Charlie Van Norman

Hi, I'm Charlie.
I build and sell technology people love.

Founder and software engineer. 15+ years across enterprise systems, VR training, 3D edtech games, and AI platforms.

See my projects Email me
  • Full Stack Engineer
  • Growth Hacker
  • Product Designer
+ ½ × 7

Projects

Games, VR training, science exhibits, and AI platforms I've designed and built.

20 projects

StarCoach AI

Interim CTO 2025-2026

An AI Powered Math Assessment Platform

What I did

An AI Powered Math Assessment Platform with district pilots, built on a multi-agent content and evaluation pipeline.

  • Application architecture
  • AI integration
  • Multi-agent pipeline: content extraction, question generation, synthetic student agents, evaluator and validator/critic agents
  • Agent orchestration layer routing tasks to agents and evaluation criteria, decoupled from business logic
  • Led a team of 3; interviewed, hired, and trained 2 engineers
  • LLM agents
  • Agent orchestration
  • Web platform
  • Express.js
  • React
Visit StarCoach AI

MathBreakers

Founder 2013-2017

3D math adventure game for Mac, PC, and iOS with a linear storyline for arithmetic, number line, and fractions.

What I did
  • Game design and development
  • Classroom playtesting
  • Shark Tank 1st Prize, 2013
  • Unity3D
  • C#
  • python
  • Mac
  • PC
  • iOS
Visit MathBreakers

VR Enterprise Training

Co-founder 2018 Q2 Vantage Point VR

Harassment training app with virtual cell phone and branching narrative for Oculus Rift.

What I did
  • Virtual cell phone interface
  • Branching narrative system
  • Oculus Rift
Visit VR Enterprise Training

Military Training

Lead Developer 2019

Virtual Air Strike simulator including weather control and several interactive military equipment pieces.

What I did
  • Weather control system
  • Interactive military equipment
  • Unity3D
  • C#
  • Vive VR
Visit Military Training

Remote Control Robot

Developer 2017 Q4

Remote control industrial robot which can make toast, pour drinks, and pick junkyard metals.

What I did
  • Remote control interface
  • Task programming: toast, drink pouring, junkyard metal picking
  • Industrial robotics
  • video streaming
  • Vive controller interface
  • C++ ROS/Rosbridge (WebSocket/JSON)
  • ROS#

Molecular Machines

Developer 2018 Q1

Animated showcase including a modular catalyst synthesizer, controlled molecule flow, and energy storage.

What I did
  • Modular catalyst synthesizer
  • Controlled molecule flow
  • Energy storage animation
  • Procedural 3D animation
  • Unity3D
Visit Molecular Machines

Cellular Anatomy

Developer

An immersive exploration of an animal cell with labeled organelles and structures.

What I did
  • Immersive cell environment
  • Labeled organelles and structures
  • VR

Mouse Brain Explorer

Developer 2015 Exploratorium

Immersive tour through a mouse brain with simulated Clopidogrel administration. Exploratorium exhibit 2015.

What I did
  • Immersive brain tour
  • Simulated Clopidogrel administration
  • Public museum exhibit
  • Unity3D
  • C#
  • Xbox Controller
  • VR
Visit Mouse Brain Explorer

Space Frog VR

Developer 2018 Q1 - Q4

Published (Steam) Boxing / Dodging game that engages the player in motion throughout the full body as they rescue the Frog Princess.

What I did
  • Full-body boxing and dodging mechanics
  • Frog Princess rescue narrative
  • Unity3D
  • C#
  • VR
Visit Space Frog VR

MathBreakers Relaunch

Founder & Technical Lead 2026 Manaborn Studios LLC

Browser-based 3D math game for grades 3-8, rebuilt in PlayCanvas with accounts, classrooms, and billing.

What I did
  • 3D scene editor with transform gizmos and room editor
  • Procedural mesh system with 25+ primitive types
  • Portal rendering, cinematic director and cutscene runtime
  • NavAgent AI, conveyor systems, terrain-aligned path meshes
  • Ammo.js physics memory management, Mixamo animation layering, Vite ES6 migration
  • Shared JWT auth across mathbreakers.com and game.mathbreakers.com
  • Stripe checkout, GA4, Resend email campaigns, admin analytics dashboard
  • Hired, trained, and manages a team of 4
  • PlayCanvas
  • Node.js
  • Express
  • MongoDB
  • Ammo.js
  • Vite
  • Stripe
  • DigitalOcean
Visit MathBreakers Relaunch

VR Retail Data & Research

Software Engineer 2019 InContext Solutions

Unity VR retail training platform.

What I did
  • Feature development as an individual contributor on an 8-person engineering team
  • Unity
  • C#
  • VR
Visit VR Retail Data & Research

Admirals of Adaris Multiplayer

Developer, Game Designer 2019

A multiplayer VR experience where you build and control a fleet of ships in space.

  • VR
  • Multiplayer
Visit Admirals of Adaris Multiplayer

Gamified AR Mapping

Consultant, Designer, Programmer 2018 Q3

PlaceNote SDK extension with prefabs that guide users toward optimal AR mapping behaviors.

