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David Do
👋 About me

Engineer, RBT, and still learning.

I grew up in tech the practical way: ten years building the systems people in Hawaiʻi use to apply for benefits and assistance. It taught me that software is only as good as the day it makes for the person using it.

Now I’m a Registered Behavior Technician studying behavior analysis at Florida Tech and working toward national certification. I still write code every day, just for a different group of people: the trainees, students, BCBAs, and families in ABA, and my neighbors across the islands.

Illustrated portrait of David Do📍 Honolulu

Currently building

ABA Mastery

See all my work →
🧭 The pivot

Why I stepped away from full-time software

After ten years as an engineer, three things pushed me out of full-time software, and one thing pulled me somewhere new.

  • 1

    I'd stopped loving the work

    Somewhere in those ten years, building became something I did, not something I loved. The work mattered, but I rarely chose it. Decisions came down through layers of approval, and I built features for people I never got to meet.

  • 2

    AI got good at writing code

    Tools I use every day can now produce in minutes what used to take a junior developer a week. I'm not against it. I build with AI, and ABA Mastery's tutor runs on it. But it means companies need fewer engineers than they used to.

  • 3

    The work can happen anywhere

    Software can be written from anywhere, and more companies hire overseas teams for a fraction of what it costs to live in Hawaiʻi. There are great engineers all over the world. Competing with them on price from Honolulu isn't a race I want to run.

  • 4

    Some work only a person can do

    No model or remote contractor can sit with a client in the room, or coach a parent through a hard week. Behavior analysis is human, local, growing, and it matters.

I didn’t quit tech. I changed where I point it.
My day job is working directly with clients and families. My engineering now goes into problems I find myself: in the field I work in, on the islands I live on, and in my own life. I build what I think needs to exist, not whatever lands on a backlog, and not code that anyone, or anything, could write. I talk to the people who have the problem, and I ship when it’s ready. The spark came back.

How I got here

  1. Now

    RBT, and behavior analysis student at Florida Tech

    Working as a Registered Behavior Technician while I study behavior analysis and work toward national certification, and building the ABA suite for the road I'm on.

  2. 2026

    Created ABA Mastery

    BCBA exam prep I built while studying for the exam myself. It now has hundreds of users and a lot of thankful students.

  3. 2026

    Launched Pacific Watch

    A free hazard dashboard for Hawaiʻi, now on the App Store. Paid for by me and by people who chip in.

  4. 2025

    Built Summon3D

    A 3D printing SaaS that worked great and taught me to solve my users' real problem first.

  5. 2016 to 2025

    Tech lead, eWorld Enterprise Solutions

    Built and led teams on State of Hawaiʻi systems, including HANA (Hawaii Automated Network of Assistance) and BES (Benefit Eligibility System), serving thousands of residents.

  6. 2013 to 2016

    Computer Science, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

    Software engineering, web, and game development. My team's game took third place in our class competition.

My toolbox

Frontend

  • React
  • Next.js
  • TypeScript
  • Vue
  • Tailwind

Backend

  • Node.js
  • Hono
  • Java
  • Spring Boot

Data

  • PostgreSQL
  • Supabase
  • Redis
  • Oracle

Mobile & more

  • Capacitor
  • Stripe
  • Anthropic API
  • Docker