Growing Up With the Internet
I often joke that I didn't choose a career in technology—I grew up alongside it.
My first exposure to computers came in elementary school during the late ’80s. Apple IIs, Commodores, floppy disks, Oregon Trail, and computer labs where most kids couldn’t wait for class to end. I was the opposite. I wanted to know how everything worked.
In 1993 I got my first home computer, a Gateway running Windows from floppy disks with a blazing-fast 14.4k modem. AOL was my gateway to the internet, but it didn’t take long before I discovered IRC—and that’s where everything changed.
IRC introduced me to people building bots, writing scripts, running FTP servers, experimenting with networks, and creating things that seemed impossible to me at the time. Instead of wondering how they did it, I started teaching myself. C and C++, Bash, Visual Basic, Perl, Tcl, HTML, CSS—whatever I needed to learn to build the next idea that interested me.
One of my first real projects was an IRC bot written primarily in C. It moderated channels, responded to keywords with jokes or helpful information, welcomed new members, and automated the day-to-day work of running my EFnet community. Before long it was being used in a handful of other channels as well.
Looking back, I wasn’t just learning to write software.
I was learning how technology could help people connect.
That lesson shaped everything that came afterward.
Long before “community management” became an actual profession, I was building communities online. In the late ’90s I founded The Dreamers Society, one of AOL’s largest poetry communities, across multiple chat rooms and one of my first websites. On IRC I built and moderated channels. In the early 2000s I helped grow and moderate NextelNoobs, one of the largest vBulletin communities for mobile phone enthusiasts. Since then I’ve built, managed, or moderated communities across nearly every major platform the internet has produced—from forums and social networks to gaming communities and Discord.
I’ve always been just as interested in hardware as software. During the early 2000s I owned an electronics repair and console modification business, repairing mobile phones and Nextel devices while modifying everything from the original PlayStation to the Xbox. Eventually smartphones became increasingly disposable and console security became much harder to bypass, so I closed that chapter and moved on. It was another reminder that technology never stands still—and neither should the people working in it.
As the web became mainstream, I found myself helping businesses embrace it—early on that meant NYC nightlife venues like Limelight, Tunnel, and Palladium, fast-timeline, high-stakes work with clients who wanted results yesterday. Many of my other clients knew they needed a website or an online presence but weren’t sure why or where to begin. They didn’t want to hire a developer, an SEO specialist, a marketer, and a social media manager separately—they wanted someone who understood how all the pieces fit together. I enjoyed translating technology into plain English and building digital systems that helped businesses stay ahead instead of playing catch-up.
Somewhere in there I also went back for two degrees—a B.S. in Computer Science and a B.S. in International Business—proof on paper to go with everything I’d already taught myself. That eventually led me to become Chief Technology Officer at Modern Creations, where I helped transform a traditional advertising agency into a digital-first business. Over the next eight years I led projects for brands including Showtime, the MTV Video Music Awards, Coca-Cola Japan, SIRIUS, and dozens of others, building everything from websites and applications to digital marketing strategies and technical infrastructure. Around the same time I founded Feed Me Pixels, growing it into a gaming community of more than 500,000 followers, partnering with publishers, distributing over a million game keys, and helping creators grow their audiences.
From 2018 through 2024 I came full circle when I began working with Discord. Building communities had always been something I loved, and now it had become my career. I designed, managed, and moderated communities for organizations including the Chicago Bulls, Sacramento Kings, MTV, DEF CON, Wyclef Jean, and many others. To me, successful communities aren’t built through moderation alone—they’re built through thoughtful systems, automation, clear documentation, strong leadership, and creating spaces where people genuinely want to participate.
Today I run TonyBytes LLC, where I combine more than three decades of experience across software engineering, AI, automation, cybersecurity, digital marketing, and community strategy.
What excites me most today is where technology is headed next.
I’ve watched online communities evolve from AOL chat rooms and IRC to forums, social media, and now live community platforms like Discord. I believe we’re entering another major shift as AI and intelligent agents become part of how communities are built, managed, and experienced. Those are the problems I’m most interested in solving—building tools that strengthen communities rather than replace the people who make them special.
When I’m not working, you’ll probably find me spending time with my wife, playing video games, watching anime, repairing electronics, building retro arcade machines, or adding another piece of nostalgia to my collection—retro games, trading cards, comics, books, LEGO, Funko Pops, and vintage technology.
More than thirty years after I wrote my first lines of code, the reason I still love this industry hasn’t changed.
I enjoy learning.
I enjoy solving problems.
And I enjoy building things that bring people together.