The people behind
complicated commerce.

Justin PorterFounder & Chief Solutions Architect Justin is the Founder of Text Connects and is certified as a Shopify Development Expert. His interest in computers began in high school when he founded the company to serve a hungry market of small businesses with less than ten employees and a list of computer issues.Today, 22 years later, Justin has been involved in the building, deployment or replatforming of more than 100 e-commerce sites for startups and recognized brands, as well as custom application development and systems integration for more than 60 organizations, from “mom and pop” to enterprise-level. He graduated from Daniel Webster College with a degree in Aviation Flight Operations. His studies led him to appreciate the importance of safety and risk mitigation that carryover in his work today. It also earned him what amounts to a second major in computer science, courtesy of his computer-science-major roommates.As a Pilot-in-Command, Second-in-Command, and flight instructor, Justin has nearly 10,000 hours in the cockpits of single-engine, multi-engine, and turbojet aircraft. Operations Team Madison (Maddie) TrottProject Manager Maddie “raced” into Text Connects in August 2020 to support our team in managing the dozens of individual projects we are working on at any one time. As a committed chef and baker, Maddie knows how to follow the proper steps in managing any project, as well as when to confidently modify a “recipe.” Certified as an Administrative Assistant, she knows how to manage her time and priorities well. She is also skilled, as many well-trained Admins are, in “managing up.” A prized skill on our very busy team. She truly did earn her spot at the company by racing. When not in the office or snuggling her eccentric Shih Tzu and Siamese you’ll find Maddie at the track fabricating and welding Street Stock racing car frames with her NASCAR-driver boyfriend. On any project with Maddie our motto is “do not mess with a woman holding a hot welding torch!” Kristen BennettAdministrative & Human Resources Assistant Kristen joined Text Connects in 2017 after a career managing medical offices. She is “client-facing” with a smile and helps our clients with data entry and production for their e-commerce stores.An organizational wizard, it’s Kristen that polishes our reputation for keeping projects (and our people!) buttoned-down. An accomplished master-multitasker, she also runs point on billing and invoicing.Kristen will tell you she loves her “small town country life” in Eastern Connecticut where she was born and raised, graduating from Woodstock Academy. Married and a mother of two “boys” (grown men, really), Kristen is devoted to one particular aspect of life in her small town, NASCAR short track racing.Weekend nights will find her at local races with her eyes on a certain Chevy Monte Carlo. Behind the wheel is her championship-winning son Zack with her other son, Cameron, a crew member specializing in a race car’s soul, tires. Both are part of the family’s ZR Motorsports team.Maybe it’s watching the “bump ‘n banging” of short track racing (imagine three-dozen-plus cars trying to pass each other on a half-mile oval!) that enables her to keep her eyes on so many spinning plates at Text Connects. Whatever it is, she loves the work and the team, as well as traveling to client offices, all while managing those spinning plates. Development Team Ethan TuttleFront-End Engineer Ethan joined Text Connects in March of 2022. On arrival, we were going to nickname him “Tuttle from Tulsa,” his birthplace, but withdrew that when we learned his nickname for many years has been “Turtle.” Done. We can’t beat that. Tasked with the design, creation, and modification of Shopify stores, Ethan is a kind of puzzle master and loves the daily challenges of the pieces and parts he gets to work with as a front-end developer. He learned to code in C++ in high school, took college courses in computer science and has since adopted C# as his favorite language. He says it’s less “strict.” than C++. [Editor’s note: What evs!] Ethan migrated to Sacramento, the Gold Rush capital of the world, at an early age and works remotely for Text Connects from there. There indeed might be a “turtlish” quality to Ethan. He freely shares that he is a hiker, a devoted gamer, and has been working on his own games steadily for more than five years (he says the games he has created map his own growth as a developer).. Still, you might have to coax him out of his “shell” to find out that he once ran a small team at Google developing a tool for sales agents involved with Google Nest. The pair of Google Glass he keeps in his home office? He earned those. Tristan FrazierFull Stack Developer “YOLO!” This is the mantra you’ll hear