1986
Mustang Software
I taught myself to program, wrote Wildcat! BBS from a bedroom in Bakersfield, and built a company around it. We took Mustang public, then watched the browser wipe out the BBS market and had to reinvent ourselves.
Jim Harrer
68. Retired from Microsoft. Still curious. Still building.
I stepped away from hands-on coding around 2001. AI made building fun again. Since retiring from Microsoft, I've created Atom Labs, LLC, a home for turning ideas into working software. There's still room for fitness, books, video, and whatever catches my curiosity next.
See what I'm playing with ↓The next chapter / Atom Labs, LLC
One guy. A crew of AI agents. Real software.
Since retiring, I created Atom Labs, LLC. There is no team, no office, and no investors. It is me, Lovable, Copilot, and Codex, shipping ideas I care about. A clearer view of the weather. An easier neighborhood potluck. Better ways to understand a complicated question. Different ideas, the same pleasure in making something useful.
Explore Atom LabsShipped so far / Public beta and early access
A few chapters
How I Got Here
The titles are less interesting than the pattern: learn something, make something, adapt when the world changes.
Creating Atom Labs after Microsoft is another chapter in that same story. New tools. New ideas. The same curiosity.
Jim + Debbie
BestHour
Fitness had been part of my life since I was a teenager. Debbie and I followed that thread into two kickboxing studios and a close-knit community. It was personal, demanding, and eventually acquired.
Two chapters
Microsoft
I joined Logic Apps in Public Preview and led a team that thought bigger, helping it become part of Azure Integration Services. I later returned to work on Visual Studio before retiring in July 2026.
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