Michael Kumm

Senior Software Engineer
Krakow, PL & Detroit, MI

I'm a senior software engineer specializing in Elixir, Phoenix, and functional programming. I like building systems that are elegant under pressure—recently that's meant LiveView interfaces, AI automation tooling, and diving deep into Kafka and event streaming. I've also been expanding into C# and finding that good ideas travel well across languages.

Outside of work I build things for the fun of it. I care about software that respects users—ad-free, privacy-first, and as close to free as possible. Sprytna.com is a hub for my current projects; the latest is AnyOneWillDo, a randomizer with a twist. I also make retro games in PICO-8 and spend a perhaps unreasonable amount of time in Neovim.

Lately I've been drawn back to fundamentals—parsers, protocols, event sourcing, low-level systems—even building a computer from virtual chips. The deeper you go, the more interesting it gets.

Away from the keyboard I split my time between Krakow and Michigan, walk a lot, take photos, and am slowly (very slowly) learning Polish. I have a soft spot for cask ales and a long-standing fascination with probability and games of chance.

My Blog is mostly technical—things like First Hops With RabbitMQ and When a Hobby Project Breaks. Shorts is more casual— great affogato in Krakow, experiments on building Grit. My Now Page, inspired by Derek Sivers the now page movement, is a snapshot of what I'm currently focused on.

If any of this resonates—Elixir, event streaming, building privacy-first tools, expat life in Krakow, cask ales—drop me a line at hello@mkumm.com.

All photos on this site are my own, available under a Creative Commons license. DM me on Twitter or Instagram for full-resolution versions.