grants from MTVu to build cool social games for college kids. I also licenced my grad school thesis — a public screen group gaming platform called PhonePlay to iHeartMedia and ran games in movie theaters and concert venues across the country.

I've been doing this forever. As a high school student in 1995, I lead development of the first web presence for Milburn Homes, one of Austin's largest home builders. I built the first mobile apps for Consumer Reports and Thrillist. I've consulted with, advised, and done hands-on building with so many different groups I can barely count them (although I tried to further down this page.)

Anyway. You get it. There's been a million things and I have a million stories. I love doing this work. I love building great projects and companies with amazing people. So hit me up — I'm interested in hearing what you're up to!

What I do

Core Beliefs

On AI

AI has upended software engineering. The very nature of what it means to build software is evolving — and with it the costs and value of software. I love it. Technology and creative tools should be in the hands of the many. Everyone should get their hands dirty and enjoy making their ideas real. This belief predates the AI revolution: I have always pushed clients and non-technical coworkers to more deeply understand how software works. AI-assisted software engineering is a win for all of us.

But it remains software engineering.

25+ Years of Clients & Collaborations

Let's Talk

If you'd like to chat — even just to toss around ideas — feel free to reach out: josh@frescher.com.