Ross Douglas

Co-Founder

Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa21 yrs 7 mos experience

Most Likely To SwitchAI ML Practitioner

Key Highlights

Co-founded and scaled a successful AI startup.
Led engineering teams at Aruba, driving rapid product growth.
Expert in building practical AI systems for enterprise.

Stackforce AI infers this person is a SaaS expert with a strong focus on AI-driven enterprise solutions.

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Skills

Core Skills

Artificial Intelligence (ai)Technical LeadershipSoftware ArchitectureEnterprise SoftwareSolution Architecture

Other Skills

Large Language Models (LLM)AI AgentsCloud InfrastructureSystem ArchitectureDistributed SystemsDatabase DesignGoogle BigQueryPostgreSQLElectronic Circuit Design

About

Co-founded Cape Networks in Cape Town, built a 20+ person engineering team across hardware, firmware, and cloud, and sold the company to HPE / Aruba in 2018. After the acquisition I ran Aruba’s Cape Town engineering office for three years, building and leading the local team while delivering into Aruba’s global product organisation. The product became Aruba’s fastest-growing line. The role involved close work with customers as well as sales and marketing teams to bring the product into enterprise environments worldwide. Since 2021 I’ve been building applied AI products and developer tools, including Hunch, Overclock, and Coauthor. Practical AI systems designed to improve real workflows.

Experience

Hunch

Co-Founder

Oct 2021 – Present · 4 yrs 6 mos · Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa · Remote

Building applied AI products and developer tools, including Hunch, Overclock, and Coauthor.
My work focuses on practical AI systems that automate real engineering and knowledge workflows. This includes building agent-driven systems that review code, manage deployments, automate documentation and developer tasks, and integrate with modern software stacks.
Much of this work explores how long-running AI systems behave in production, including orchestration across multiple models, workflow automation, evaluation, and reliability.

Enterprise SoftwareLarge Language Models (LLM)Technical LeadershipSoftware ArchitectureSolution ArchitectureAI Agents+3

Independent research / exploration

Exploring new ideas

Jun 2021 – Sep 2021 · 3 mos

Took time after leaving HPE/Aruba to read, learn, and explore new directions in software and AI systems before starting Hunch.

Large Language Models (LLM)Software ArchitectureAI AgentsCloud InfrastructureArtificial Intelligence (AI)

Aruba, a hewlett packard enterprise company

Director Of Engineering

May 2018 – May 2021 · 3 yrs · City of Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa

After Aruba (HPE) acquired Cape Networks, I led the Cape Town engineering office and integrated the team into Aruba’s global product organisation.
Responsibilities included:
Building and leading a 20+ person engineering team
Delivering product releases to Aruba’s global enterprise customer base
Coordinating with product, support, sales, and marketing teams worldwide
Scaling the Cape product line inside Aruba after acquisition
The product became Aruba’s fastest-growing product line during this period.

Enterprise SoftwareDistributed SystemsTechnical LeadershipSoftware ArchitectureSolution ArchitectureCloud Infrastructure+1

Cape

Co-founder

Jan 2014 – May 2018 · 4 yrs 4 mos · San Francisco & Cape Town

Co-founded Cape Networks, building a hardware and SaaS platform that monitors network and application performance from the end-user perspective.
The system used distributed network sensors to simulate real user activity and provide simple, actionable visibility into WiFi and SaaS performance.
I helped grow the company from founding team to a 20+ person engineering organisation spanning hardware, firmware, and cloud systems.
Cape Networks was acquired by HPE / Aruba in 2018.

Enterprise SoftwareDistributed SystemsTechnical LeadershipSoftware ArchitectureSolution ArchitectureCloud Infrastructure+1

Self employed

Independent Software Developer

Jul 2007 – Jan 2014 · 6 yrs 6 mos

Independent software developer building web platforms and backend systems for clients.
Worked primarily with:
Python / Django
C# / ASP.NET
PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server
distributed system and database design

Enterprise SoftwareSoftware ArchitectureSolution ArchitectureCloud InfrastructureSystem Architecture