John Damask / amroja-biz
Classification: John Damask / amroja-biz is an individual technology executive, software engineer, AI specialist, and solo builder—not a standalone company. His stated focus is using AI and digital technologies to build software products, help organizations adopt AI, and provide fractional/virtual technology leadership through Amroja LLC. Sources: https://johndamask.com/about/ and https://amroja.com/about
At a Glance
- Software engineers and developers using AI coding agents
- Organizations seeking AI adoption and governance
- Private businesses needing fractional technology leadership
- Biotechnology and life-science organizations needing cloud, data, and software capabilities
- +1 more
AI Tools by John Damask / amroja-biz
(1)
Rocky Surf
Cloud VMs for AI Coding Agents
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Rocky Surf initial public release on GitHub under the MIT License
Products & Services
Open-source MIT-licensed productivity tool for software engineers. It runs locally and creates/manages Linux VMs in the user's AWS, Azure, GCP, or Hetzner account, pre-installs AI coding-agent harnesses and GitHub repositories, and exposes both a local web app and MCP server. Sources: https://www.rockysurf.com/ and https://github.com/amroja-biz/rockysurf
A product for explaining scientific articles; the Amroja products page links to nowigetit.us and labels it paid. Source: https://amroja.com/products
A tool that takes a URL and returns a company briefing document; the Amroja products page labels it free. Source: https://amroja.com/products
Open-source MCP server providing read-only access to the Cursor IDE database. Source: https://amroja.com/products
Market Position
John's products emphasize fast, AI-assisted building and a local-first, bring-your-own-cloud model. Rocky Surf differentiates itself from hosted developer environments by running on the user's computer, using the user's cloud accounts and credentials, and stating that it has no SaaS, telemetry, or phoning home; it also combines a GUI, CLI-oriented installation, and MCP access. Sources: https://www.rockysurf.com/ and https://github.com/amroja-biz/rockysurf
Leadership
Founders
John Damask
Technology executive, software engineer, and AI specialist with 25+ years building systems, teams, and departments. He was a founding member of Flagship Pioneering's technology organization, established its Digital Science department, and previously spent more than a decade at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, culminating as Global Head of Cloud. Source: https://johndamask.com/about/
Founding Story
John says he quit his job and started Amroja because AI changed how he lives and works after ChatGPT launched in November 2022. He describes the initial vision as shrinking the time required to bring ideas into the world, while helping like-minded organizations lead AI-driven change. Source: https://amroja.com/about
Business Model
Revenue Model
The personal venture combines fractional/virtual technology leadership and custom software/AI-adoption services with software products. Rocky Surf is open source and explicitly says the user pays only the user's own cloud and coding-agent costs; Amroja's product catalog includes free, open-source, and paid products. Sources: https://amroja.com/services, https://amroja.com/products, https://www.rockysurf.com/
Target Markets
- Software engineers and developers using AI coding agents
- Organizations seeking AI adoption and governance
- Private businesses needing fractional technology leadership
- Biotechnology and life-science organizations needing cloud, data, and software capabilities
- Users of scientific research and knowledge-management tools
- Giving AI coding agents dedicated cloud Linux machines instead of running them on a developer's laptop
- Managing agent-enabled development servers across multiple cloud providers
- Installing and reusing bundles of coding agents and tools
- Providing MCP access so local agents can manage development servers
- Conversational access to software, research, and financial data through MCP servers
- Scientific-article explanation and AI-assisted knowledge work