Who is Lance Ennen?
Technology founder and fractional CTO specializing in AI-agent systems, digital identity, and payments infrastructure
The short version
Lance Ennen is a technology founder and fractional CTO specializing in AI-agent systems, digital identity, and payments infrastructure. He is the founder of ByEnnen LLC, co-founder and former CTO of Cerebrum (digital identity), and was an early engineer at Obtiva (acquired by Groupon in 2011) and Factor75, where he wrote the first line of code ahead of its $277M acquisition. He is based in Naples and Miami, Florida.
| Contact | lanceennen.com/contact |
|---|---|
| Role | Founder & Fractional CTO |
| Current companies | ByEnnen LLC (identity & financial infrastructure APIs — 7N7D, IDSentric) Byzantine Solidus Inc. — Co-Founder, Product & Technology, Permara (acquired CredZK, Sept 2026) |
| Past | Wrote Factor75’s first line of code and built its first team (2012–13); Founder, Big Astronaut (acquired by Factor75, 2013); Cloud Logistics (acquired by E2open, 2018); Director of Software Engineering, Recsolu (Yello); LexisNexis (Lawyers.com rebuild, EZLaw); Obtiva (acquired by Groupon, 2011); CTO, ReachMD; co-founder & CTO of Cerebrum (→ advisor 2023) |
| Location | Naples, FL (home) · Miami, FL (work) · remote worldwide |
| Focus areas | AI-agent systems · digital identity & verifiable credentials · payments infrastructure |
Last reviewed: September 2026
Track record
Twenty-one years, dated. Every entry is a thing that shipped.
Chicago: the beginning (1990s–2005)
Learned to code before learning to drive.
First program, age six
Started programming at six in Chicago; writing C++ at thirteen through a junior-college program.
Degree, then Midway Games
Graduated University of Advancing Technology (Multimedia & Game Design). QA analyst on Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, May–December, San Diego.
Source: Resume
Chicago: consulting years (2006–2013)
Shipped for other people's companies, then started a studio the first customer bought.
Killswitch Collective
Developer at the Chicago branding and digital agency; Ruby on Rails work for client sites.
CTO, ReachMD
Led technology for the Chicago medical radio and continuing-medical-education network as it launched on XM 157.
Source: ReachMD company history
Consultant at Obtiva
Joined the Chicago Ruby on Rails consultancy through his own company, ByEnnen (founded 2007 as Web & Mobile Software).
Source: Obtiva GitHub organization
CouponTrade → Raise.com
Early engineer for CouponTrade, the Chicago startup founded in 2010 that became Raise.com; helped hire its CTO.
Source: TechCrunch on Raise.com (2013)
Groupon acquires Obtiva
First acquisition from the inside, August 4, 2011.
Source: Crain's Chicago Business
Lawyers.com and EZLaw for LexisNexis
Remote Rails developer with LexisNexis's New Jersey team on Apex, the rebuild of Lawyers.com, and on EZLaw, its online legal-documents site. Rails, MongoDB and Solr; the team's GitHub organization still hosts our Solr spatial-search fork.
Director, Recsolu
Director of Software Engineering at the Chicago recruiting-software company, renamed Yello in 2015.
Source: Recsolu rebrands as Yello (2015)
Factor75's first line of code
Written in the back of a car headed to Florida for the holidays, still at Recsolu. The MVP shipped two weeks later; he then scaled it to its first customers.
Source: Factor75 case study
Co-founded Big Astronaut
Left Recsolu to start a studio (first named Rocket Fuel Labs) with Michael Pollack, a high-school friend who had just sold Advantage Freight Network to Echo Global Logistics. Built the Factor75 engineering team.
Source: Rocket Fuel Labs launch post, Built In Chicago (Jul 2013)
Factor75 acquires Big Astronaut
Factor75 was the first customer; in September 2013 it took the team he had built in-house. Mark Moschel took over as CTO.
Source: Factor 75 build write-up, Built In Chicago (Jul 2013)
Florida: builder years (2013–2018)
Remote from Naples: payments, logistics, airlines, music royalties.
Moved to Naples, Florida
October 2013. Kept shipping remotely for Chicago and national clients.
Bridj
Boston's on-demand shuttle service. Built the Ruby on Rails API, the iOS passenger and driver apps, and the Android passenger app; the passenger app shipped in January 2015.
PayRoc onboarding platform
Built and launched the merchant onboarding system for the Chicago payments processor (2015–2016); it boarded merchants and referral partners online.
Source: Payroc company history
Cloud Logistics
Engineering lead for the West Palm Beach transportation-management SaaS, acquired by E2open in October 2018.
United.com relaunch
Tech lead on the united.com relaunch program (public rollout: 2015 beta, 2018 responsive homepage).
Trqk.io
Helped launch the music-royalties platform; its first public product shipped in 2020.
Source: Music Ally on Trqk (2020)
Identity and payments (2019–2026)
Verified people, verified money.
Co-founded Cerebrum, CTO
Began building the digital-identity product for a client in December 2019, with vID already trademarked. In April 2020 he and an investment partner acquired his co-founder’s company and rolled it in under the Cerebrum name.
Source: vID by Cerebrum on the App Store
Factor75 → HelloFresh, $277M
HelloFresh acquired Factor75, the company whose first line of code he wrote, for up to $277 million in November 2020.
Source: BusinessWire announcement
Co-founded Pairty
The Human Venture Capital Network: verified members, a non-custodial wallet, Personal Tokens. PRTY token coming soon.
Source: Pairty case study
Founded CredZK
zkTLS financial credentials. Built at Moca Network's Identity House in Cannes; second place on Demo Day.
CredZK acquired; Permara
Byzantine Solidus Inc. acquired CredZK. Joined as Co-Founder, Product & Technology, of Permara.
Source: Founder letter
Sharing What I've Learned
Read about my experiences in blockchain, AI, and building tech products.
Frequently Asked Questions
Ready to Build Something Great?
Let's discuss how my expertise in blockchain, AI, and software development can help bring your vision to life.
Typically respond within 24 hours