What I did

PlaceNote is a platform for AR developers, many of whom need prefabs and techniques to get started for guiding the end user to optimal mapping behaviors. I wrote an extension to the PlaceNote SDK that includes prefabs for developers to help them achieve this.

  • PlaceNote SDK
  • AR
Visit Gamified AR Mapping

Magic Hands

Consultant, Designer, Programmer

Prototype gesture recognition spellcasting game with portals between worlds and hand-gesture spell casting.

What I did

Using Vive and Leap Motion, I built a prototype game that lets you portal between worlds, and recognizes hand gestures for casting magic spells.

  • HTC Vive
  • Oculus
  • Leap Motion

Village Builder

Developer, Designer 2017

A LightLodges.com production for communal coherence, village building and sustainable communities.

What I did

A LightLodges.com production for communal coherence, village building and sustainable communities. Precursor to a live Mixed Reality gameshow coming 2018

Space Archer VR

Developer/Designer 2017

An action game for Vive/Oculus

What I did

Fly around in 3D space and shoot drones and space-men with your bow and arrow.

  • HTC Vive
  • Oculus

Fitness Cube VR

2017

An exercise game for Vive/Oculus

What I did

Cubes fly at you, and you smash them with your fists! Duck and dodge to prevent losing health.

  • HTC Vive
  • Oculus

Startup Grid (Hactus)

Founder 2012

A search-and-filter website for exploring the startup landscape.

What I did

One of my first solo projects, a search-and-filter website for exploring the startup landscape and searching for new opportunities. The startup data is scraped from CrunchBase. The original vision was to provide startups a go-to resource for funding, incubators, and other opportunities.

Code Hero

Game Developer 2011

A 3D game to learn coding by editing the world around you in real time using a javascript laser.

What I did

Designed and shipped the full game prototype, leading to a $160k successful KickStarter campaign.

  • Unity3D
Visit Code Hero

Fractal Games

Founder 2010 - 2011

An iOS game development studio that published Bank Defense and Santa's Last Stand to iOS.

What I did

I led a small team of developers and artists to design and publish two titles, "Santa's Last Stand" and "Bank Defense" for iOS.

  • Game design & programming
  • Hired and managed art team
  • Unity3D
  • javascript
  • iOS

Experience

Founding, building, and selling across enterprise software, games, and AI.

  1. Founder & Technical LeadManaborn Studios LLC

    2026 - present

    Relaunching MathBreakers as a browser-based 3D math platform for grades 3-8. Full-stack development, DevOps, and go-to-market. Manages a team of 4.

  2. Interim CTOStarCoach AI

    Sep 2025 - Feb 2026

    Built an AI-powered math assessment platform with district pilots. Led a team of 3.

  3. Solutions ConsultantSoftServe

    Pre-sales and solutions engineering for SMB and Fortune 500 enterprise clients.

  4. Software EngineerInContext Solutions

    2019

    Unity VR retail training platform on an 8-person engineering team.

  5. Interim CTOVantage Point VR

    Immersive VR workplace training.

  6. Interim CTOHavik VR

    Immersive technology venture.

  7. FounderMathBreakers

    2013 - 2017

    3D math adventure game for Mac, PC, and iOS. Shark Tank 1st Prize, 2013.

Skills

I'm comfortable wearing multiple hats.

Sales and Leadership

  • Hiring and team leadership
  • Marketing
  • Metrics-driven growth
  • Enterprise pre-sales
  • MEDDPICC
  • District sales

Full-Stack Programming

  • JavaScript (ES6)
  • Node.js
  • Express
  • EJS
  • MongoDB
  • Vite
  • JWT auth
  • Stripe

AI

  • Agentic Workflows
  • Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)
  • Multi-agent pipelines
  • Agent orchestration
  • Evaluator and critic agents
  • AI/ML architecture

Cloud and ops

  • DigitalOcean
  • AWS (SAA-C03 in progress)
  • GA4
  • Resend
  • SOC 2 client work

XR and 3D

  • Unity3D
  • Unreal Engine
  • PlayCanvas
  • ARKit
  • Oculus / Meta
  • Magic Leap
  • Ammo.js physics
  • Mixamo animation
  • Procedural meshes

About

I started builing educational software in 2010 with Code Hero, a game that reprograms itself while you play. Since then I've published 5 titles including MathBreakers, Santa's Last Stand, Bank Defense, SpaceFrogVR, and NumberSpark. As a co-founder, I've helped bring startups to funding or major growth events including StarCoach AI, VantagePoint, Havik, Humon Automation, and Primer Labs.

Between ventures, I've written music, traveled abroad, lived in Chile and Thailand, taught English in China, and started a retreat center in Puerto Rico.

Today I'm producing MathBreakers 2, a browser-based 3D platform for grades 3-8 with a built-in user generated content platform. Check it out here.

Education
B.S. Business, Cal Poly Pomona
Patents
U.S. 11,488,490, immersive VR training
Languages
English, Spanish, some Mandarin
Based in
Austin, Texas

Writing

Essays on technology, business, and more.

Want to build something awesome? Let's talk.

Open to founding, sales, and engineering roles.

Email Charlie