Joe Britt

An engineer and entrepreneur now living in northern California, Joe Britt received a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering from NC State in 1991.

Prior to attending NC State, he graduated from the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM) in 1987.
From a young age, Joe was passionate about all things electronic. At NC State, he focused this passion on digital system design, microprocessor architecture, and VLSI design.

After graduating, Joe joined Apple Computer and moved to California, where he worked on the development of the first generation PowerPC Macintoshes. This work whet his appetite for building great consumer products that would positively impact the lives of millions of people.

He then was one of the first employees at a small startup called Catapult, which in the mid 1990s built a modem product called XBAND for the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo game consoles. XBAND added network play capabilities to existing popular games, and was the earliest system of its type.

After Catapult, Joe was the first employee of WebTV networks, where he built the operating system for one of the first internet-connected television set-top box platforms. Created in 1995, WebTV gave users access to the emerging World Wide Web from their existing TVs at a time when most homes did not have internet access. WebTV was acquired by Microsoft in 1997, where Joe was a Senior Engineer until the end of 1999.

In December 1999, Joe co-founded a company called Danger, Inc., which created a new consumer mobile phone platform most commonly known as the T-Mobile Sidekick. Launched in 2002, with its distinctive rotating screen, it became an icon of pop culture, frequently seen in movies, music videos, and TV shows. The Sidekick was the first smartphone to offer multitasking, HTML web browsing, email, instant messaging, an app store, and a flat-rate mobile data plan. Danger was acquired by Microsoft in 2008, where Joe worked as a Partner Engineer until 2010.

In 2010 Joe joined Google, where he was a Director of Engineering for Android, leading multiple advanced product explorations and development projects.

Joe left Google in 2014 to co-found Afero, with a mission to deliver enterprise-grade secure connectivity for devices too resource constrained to run a traditional operating system. Afero’s secure IoT platform powers connected consumer products from partners like The Home Depot.

Joe loves to invent, and holds over 100 US Patents.