from Tristan daily. “You Only Live Once” is her watchword and encouragement to herself and others in a very wide variety of situations, from menu choices to outlandish vacation ideas. She joined Text Connects in March of 2022 as a paid Web Development Intern. Already self-taught in HTML and CSS, she completed “MIT’s Professional Certificate in Coding” (a full-stack development course) during her work as an Intern. Three months later, she was promoted to Entry Level Web Developer. In October of 2023 she advanced to Full Stack Developer. Tristan works remotely, well, because she can’t seem to stay put! Married to her high school sweetheart, a “Coastie” (Coast Guardsman), she has moved so much she has trigger memories of bubble wrap and artwork that remains in boxes. Home for Tristan is wherever their boxes land. Until the next Yolo! adventure calls! A devoted dog mom, Tristan’s latest furry bundle of love is Sadie, a Micro Golden Doodle who is one part poodle, three parts doodle and, according to Tristan, is 100% crazy with many less-than-ten-pounds leaps so high she looks like a gazelle of the Serengeti. Though the memory is still debated by our interview team, Tristan sang (!) during her job interview. Not an actual song, more of a techy scatting of “beeps” and “boops” and other electronic sounds while she absorbed the coding assignment for her live coding skills test. Which she aced. Tristan is variously described as bubbly, funny or sunny. A proud member of the “50 under 40” club (visited all 50 states before turning 40), Tristan has doubled down and added international travel to her itinerary. She takes this seriously. By October of 2025, she had visited 22 foreign countries. YOLO! Marc TrojanowskiMid-Level Developer Marc joined Text Connects in May of 2025, bringing with him a rhythm all his own—fitting for someone who once spun tracks as a DJ and producer, touring venues across the country before discovering his true “groove” in code. Born in Hartford and raised in Rocky Hill, Marc’s journey has taken him from North Carolina to New Jersey and back to Connecticut, now calling Bristol home. As a self-taught developer, Marc’s passion for learning is the driving force behind his work. He started teaching himself Python in 2020, quickly moving on to master HTML, CSS, and JavaScript—his favorite language for its flexibility and creative potential. (Fun fact: he was already building websites in high school, long before it became his career.) Marc thrives on the ever-changing landscape of web development, relishing the challenge of picking up new skills and technologies. Before joining us, he spent years as an IT Support Technician, but making the leap to web development is the accomplishment he’s most proud of—a true testament to his drive and curiosity. Off the clock (okay, we don’t really have clocks around), Marc is a dedicated dad to his six-year-old son (his biggest source of pride), a basketball enthusiast, gamer, and the caretaker of a small black cat who supervises his late-night coding sessions. In sum, it’s just coding, parenting, and living life, one line at a time, always ready for the next new adventure. Design Team Lilly SayeGraphic Designer Lilly joined us in the summer of 2026 to tackle “all things visual.” She helps clients with design projects and Text Connects to elevate our graphics for marketing, social media, and overall branding efforts. Like a gumbo of her native North Louisiana, she’s a little of this/that: accomplished art director, social media guru-ess, package/retail display pro, insightful branding strategist, straight-A student at Louisiana Tech University (back in the day), as well as toddler mom of the “most perfect babygirl in the world.” That quote is the only time you’ll hear Lilly boast. She loves her job. If you ask her for specifics, she’ll say learning about new industries (every day!) and working with our clients to help their visions come to life. Lilly is now a Houstonian, having followed her high school sweetheart husband to his new legal job. Some of us call her “sophisticated” for her design sensibilities, but she’s also full of whimsy. To wit: insistence on referring to her Dachshund as a “cuddlebuddy long boy,” and she lists a favorite pastime is giggling with her daughter. You might catch her searching for a new hole-in-the-wall restaurant, but just as likely helping the team to find the perfect phrase for our next social post.

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The people behind
complicated commerce.

Justin Porter

Madison Trott

Kristen Bennett

Ethan Tuttle

Tristan Frazier

Marc Trojanowski

Serge

Lilly Saye

Serious about the work.
Still a little scrappy.

Serious about the work. Still a little scrappy.

Serious about the work.
Still a little scrappy.