AI-Accelerated MVP
Move from unresolved opportunity to a functioning product without creating months of unnecessary process.
Founder · Product Builder · Fractional CTO
Turn difficult ideas into working systems.
I identify practical gaps, learn the whole problem, and build the system needed to solve it — combining decades of product experience with modern software engineering and agentic AI.
Founder-built products
Working businesses, not hypothetical case studies.
Cool Cat Games
Original phone-first entertainment for hospitality venues and events.
Visit project →Bartenderz International
Automated hospitality training and operating documents.
Visit project →RecoverNode
Guarded recovery for self-hosted Linux services.
Visit project →Rhythmhoüz
A purpose-built professional network for the music industry.
Visit project →How I work
More than another advisor.
Platforms & Web Services
Scalable architecture and implementation for real products, including deployment and operational thinking.
Fractional CTO
Strategy, leadership and hands-on delivery for founders and teams that need judgment as well as execution.
A Founder's Operating Counterpart
More than another advisor.
Some founders need a senior counterpart.
Someone who can understand the vision, challenge assumptions, translate direction into daily operating decisions, and take ownership of execution.
I work at that boundary—close enough to the product and technology to make decisions, senior enough to establish standards and guide teams, and hands-on enough to remove the blockers that prevent plans from becoming working systems.
Complementary leadership
The strongest relationship resembles a near-peer partnership: complementary strengths, candid communication, and enough mutual respect that either person could comfortably report to the other if the roles were reversed.
That allows the founder to concentrate on the work only the founder can do while a trusted operating counterpart converts the vision into priorities, decisions, and dependable execution.
“Across each phase of my career, I have followed the same pattern: identify a practical gap, learn every part of the problem, and build the system needed to solve it.”
— Barton Anderson
Work
Selected platforms, game systems, and branded experiences.
Engineered under real deadlines, commercial constraints, and complex operating requirements.
EA Sports (NASCAR) — 3D “Locker” skin preview, approval + upload workflow
What it enabled: players could understand, preview, approve, and upload a 3D skin into the EA Locker for in-game use.
What I owned: end-to-end UI/UX + engineering, upload pipeline, and graphics-file manipulation to meet in-game requirements.
Constraint: first-of-its-kind system with a hard 6-month delivery window.
Stack: ActionScript; custom 3D display interface built by me plus common 3D interface integration.
Leadership: EA had no established web practice at the time. I authored their first internal web development guide to standardize the lifecycle from analysis through release, along with QA planning and technical documentation.
Outcome: shipped with the title — a working pipeline that let players race custom skins against others.
EA Sports (NCAA Football) — “Create-a-Team” prototype
What it enabled: users could create a full team experience — team, school, players and more — via the web, then play against others in game.
Timeline: four months to prototype and hand off to another team for completion.
What I owned: product flow, UX and engineering implementation.
Stack: ActionScript.
Outcome: shipped with the title. The concept established a pattern later used across other EA console titles.
Kizzang — rapid mobile game delivery + leadership through change
Goal: deliver a mobile game on aggressive timelines while also acting as a multiplier for the team.
Collaboration: partnered tightly with the graphics team, CTO and CEO to keep scope, quality and deadlines aligned.
Leadership: helped stabilize delivery and team momentum when the CTO departed.
Outcome: shipped and profitable, with improved delivery discipline and team synergy under pressure.
Rhythmhoüz — a purpose-built professional network for the music industry
The opportunity: general social networks did not reflect the interconnected professional ecosystem behind recorded music, live performance, touring, promotion, production, education, manufacturing, and music-industry services.
What I created: a full-stack platform connecting professionals, artists and bands, venues, studios, labels, promoters, manufacturers, music schools, merchants, charities, and other industry participants.
Platform capabilities: role-specific profiles, artist and band pages, electronic press kits, media management, professional connections, opportunity listings, messaging, search and discovery, metrics, administration, subscriptions, and controlled profile visibility.
Engineering context: I hand-coded and engineered the platform in 2020, before modern AI coding agents became part of my development workflow.
Outcome: a working multi-role industry platform translating a complicated professional ecosystem into a cohesive product.
M&M's / Mars — branded application reskin
Goal: reskin the NASCAR 3D application I created in ActionScript to reflect M&M's campaign branding using provided assets.
Constraint: planned two-month schedule.
Delivery: completed in approximately one month without sacrificing polish or brand fidelity.
Outcome: accelerated launch readiness for the campaign with a clean, on-brand user experience.
Cool Cat Games — a strategic pivot from digital jukebox to original venue gaming
Origin: Cool Cat Games began as a digital jukebox intended to compete with established venue entertainment platforms. After analyzing the costs and restrictions of commercial music licensing, I chose not to force an unsustainable model.
The pivot: I redirected the platform toward interactive games for bars, restaurants, clubs and events, where there was greater creative flexibility and a more practical path to commercialization.
How it works: guests participate from their phones, venue televisions become part of the experience, and staff controls coordinate the room-wide game.
What I built: product strategy, game concepts, user experience, full-stack software, licensing controls, venue operations, and cloud-plus-local deployment workflows.
Development approach: agentic AI accelerates research, implementation, testing, debugging and documentation while I retain direct control over architecture, product judgment and production quality.
References
What people I've worked with have said.
“Barton was instrumental in developing and delivering integrated web-based / console videogame features for multiple premier EA Sports titles, something that had never been done before at the time.”
“He established best practices and guidelines for future web application development for Electronic Arts, Tiburon.”
“Barton always displayed a high degree of integrity, responsibility, and ambition. He owned a completely new system to our organization and helped tremendously in new business opportunities for us.”
“Barton is one of those top performers that can balance both the creative and schedule needs of a game or product and will go the extra mile to insure that the users of his software experience a clearly communicated and entertaining flow - he is a seasoned industry veteran, and it shows.”
“Barton has excellent interpersonal skills and can comminicate effectively with senior exectives, management, and staff.”
“His understanding of what it takes to start, build, and maintain a company are rare assets that can be a great benefit to any company.”
“Barton has a zeal for life I've seen amongst few people. Because of this, he is always looking to improve himself and learn new things.”
“His enthusiasm and drive is second to none.”
Media
Network and Viral Effects
A couple quick videos summarize my approach to growth, network effects, and product consulting.
This video provides a reference to understanding the laws that generate more users, more value, and more revenue, along with how Rhythmhoüz uses multiple network effects in its platform.
Watch Network and Viral Effects
Free PDF Download
Web Development Project Flow
A free overview of Web Development Project Flow and the steps needed to plan a successful development cycle.
I wrote this document some years ago. While some of the terminology may be different today, the underlying concepts remain the same.
I'd love to hear your thoughts about it.
Download the free PDFContact
You do not need a finished specification to begin.
Send a note describing the idea, persistent problem, or product that has lost momentum. Include a timeline or budget range only when you already know them.