I'm Mike Elliott, a software engineer and consciousness researcher in Salt Lake City. For over 15 years I led engineering teams and departments. Now I work where that experience intersects with the academic study of psychedelics and consciousness.
I build things for people and help people build things. I've collaborated with dozens of people and companies across many industries on everything from database design to application development and user interfaces, along with organization and technical strategy. I've designed curriculums and taught classes for coding bootcamps, online courses, and universities.
Now I work in the psychedelic space with folks like Josie Kins, Psymposia, and Psychedelia-Stiftung. For Psymposia that means moving their tech stack to open-source, encrypted infrastructure; you can also find me on their podcast. I help psychedelic organizations get their technology right: product engineering, security, and regulatory compliance and data privacy across the United States, Canada, and Europe, including GDPR. That practice comes from years of shipping software in regulated industries. I take on a few engagements a year. Email me at [email protected] if you're building something.
A research database of 21,000+ peer-reviewed articles on psychedelics, meditation, dreaming, and consciousness exploration, summarized and categorized, with community forums for researchers, practitioners, and explorers. A nonprofit: impact over profit, by design. I run all of it: product engineering, operations, outreach.
MA, Psychedelics & Consciousness StudiesUniversity of Ottawa, graduating July 2026
Fieldwork with Yage (Ayahuasca) near Sasaima, Colombia. Practicum with Psychedelia-Stiftung in Germany. My focus is psychedelic critical theory.
Before that
Director of Engineering, ezCater
Led the Product Growth & Demand engineering orgs behind the leading food-for-work marketplace: ecommerce, mobile apps, ML-powered recommendations.
Director of Engineering, Dutchie
Grew an engineering department to 60 engineers across 10 teams through 3 funding rounds and 2 acquisitions, building point-of-sale, payments, and ecommerce for cannabis dispensaries with compliance and security as a core focus.
Software Engineering Manager, Nav
Managed the client platform, mobile native, and web teams for the leading small-business financial health platform.
Software Development Lead, Overstock.com
Led an R&D team of 10 and built the mobile ecommerce site and global checkout serving 50 million users and $500MM+ in yearly revenue.
Earlier
Lead web developer at 4Life Research and web developer at Image Tech Solutions, building product sites in Rails and JavaScript.
Education
MA in Psychedelics & Consciousness Studies, University of Ottawa (2026). BA in Psychology, University of Utah (2012). The curiosity is the same.