Hey, I'm David Barbarisi.
I have a BSBA in Information Systems and spent about 15 years working as a software engineer before shifting into consulting with entrepreneurs in the natural health and freedom space.
I've always been a tech nerd. Grew up in front of screens, building websites, writing code. Tech problems that feel overwhelming to most people feel like puzzles to me.
My goal is to help you think through your tech setup so you can get back to the actual work you're wanting to do.
How did I get here?
I was given a diagnosis when I was born. Pycnodysostosis, a supposed "rare genetic disorder" according to the doctors. Short stature, brittle bones, a skull that never fully closed, 12 fingers and 12 toes. (They're gone now.) Bones said to be "too dense" to absorb impact, so they'd just snap instead. First grade, I tripped in the yard and broke my leg. I broke my leg every other year or so after that. Getting out of the shower. My sister jumping on my back for a piggyback ride. I also broke each collarbone.
The doctors kept finding things wrong and doing things about it. I kept not feeling any different. By the time I was 18, I'd stopped going to them. Can't find problems if you don't look for them, right?
What followed was about a decade of being very good at work and not much else. Software engineering job in DC, high-functioning depression, bad diet, and a drinking habit I'd dressed up as a social life. Eventually some health practitioners helped me cover "the basics" of getting my health together. I went outside, changed my diet, did some mindset work. Within a year the metrics improved, I'd lost about 40 pounds, and I tapered off the antidepressant I'd been on for nearly a decade.
I remember describing it as the world getting brighter.
That sent me down a long road. Functional medicine, biohacking, Weston Price, a lot of rabbit holes, and eventually the Terrain Paradigm. A framework for thinking about health that sees symptoms as adaptation rather than malfunction, and the body as intelligent rather than broken. Given where I started, it was a more honest account of what was really happening in my life.
BTW, I have lots of opinions about health and plenty of other topics based on my extensive rabbit hole research over the years. Including my thoughts on "genetics" and "mental health." Ask me about that when you have some hours of free time.
So what does this have to do with tech???
In 2019 I was a software engineer at a B2B media company. The business served the pharmaceutical, healthcare, food, and other super profitable mainstream industries. The people I worked with were excited about new drugs and processed food-like products.
Meanwhile I was improving my quality of life by doing the opposite of all those things. I was spending my evenings learning about regenerative agriculture and Terrain Medicine.
The misalignment got harder to ignore. The 2020 times made it even more impossible-er. I'm sure it got way more obvious for a lot of us.
So I left the job at the end of 2022 and started over. Set aside the things that I needed to and got ready for the new things. I moved back to my hometown and started working with entrepreneurs in the natural health and freedom spaces, the kinds of people I'd been meeting at events for years.
I was seeing a pattern. I love seeing patterns.
Motivated people, ready to shift into more aligned and meaningful work by creating new solutions in food, health, education, and other cool solutions. They were getting blocked on the tech side. Not because they weren't capable. Because there was too much going on and no clear way to think about the tech stuff. Too many platforms, too many opinions, too much noise. Not to mention their own personal blocks and stuff they needed to deal with. Don't even get me started on that...
They also have some unique tech concerns that general business tech advice doesn't always cover. Privacy concerns, payment processors that don't love their industry, platforms that aren't fans of what they have to say. The specific considerations that come with building things that disrupt the mainstream ways.
I'd been having these kinds of conversations and giving out free advice informally for years. Over DMs, on calls, in passing. The pattern was consistent enough that it seemed worth making into something.
So here we are. I built the thing I was doing informally, for you. Tech Clarity is a weekly space where entrepreneurs in the natural health and freedom space can bring their tech questions and get answers.
I provide practical guidance, blending my experience with technology with my experience outside the mainstream systems.
Since it's in a group setting, it's way more affordable than my 1:1 options and you can learn from others' experiences. Plus we meet for weekly calls so you're getting ongoing help.
I also do 1:1 consulting if you need more hands-on help. We can work through specific problems, build out scrappy setups, or you can just bring me a question before it turns into a crisis.
If you're building something in this space and tech keeps getting in the way, that's the problem I work on.
"He translated tech how-to's so that your brain goes, 'Oh, now I get it!'"
David is the bomb when it comes to tech decoding, hand-holding, and getting those dreaded tasks done and dusted for the non-techies in the world like me. He translates tech “how-to's” so that your brain goes, “Oh, now I get it!” and then he either walks you through what needs to happen next or does it for you. He's a godsend!
— Melissa Almon, Cowgirl Copy Studio
Some fun facts about me.
- As a kid I'd rollerblade around the house listening to the Aladdin soundtrack on my Walkman.
- I love music video games. I've spent obscene amounts of money on DDR and Rock Band DLC. I don't play a real instrument.
- I used to write in a group blog called killkaraoke. It was not about karaoke.
- I walk on the beach most days. It's the least techy thing I do and probably why I can stand in front of a screen the rest of the time.
Free replay
Want to see how this works before committing to anything?
Watch the free Business Tech Office Hour replay. Entrepreneurs brought their tech questions and I attempted to answer them.
This is a great way to see whether my help is useful for where you're at.