About VivianOps

A family company, built on purpose.

Joel and Michael grew up two blocks apart. Vivian Street was the Kansas City cul-de-sac where all the neighborhood kids played — including them. Years later Joel’s son Zander grew up knowing Michael as family, and when the three of them decided to start a company together, Vivian was the obvious name. We weren’t looking to build a company with strangers we’d have to learn to trust. We were looking to build one with the people we already trusted — the way small Midwest businesses have always been built: with people who answer the phone, show up when it matters, and stake their names on the work.

How we work

Plainly. And with handshakes that hold.

We work the way small Midwest shops have always worked. Fixed prices before the work starts. Timestamped logs so you know what we did. Plain-English writeups without the acronym soup. If something isn’t worth doing, we’ll tell you that too — we’d rather right-size an engagement than ship one that wasn’t worth the money.

See what we build

The founders

Three people. Three roles. One shop.

We built this together from day one — complementary roles, one shared standard, and one person accountable for the final call on everything that matters: Joel.

Joel

Founder, Lead Developer & Lead Security Architect

Joel is the technical foundation of VivianOps. Holding CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701) and Network+ certifications along with Microsoft’s Azure AZ-900 and a Python full-stack development certification, he brings both the credentials and the hands-on experience to back them up. He spent years in IT support at a Kansas City-area fiber internet provider, troubleshooting complex network issues, writing Python and PowerShell automation, and working alongside field technicians across rural multi-site deployments. He left to build VivianOps full-time.

At VivianOps, Joel leads product development, IT architecture, and infrastructure. He designed and built the company’s internal AI agent platform, applying a full threat model using MITRE ATT&CK and NIST frameworks, identifying and mitigating AI-specific attack vectors including prompt injection, memory poisoning, WebSocket origin bypass, and Unicode spoofing in approval prompts. That disciplined engineering approach isn’t bolted on after the fact — it is part of how VivianOps builds dependable software and IT systems.

He maintains a home enterprise lab built to professional standards — VLAN-segmented networking, a self-hosted SIEM for log ingestion and threat detection, DNS-level filtering, and a dedicated firewall for traffic control and network boundary enforcement. The AI agent platform runs in its own isolated network segment with strict outbound-only access. This isn’t a hobby setup — it’s a working security environment he uses to stay sharp and test real techniques.

Beyond the lab, Joel actively pursues offensive security skills through TryHackMe — working the SOC, Web Fundamentals, and Jr. Penetration Tester paths, completing CTF rooms in network exploitation and privilege escalation — and maintains an active HackerOne bug bounty hunter account working through real-world vulnerability disclosure programs. He completed the intensive Centriq IT Career Training cybersecurity program in Kansas City and holds a Python full-stack development certification.

When Joel says VivianOps owns its own infrastructure and never sells your data, it’s not a marketing line. He built it, secured it, and threat-modeled it himself. That’s who’s running this company.

Day to day he builds: GovGopher’s crawling and extraction pipeline, Tenderloin’s backend and mobile app, and every client project the company ships. Python, FastAPI, PostgreSQL, React Native, and the infrastructure underneath all of it.

Michael

Co-Founder, COO | Finance & Administration

Michael brings the operational backbone to VivianOps. With a background in finance, HR, and systems operations at a regional gas company — where he handles everything from emergency support to ticketing and process management — he knows what it takes to keep an organization running when things get complicated. At VivianOps he keeps the business side in order — tracking the books and monthly reconciliations, handling HR and payroll setup, coordinating insurance and legal paperwork with outside counsel, and taking outbound sales calls when the schedule allows. He is the reason the operational work gets done while Joel builds.

Joel and Michael have been best friends for nearly four decades. When Joel decided to build something real, Michael was the one he called. Currently navigating life with a newborn at home while contributing remotely, Michael brings focused intensity to every hour he puts in — proof that the right person doesn’t need unlimited time to make a meaningful impact.

Zander

Junior Developer & IT Department

Zander has loved computers since he was young, always more interested in how systems work than in just using them. He took every computing and technology class his high school offered and has been building practical skills ever since. He’s already doing real IT work inside a real company.

At VivianOps, Zander manages device setup, network infrastructure, internal tooling, and system automation for the founding team. He worked alongside Joel building out the company’s home enterprise lab, learning server management, network segmentation, and storage configuration through hands-on real-world work. He writes automation that makes VivianOps’s internal workflows faster and more efficient, and he’s learning Python and cybersecurity concepts in the same environment where they’re actually being applied.

Zander is Joel’s son, born and raised in the Kansas City area. He isn’t an intern or a helper. He runs real infrastructure, ships real work, and proves it every day.

He runs the company’s data operations — building and maintaining the pipelines behind GovGopher, which tracks tens of thousands of government agencies and the solicitations they publish. He handles search optimization, manages the company’s machines and systems, and writes production code alongside Joel.