From Oct 2015 to Jan 2019, I ran Georgia Hybrid Landscaping and the instaSod.com brand while serving as the React Web Developer (Full-Stack) behind the business. I owned the PHP-to-React migrations and built web workflows for uploads, survey questions, pricing proposals, payment processing, analytics, and outbound email tooling. I remotely managed employees and contractors while leading landscape design, web systems, and marketing. The business processed more than $500,000 in gross sales within three years.

React was not a side project here. I used it as an operating lever for the business by migrating from PHP and turning the website into a system for lead capture, uploads, proposals, payment workflows, campaign tooling, and observability.

Before shifting fully into product engineering and AI, I built and ran a local landscaping company in North Georgia starting at age 21. This was a hands-on business where I had to execute on sales, operations, and delivery, while also building the frontend and growth systems that kept leads, payments, and campaigns moving. I designed landscapes, websites, and marketing while remotely managing employees and contractors so work stayed coordinated when I was not on every job site.

Georgia Hybrid Landscaping was my first real operating school as a young entrepreneur. Building it from age 21 taught me how to price work, earn trust quickly, scope honestly, and convert internet traffic into signed jobs and completed delivery. Running a business that crossed $500,000 in gross sales over three years, while remotely managing employees and contractors alongside landscape, web, and marketing design, forced fast growth in accountability and execution. At the same time, it sharpened my developer instincts. The React migration, payments workflows, observability, campaign tooling, and analytics loops were all built under real business pressure with real customers. That founder-plus-builder pattern still defines how I approach software today.