Trip Dixon
  • Technology & Operations Leader
  • Driving Innovation in AI, Crypto, and Emerging Tech
  • Scaling Startups & Building High-Performing Teams
  • Increasing Revenue Through Sales, Engineering, Client Solutions, and Technical Account Management
About Me
I am a Technology and Operations Leader with over 20 years of experience in scaling high-growth startups, ensuring operational excellence, and leading cross-functional teams. With a proven track record in enterprise sales engineering, technical account management, and strategic advisory roles, I have worn many hats across both technical and business domains, demonstrating versatility and a deep understanding of diverse functions. I excel at managing client relationships and translating complex technologies for stakeholders. My career is distinguished by a strong entrepreneurial spirit, exceptional adaptability, and a steadfast commitment to integrity, accountability, and goodwill.
AI Enthusiast
I have always been on the cutting-edge of tech and recognize AI as perhaps the most disruptive innovation in human history. I have pivoted my career in this direction and currently focus my skill development on local LLM deployment, fine-tuning, RAG, prompt engineering, chatbot design, and agentic automation.
Crypto Hodler
Prior to the GenAI explosion, I recognized the transformative potential of crypto and fell hard down the cryptocurrency rabbit hole. I self-educated on both the technical and financial aspects, helped others understand and secure their assets, and secured a position at the premier crypto company, Circle, makers of USDC.
Hobbies
I gravitate towards intense activities. My top priority is getting to the gym 4/5 times per week and adhering to a healthy diet. I satisfy my love for nature through kayaking, both whitewater and lake paddling. Recently, I've explored ballroom dancing, marksmanship, and glass blowing. So much to do, so little time.
Passions
I love to travel, from day trips around Michigan to adventures throughout the world. I've explored 27 countries and have sailed around the globe. At home, I'm an avid DIY'er, building and fixing just about anything (with the help of AI and YouTube). I also enjoy public speaking, personal development and being of service to others whenever possible.
Philosophy
My personal philosophy is rooted in Stoicism, guided by its four virtues: wisdom, courage, justice, and temperance. I believe strongly in living with integrity, embracing personal responsibility, and fostering mutual respect, which are essential principles in shaping my relationships, both personally and professionally.
Family & Friends
My young daughter is the most important part of my life and unequivocally comes first. I value deep, meaningful friendships over having many acquaintances and I have a strong group of male friends that would do anything for each other. I'm fortunate to maintain close ties with my extended family, spending significant time with them whenever I can.
Portfolio Projects

1

This project automates the daily creation and posting of AI news summaries and educational AI content to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and a WordPress blog. By utilizing advanced technologies like Make.com, GPT-4o, and Dall-E 3, it autonomously generates and distributes text content and images with numerous optional steps for human guidance and approval. The goal is to produce high quality content with as little human assistance as possible, significantly increasing productivity and output volume.

2

This project integrates three distinct chatbots into the AI Knowledge Café website. These chatbots leverage the OpenAI Assistants API, GPT-4o, and a Pinecone vector database to provide domain-specific responses by retrieving and incorporating external data (i.e. Retrieval-Augmented Generation). Once set up, these chatbots autonomously engage with users, offering tailored and contextually relevant information. Click "View Here" below to experiment with the chatbot dedicated to my career.

3

AI is revolutionizing how code is created, boosting developer productivity and empowering 'non-coders' to build applications. Knowing how to leverage these AI tools is just as crucial as understanding code syntax. To demonstrate this, I developed simple web games like Snake, Tic-Tac-Toe, and Hangman using Claude's text-to-code capabilities. After generating the code, I refined and debugged it through prompts, then deployed the final versions on WordPress to render in the browser.

4

Private LLMs
LLM 1: I deployed a quantized Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct model on a dedicated Inference Endpoint on Hugging Face and built a chat interface on WordPress. I created a Make.com application to act as an HTTP proxy to securely send user queries to the LLM endpoint without exposing my Hugging Face API key in client-side code.
LLM 2: I deployed the same model on my local laptop using LM Studio, enabling the LLM to run fully offline with complete privacy. This setup allows the model to function without an internet connection, ensuring all data remains local and secure.
Career Progression

Today
Entrepreneur
Actively pursuing my next professional challenge while advancing my AI skillset through continuous learning and practical application by deploying local LLMs and fine-tuning. Continuing to add to the AI Knowledge Café functionality and growing the community.

