Resume

Gunnar Johnson

Hardware & Systems Engineer · Sourcing & Procurement · Agentic AI Builder · Founder

Excelsior, MN (SW Twin Cities Metro) · Gunnar@TofteVenturesLLC.com · github.com/Gpatrickj7 · Open to remote and contract work

Professional summary

Hardware and systems engineer and founder of Tofte Ventures LLC. Work spans custom embedded hardware (Arduino and microcontroller systems), crypto-mining server farms, GPU compute clusters, drone systems, and outdoor tech products, alongside software: agentic AI workflow design, LLM tooling, and cloud deployment. Sources and procures what a project needs, new or secondhand, from hardware and components to equipment and inventory, and tests it before it goes into service. Studying computer science and hardware/embedded systems.

Technical competencies

Hardware & Embedded: Custom Arduino & microcontroller systems, circuit prototyping, sensor integration, embedded firmware, rig design & build, thermal & power management, hardware troubleshooting to component level
Sourcing & Procurement: Finding and buying what a job needs, new or secondhand: hardware, components, equipment, and inventory; pricing across eBay, Amazon, and Facebook Marketplace; testing, repair, and refurbishment before anything goes into service; vendor management; inventory and FBA logistics
Simulation & Game Physics: Physics engines and numerical integration (Verlet, RK4), movement and flight models held to outside references, three.js and WebGL scenes, browser games, and test suites that pin every result
Compute Infrastructure: Crypto-mining server farms (multi-GPU), ASIC deployment & tuning, GPU compute clusters, 24/7 distributed-systems operation, Tailscale mesh networking, remote management
Agentic AI & Software: Agentic AI workflow design & orchestration, LLM tooling & integration, prompt engineering, AI-assisted development, tool/API orchestration, automation pipelines
Robotics & Field Systems: Drone systems & operation, outdoor/field-deployed tech product design, ruggedized practical-use devices
Cloud & Web: Next.js / React, Vercel deployment, DNS & domain administration, Google Workspace, self-hosted services
Systems & OS: Linux & Windows administration, networking, deployment pipelines, systems architecture
3D / CAD & Fabrication: Blender, 3D modeling for print, rapid prototyping, hardware enclosure design
Business & Operations: P&L across multiple entities, e-commerce (Amazon FBA/Seller, PPC), contracts, invoicing systems, crew leadership

Experience

Founder & Chief Builder

Tofte Ventures LLC — Excelsior, MN 2022 – Present

Holding company for ventures in land restoration, e-commerce, compute and mining, and hardware R&D.
Built and run the technology across them: entity infrastructure, web, email, and automation.
Design and prototype outdoor tech products and custom embedded (Arduino) devices.
Built Tofte Simulators, an arcade of 41 browser simulators and games from the company's own physics engine. Every game made for it first is held to an outside reference (a ballistics solver, measured disc throws, Valve's Source SDK, GregTech's source), and 147 tests run on every build.

Founder & Owner

Liatris Landscaping — SW Twin Cities Metro 2020 – Present

Ecological landscaping and land restoration for HOAs, municipalities, watershed districts, and homeowners.
Wetland and shoreline restoration, invasive species management, and engineered retaining structures, signed off with civil engineering partners.
Bidding, P&L, and crew leadership.
Built the company's Next.js and Vercel site, with its own domain and email.

Founder & Systems Operator

Crypto Mining & Compute — Tofte Ventures 2021 – Present

Designed, built, and ran multi-GPU mining server farms for continuous operation: power delivery, cooling, and networking.
Sourced the whole fleet secondhand: GPUs and ASICs bought, repaired, tuned, and returned to service instead of bought new.
Configured and tuned ASIC hardware, mining pools, and self-custody wallets; managed the fleet remotely over a Tailscale mesh network.

Founder & E-Commerce Operator

Amazon Seller / Tofte E-Commerce 2021 – Present

Sourcing and resale across eBay, Amazon, and Facebook Marketplace: hardware, components, and equipment found, tested, priced across platforms, and held for the right buyer.
Amazon seller business run end to end: sourcing, inventory, FBA logistics, PPC advertising, and listing optimization.
Launched a sleep and wellness product line: procurement, fulfillment, and ad budgets.

Prior Experience

Grocery / Retail Operations Pre-2020

Retail operations.

Education

B.S., Computer Science (in progress)

Southern New Hampshire University — Online / Remote

Coursework in software engineering, systems, data structures, and computing theory.

Selected writing

A Trap That Caught CustomersOur spam trap was named company. Browsers autofill that from a saved contact card, so every visitor with an employer in their address book was silently thrown away, shown a success message, and never emailed. It ran that way for weeks.
A scraper that repairs itselfWatching a page is easy the first time. The hard part is the redesign three months later, and the fix is mostly about deciding when to spend a model call.
The Most Dangerous NumberFive things building our own portfolio terminal taught us, including one we got wrong in public and are correcting here. None of them are about what the app does.
A queue without a lockGuardian Bots moved from Postgres to MongoDB, which meant giving up SKIP LOCKED. What replaced it is smaller, and the test that proves it is the part worth copying.
Who Is Watching Your Data? The Case for a Federal Privacy StandardThe United States is the only major industrialized country without a national data privacy standard. What that gap costs ordinary people, and what a federal law would need to do.