I help computers keep information neat so they can do smart things that don't break.
Pine Marten is John Houghton's own company. John has helped big companies like Meta, Apple, Kaiser Permanente and Intuit with their information for ten years. He builds helpers that sort information, count it, and think with it — and some smart helpers that stay inside your building so your secrets stay safe.
How I can help
Data engineering
I build pipes that carry information to one big tidy box, check that it's right, and show your team how to take care of it.
dbtDagsterDuckDBSQLAI engineering
I build chatty computer helpers that do real jobs, test them to make sure they're good, and give them safety rules from the start.
LLMsagentsevalsLocal & private AI
Smart computer helpers that can listen, see and talk, living on your own computer so your information never goes outside.
on-premSTT/TTSvisionAnalytics & decision support
I count things, try tests, and make easy charts so the bosses get answers to their real questions.
metricsexperimentationAsynchronous quantum cryptography systems
Your secrets are both safe and not safe at the same time, until you look. I will get back to you about which. Eventually.
post-quantumpre-revenueidempotent decoherenceSmall team, lots of practice, I do the work
Assess
First I look at your information and what you want, then I write down a plan of what to do first.
Build
I build with your tools, a little bit at a time, and check and explain each piece.
Hand off
I leave instructions and teach your team, so they can keep building without me.
Hi, I'm John.
My job is taking messy information and making it neat and trustworthy. Most recently I helped teams at Meta called FAIR and Reality Labs, and before that Apple Maps, Kaiser Permanente and Intuit. I studied economics, so I care about the choices people make with the information.
I build computer systems for information and AI in San Diego. I studied economics and I love to build things. You can hire me to help, or for a full-time job.
Things I made
SD Open Data Pipeline
It takes San Diego's free city information, tidies it up, and figures out which neighborhood area each thing belongs to — and checks itself every time.
DagsterdbtDuckDB spatialCIsd-open-data-pipeline
LLM Dataset Curation
It cleans up the reading material for AI: removes copies, throws out junk and mean words, hides private details, and makes a report card.
LLMsdata qualityllm-dataset-curation
Vision Lab · Local AI Showcase
A computer that watches through cameras and talks with you, all inside one Mac — it remembers what happens, checks its work, and hides private things.
on-devicevisionvoicevision-lab
Finance Wizard
A money helper app where a computer helper does the work, with fun charts to try "what if" ideas.
FastAPIReactagentsfinance-wizard-demo
Personal Finance Lake
A home computer box that collects bank info, labels each purchase, and checks that everything adds up every night.
DuckDBdbtlaunchdfinance-lake-demo
Multi-Agent Assistant
A team of computer helpers that look things up, plan your day, take notes and check for safety — and they always ask a person before sending anything.
agentsorchestrationmulti-agent-assistant
Distributed Multimedia ETL Pipeline
It sorts through lots and lots of pictures using many computers at once, throws out copies and look-alikes, makes the files smaller, and keeps them neatly organized.
SparkDelta LakeAirflowDistributed-Multimedia-ETL-Pipeline
Multi-Provider LangChain
A website where you can pick which AI brain to talk to, by typing, drawing, or talking out loud.
LangChainFastAPIvoicemulti-provider-langchain
Places I've worked
Education & training
B.A. Economics
San Diego State University, 2011
Machine Learning Specialization
University of Washington, 2017
Data Mining Certificate
UC San Diego Extension, 2017
Outside the terminal
Local-first and private AI, economics and markets, endurance sports, and rare books.
Do you have an information puzzle?
Write me a little note about what you're doing. I'll write back by the next work day.