Champagne Chocolates
Director of Operations
Orchestrated the successful business acquisition and implemented systems infrastructure for accounting, HR, POS, e-commerce, and TechOps. Developed an automated AI-driven social media platform.

Circle Internet Financial
Principal Solutions Engineer
Managed Fortune 500 technical partnerships, including client discovery, solution design, and joint project management. Served as the primary Sales Engineer and product SME for the novel 'crypto payments' vertical.

The Crypto Consulting Group
Cryptocurrency Consultant
Configured client's crypto exchange accounts, wallets, portfolio tracking, tax reporting and auditing. Advised on public/private key management, hot/cold storage, staking/delegating, Defi, NFTs, and crypto regulation.

Toshiba Business Solutions
Senior Solutions Engineer
Led pre-sales engineering and post-sales implementation for Toshiba's diverse set of business automation products. Conducted client discovery and the design, build, and launch of client's departmental workflows.

iDashboards
Director of Operations
Led the technical scale-up of a startup from 5 to 125 employees, overseeing multiple departments and creating foundational processes. Acted as strategic advisor to the CEO, reengineered the Marketing department, led numerous strategic projects, and recruited 25+ engineers.

LeanManagerPro.com
Founder
Part-time, started this LLC and developed a SaaS application for manufacturing, performing product management, UI/UX design, documentation and marketing. Outsourced development in an agile environment.

Experian QAS
Technical Services Manager
Managed a team of technical consultants and the day-to-day operations of the customer and internal support organization. Responded to RFPs, led software demos, and conducted over 100 solo implementation engagements.

Dixon Computer Services
Web Developer
Conducted sales, marketing, support, and project management for client web application and IT projects. Acted as lead developer and systems engineer maintaining client's corporate IT infrastructure.

Netrex
Network Engineer
Installed and maintained UNIX-based firewalls, taught TCP/IP and firewall concepts in several small classroom environments, and managed troubleshooting of customer Internet, network and firewall issues.
Endorsements
Trip is an accomplished and experienced technologist who understands how to make customers and partners successful. I hired him into the organization, and his professionalism was clear from the first interaction in the interview process.

During his time at Circle, Trip managed the technical aspects of pursuits and relationships with some of our largest and most strategic partners, he designed novel solutions that allowed us to expand our business into new markets, and his attention to detail assured me that every angle was covered in the work he produced.

Throughout a number of changes in our business and go-to-market model, Trip was adaptable and willing to learn the details of new industries and products in order to drive results.

If you are looking for someone you can trust to make an impact with technical stakeholders in your business, I highly recommend Trip.
Scott Mathison
VP, Global Client Solutions, Circle
Trip is one of the most dedicated, organized, and proficient managers I have ever had. Smaller companies are constantly changing. Trip has had the ability to change along with iDashboards. Starting off as the only technical person he grew the Technical Services team by implementing well thought out policies and procedures. When called upon he took over the role of Operations Manager that also included guiding the marketing team. Never giving up he organized the marketing team, worked to quantify the activities with the use of data, and used that knowledge to transform the sales, marketing, and technical operations. Always taking on big challenges Trip is able to break them down into smaller pieces and tackle them individually. Once the challenge is overcome he is able to communicate with the company the expectations of what the executive management team has determined. I highly recommend Trip.
Matt Gentry
Sr. Technical Services Manager, iDashboards
I had the opportunity to work with Trip for about two years. After not too long, Trip took over the direction of the marketing team, showing his ability to quickly adapt to a new environment and understand its challenges. As I was in charge of the marketing activities in the UK, I reported to Trip directly. Thanks to his managerial expertise and problem-solving attitude, Trip was key in the successful implementation of our marketing activities overseas. It was a great pleasure working with Trip throughout.
Silvia Giardini
Events & Marketing Executive, iDashboards
Trip is one of the best people I have worked with in my career both professionally and personally. He has the rare mix of interpersonal skills, technical skills, organizational, and consulting skills. He is a great leader and manager but the thing that I am most impressed with about Trip is his willingness to do whatever it takes to get the job done. Trip started with iDashboards at a time when we just needed a solid professional consultant. He subsequently built the consulting and professional services team from the ground up to scale with our company's growth from start up to small growing business. It has truly been a pleasure working with Trip for the past 5+ years and I am sure we would not be where we are today without him.
Dave Ferguson
Director of Channel Sales, iDashboards
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