Michel has been writing code since 1986, with a focus on payments and fintech since 2003. He held positions at PayPal, Google, and Airbnb, building large-scale payment systems. He represented Airbnb at the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) for several years.
Michel holds a B.Sc. in Computer Science, a B.Sc. in Psychology, and an MBA.
His approach to software engineering emphasizes scalable, maintainable code through testing, code reviews, continuous integration, and readability. In payments and fintech, he advises on global payment infrastructure, regulatory compliance, fraud prevention, and integration with banking systems and payment processors.
Michel is committed to expanding opportunity in tech beyond traditional backgrounds. He has volunteered teaching coding at San Quentin State Prison and has participated in redesigning hiring and promotion processes to prioritize diversity while maintaining technical standards.
Since 2022, Michel has been consulting with startups in various capacities, including interim CTO and VP of Engineering roles. That work led directly to mothertree: he kept hearing teams say “this conversation is too sensitive – let’s move it to Signal,” and decided to build something better.