Hello! My name is Joseph Dunn, and I am a self-taught Full Stack Developer and Entrepreneur based in the United States. I have a passion for technology and a strong desire to help others succeed
Starting at six years old, playing a few video games, I have been immersed in the IT world ever since—dedicating most of my life to advancing my skills, learning from others, and teaching when the opportunity arises. To ensure I stay relevant in the ever-evolving tech world, I graduated from the Base Camp Coding Academy Graduate Institute in 2023. From Python terminal applications to building dynamic websites using Next.js, I have the experience and willingness to keep growing, which I am confident will make me an asset to any organization! Now I am starting my very own company, VersaNexus, where I am focused on helping small businesses and entrepreneurs build their online presence and manage their operations with ease.
At VersaNexus, I have been focused on developing solutions that empower small businesses and entrepreneurs. I am passionate about building customized websites and user-friendly software that make it easy for anyone to manage, operate, and promote their businesses. I believe in the mission of VersaNexus—to provide accessible, tailored technology that helps people launch and grow their companies with confidence.
As a developer at Ragnarok Gaming, I am responsible for maintaining our database, patching and fixing bugs in active servers, and building or setting up new game servers as needed. I custom-built an application to monitor and manage our community communication server (Discord), ensuring smooth operations for our community of over 9,000 users. My work involves using a variety of languages and frameworks, including TypeScript, Lua, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, React (TypeScript), and Vite, to keep our systems running efficiently and reliably.
When I first started at Base Camp, I did not know what to expect. We had a decent-sized class and started with a meet and greet. I was nervous as I did not know anyone and was not good at talking about myself at that time. Later in the year, we started our first group projects, and I was excited to work with people who had the same drive as I did. We created a simple but fun project based on an old sea shanty song. As the year went on, we got into tougher code and logic-based programming, which I enjoyed. We learned several new languages and frameworks, and the teachers gave us challenges that were fun to figure out. At the end of the year, we were assigned a project to build a website for a real client. My group was assigned to create a mobile app—the first time this had happened in Base Camp history. The app included voice control, calendar events, notes, and user accounts. We accomplished all of this while learning React, React Native, phone emulators, and several smaller programs required to build a mobile app. I am very grateful to my teachers and the BCCA board for putting together this program!
My interest in programming never wavered. In high school, I took a class in information technology. My freshman year was a solo class, and the teacher taught us many basics, like what an HDMI cord is and some terminology. In my sophomore year, we learned more advanced topics such as how to take a computer apart safely, how to assemble a computer from scratch, and how to fully reset the BIOS on a PC. We also went on business shadows, including a visit to UMMC hospital, where we met the director, saw their servers, and learned how to create a Cat6 cable. My junior year was a double class, so we had more time for hands-on learning. We traveled to contests at colleges, met IT teachers, asked questions, and toured campuses. I am very glad that my time in high school was so filled with technology!
Ever since I was 8 years old, I have been on the PC. I started out on an old XP computer playing a few basic video games. When I got a little older, about 10, I got my first laptop from a family member. This gave me the ability to start experimenting with my new favorite thing, Microsoft Excel. At first, I built very basic programs that mostly kept score of games my family would play. Then my family was invited to join a drawdown—a group of people who would pay $100 for a numbered ticket from 1 to 255. We would draw numbers until the last one, and they would get some of the money. I took it upon myself to merge Excel and PowerPoint together and made an automated board so I could type in a number and it would display that number and save the previous numbers so we knew what had been called. That was my first project used by others, and it was a lot of fun to build and use. That is what got me interested in learning more about building advanced programs.