Ryan Porter
Accomplished technology Leader and architectural innovator with a proven history of developing and operating mission-critical, high-availability systems that deliver business value. Focused on delivering exciting AI applications through serverless cloud architectures.
Our team has been working together for over a decade, and we have been working on AI solutions for years now. The Anthus name is the only new thing, as we fully focus on the intersection of software solutions and artificial intelligence.
Formerly with Hakkasan Group, Angel Management Group, and Venue Driver in an evolving role with the same venture.
- Pioneering Technical Strategy: Developed and operated a critical ticketing system evolving over 14 years into a comprehensive platform encompassing reservation, guest list, and artist booking management, pivotal for business operations across various stakeholder domains.
- Seamless Transition and Growth: Managed the system's seamless transition through corporate acquisitions, maintaining operational excellence and high availability, processing as much as $64 million in revenue per month with no major incidents.
- DevOps and Agile Leadership: Championed a DevOps culture, promoting rapid iteration, continuous improvement, and agile methodologies, aligning closely with business needs and fostering a responsive, collaborative IT environment.
- Longevity and Adaptation: Adapted the platform through shifting market conditions and technological paradigms, from early-stage monolithic structures to a modern serverless distributed architecture, passing AWS Well-Architected audits by multinational corporations.
Formerly with Angel Management Group, and Venue Driver in an evolving role with the same venture.
- Scalable System Leadership: Continued advancement of a high-revenue ticketing system, emphasizing scalable, fault-tolerant infrastructure on AWS, embodying the Well-Architected Framework principles.
- Data Integration Initiative: Initiated and delivered a successful enterprise data warehouse project, integrating diverse data systems to support analytics, Salesforce CRM, Marketo and Salesforce Marketing Cloud for marketing operations.
Formerly with Venue Driver in an evolving role with the same venture.
- Strategic Technology Expansion: Continuation and expansion of existing role after Angel Management Group acquired Venue Driver.
Startup Technology Foundation: Built and managed all technology infrastructure for a hospitality-focused technology startup, evolving the company into a major event ticketing provider processing substantial monthly revenue.
- Leadership and Technical Training: Directed all aspects of technology including software development, web operations, technical hiring, and training programs, laying the foundation for eventual acquisition and growth.
Entered into a joint venture with Nick McCabe to develop a nightlife production and media company in Miami Beach, FL. The successful CoolJunkie.com website with its interactive forums was a pillar of the Miami Beach nightlife scene for years in the days before social media. The company also produced events like the BBC Radio One Miami party during the Winter Music Conference, and events from artists like Pete Tong, Cedric Gervais and many others.
Started a small software product company after graduating, based around a web mail application that was popular in the early days of the web, in the days of WebTV and AOL. Developed, licensed and supported a PERL-based web mail application that was used by thousands of users, and a Java-based enterprise web mail product.
Worked as an undergraduate research assistant for Dr. Gerhard X. Ritter and Dr. Mark S. Schmalz helping with their innovative work on computer vision using the Image Algebra framework. With funding from the US Department of Defense. One project's goal was the automated detection of land mines using multi-spectral imagery. An early predecessor of today's visual segmentation models. The project was incredibly successful despite relying on 2D convolution algorithms, without the benefit of modern visual AI models. My main job was C++ development.
A related computer vision project aimed at detecting water mines by removing distortion in images from the surface of the ocean.
Also worked on other research projects, including work by Dr. Panos Livadas on automated code analysis and refactoring tools that foreshadowed LLM-based coding tools like GitHub Copilot.
Also worked as an undergraduate teaching assistant for a class based on the classic Lisp textbook, The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs.
Portfolio
![Call Criteria]()
Call Criteria
August 24, 2024
Transformed a call center QA company by converting human-led processes into cybernetic systems—blending AI with human expertise:
- Enabled unprecedented scalability, reducing costs by orders of magnitude
- AI call reviews outperform human reviews in speed, cost, and consistency
- Automated AI setup for new client scorecards, streamlining onboarding
- Developed open-source tool for creating, evaluating, and deploying AI scorecards
![Vault]()
Vault
August 01, 2023
Implemented a cloud-based enterprise data warehouse (EDW), aligning with the growing trend in 2014 of cloud adoption for data-intensive operations. Vault served as the cornerstone of data operations for over a decade, enabling seamless integrations with major platforms like Marketo, Salesforce, and Salesforce Marketing Cloud. This approach provided scalability and flexibility while reducing infrastructure costs. By centralizing data from multiple sources, Vault empowered businesses to derive actionable insights, streamline marketing operations, and enhance customer relationship management. It also gave us a platform for exploring ML use cases, like customer volume forecasting. Its longevity and adaptability underscore our commitment to building future-proof solutions that deliver long-term value.
![Venue Driver]()
Venue Driver
May 01, 2021
A pioneering nightclub management system that became the backbone of Las Vegas hospitality operations for 16 years, processing over a quarter of a billion dollars in total revenue:
- Handled peak volumes of tens of millions of dollars per month
- Began as an on-premises solution for reservations and guest lists, tailored for Las Vegas nightlife
- Underwent successful cloud transformation to AWS, enhancing scalability and reliability
- Transitioned to serverless architecture, dramatically reducing operational costs while improving performance
- Adapted continuously to support new business models and regulatory requirements
- Integrated seamlessly with other systems, creating a comprehensive hospitality management ecosystem
Ticketing Data Analysis
December 31, 2023
Engineered a serverless data lake for Tao Group Hospitality, streamlining complex Las Vegas ticket sales reporting. Our solution automates compliance with resort partners, auditors, and the Nevada Gaming Control Board, while reducing operational overhead.
Ticket Driver
October 01, 2023
Modernized Venue Driver with a serverless architecture, improving reliability and efficiency by eliminating server management. Implemented a React frontend and GraphQL backend, dramatically improving system reliability and performance while reducing operational costs.
Ticket Driver Copilot
July 04, 2023
An AI agent capable of displaying live charts of CloudWatch metrics from the Ticket Driver event ticketing system, with the ability to report on the system's performance. Used internally to monitor and manage the system. Proactively notifies us in a Slack channel when there are CloudWatch alerts from the system.
Store Driver
November 01, 2022
Serverless Angular app replacement for Venue Driver's legacy event ticket store, which previously ran on a Ruby on Rails app running on live servers that generated HTML on the fly.
Menu Driver
July 04, 2021
An emergency project aimed at elevating web restaurant menus to a high-availability service during the post-pandemic reopening phase, when touchless QR code menus became a mission-critical requirement for large restaurant groups. Menu Driver uses AWS Comprehend to make decisions about menu formatting based on analysis of the menu content.
Checkout Driver
April 30, 2021
Serverless upgrade for the mission-critical event ticket store checkout, making a transition from a traditional payment gateway to a tokenized system that eliminated all processing and storage of customer credit card information.
Integrations
Paytronix
March 15, 2022
Delivered a certified integration between Tao Group Hospitality's event ticket store with Paytronix to support new Tao Rewards loyalty program. Paytronix also certified another integration for gift card features for the Tao Group Rewards iOS and Andriod apps.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
October 17, 2018
Moved Hakkasan Group marketing automation from Marketo to Salesforce in an attempt at deeper integration. Honestly, it sucked. We should have stayed with Marketo.
Salesforce
April 30, 2018
Streamlined VIP table reservations for Hakkasan Group's global nightclubs by integrating Salesforce with their data warehouse and reservation system. This solution optimized the sales process, enhancing revenue management for high-value bookings in Las Vegas and international venues. The integration enabled real-time data flow, improving decision-making and customer service for premium clientele.
Marketo
July 08, 2014
Implemented Marketo integration for Hakkasan Group, activating meticulously designed customer journeys. This project enabled highly personalized marketing campaigns, improved targeting accuracy, and enhanced marketing efficiency. The result: streamlined operations, higher customer engagement, and increased revenue through data-driven marketing automation.