Welcome to Angelo Mandato’s official website.
Angelo Mandato’s quick bio
Angelo Mandato is an entrepreneur, thought leader, innovator, software developer, and software architect from Columbus, Ohio. Angelo is a cofounder and owner of Blubrry Podcasting – a podcast hosting services company. From 2005-2022 he was the company’s Chief Information Officer. Angelo was elected as chair of the podcast measurement group of the ADM (Association of Downloadable Media) where he oversaw the creation of of first podcast measurement standards and later participated in the IAB Podcast Technical Working Group to create IAB Podcast Measurement Guidelines.
Angelo is a cofounder of Recharge Suites, a startup providing short term home rentals on AirBNB, and founder of Painless Analytics, simple web analytics for tech entrepreneurs.
Angelo is available for hire as a software developer, architect, mentor, and technology thought leader.
Angelo Mandato’s career history
Angelo started his career in 2000 as a Software Developer and was quickly promoted to software developer analyst where his role allowed him to mentor other software developers and architect software applications. In 2005 Angelo co-founded Blubrry podcasting, where he held nearly every IT role during his tenure as CIO. In the 17 years at Blubrry Angelo watched the company grow from a $250 investment to a multi-million dollar software as a services business. During his tenure he gained experience working with and hiring software developers, server administrators, support staff, graphic designers, user experience professionals, office assistants, and marketing personnel as well as gained valuable experience working with other vendors and creating partnerships with similarly aligned businesses and competitors.
In April of 2022 Angelo and his wife Heather launched Recharge Suites, a short term rental business on AirBNB. This unique startup provides short term home rentals in the northern Columbus, Ohio.
In 2023 Angelo launched Painless Analytics, simple web analytics for tech entrepreneurs.
Public Speaking
Angelo has presented on various topics over the years ranging from Podcast Publishing, Podcast Analytics, WordPress, PHP, Amazon Web Services, NodeJS, and more! Please see the Angelo’s Public Speaking page for more information.
Education
Angelo graduated in 2000 with a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science from Kent State University. He has attended an endless number of workshops, technical conferences, and meetups and has a number of certifications. Relevant training includes Dale Carnegie Leadership Training for Managers and Scrum Alliance training for Certified Scrum Product Owner. Certifications include SCRUM Product Owner, AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner, and AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate.
Angelo exercises his mind constantly by listening to podcasts, watching videos, attending tech meetups, and reading books, blogs, and online documents on technology, software development, entrepreneurship, and project management.
Family
Angelo is happily married to Heather and have 2 children in Central Ohio. Heather is Angelo’s soul mate, best friend and is quoted by Angelo as the “greatest woman in the world”. in 2011 Angelo decided to stop posting about his family on social media. Angelo keeps his personal life out of his public life when possible.
Angelo’s Hobbies and Interests
Music
Angelo’s favorite song is The Rain Song by Led Zeppelin and his favorite band is The Beatles. During the 80’s Angelo gravitated to classic rock and oldies music and during his later teenage years in the early 90’s he fell in love with grunge, modern rock, and techno music.
Food and Cooking
Angelo loves food! Breaking bread with family, friends and colleagues to Angelo is considered a sacred and meaningful experience to share with others. He loves specific restaurants, and greatly appreciates food from family and friends.
Angelo loves to cook. Grilling staples include burgers, hotdogs, brats, steaks, chicken, and asparagus. He loves family traditional classics including oven baked breaded chicken, spaghetti and meatballs, and lasagna. Sometimes he learns how to cook things simply to find out how it is made, like potato chips, Nashville hot chicken, or funnel cakes. Angelo loves his desserts as well – he owns a professional milk shake mixer for making custom milkshakes and loves to make Italian Pizzelle’s from the passed down family Pizzelle iron over an open flame.
Toys and pop culture
Angelo love’s his retro toys and pop culture! GI Joe, green army men, Lionel trains, and Lego’s, are in his DNA. The A-team, Night Rider, Starwars, Smokey and the Bandit, The 5th Element, and The Big Lebowski are some of his favorite TV shows and movies. Sometimes you can catch Angelo say things like “roger that”, “ten four”, or “The Dude abides”. As he says, “It’s about who controls the information.”, a Sneakers movie quote – it really is about the information, crazy!!!
Home improvement
Angelo loves to take on home improvements. Angelo’s home improvement experience includes roofing, framing, wiring, drywall, plumbing, flooring, and carpentry. He has had experience working on just about every room in a home and outdoor projects including sheds, decks, and fences.
Angelo studied drafting his junior and senior years of high school where he learned both mechanical engineering drawing, architecture, and home construction. He has had the opportunity to learn from family and friends various home improvement skills. Angelo considers home improvement work as a therapeutic hobby. His knowledge and experience has given him excellent skills when working with contractors and overseeing the completion of home improvement projects.
Passion for Cars
Angelo is big car nut. If you know him, you already know his favorite car is the Pontiac Trans Am from the movie Smokey and the Bandit. His interest with cars does not stop there. Angelo has a specific passion for Pontiac and Honda automobiles and loves to get his hands dirty modifying and repairing cars as a hobby.
To learn more about Angelo’s car enthusiasm and hobby, check out his Mods and Rods website where he blogs about cars and the modifications he does to his cars including his 1981 Trans Am.
As far as classic cars are concerned, Angelo has a great appreciation for everything Pontiac. The 1973 Trans Am Super Duty is, in his opinion, one of the most overlooked muscle cars of its time. He also likes the last 3 years of the 1970’s GTO’s, including the “The Judge” models, and the 1989 Turbo Trans Am 3.8L V6 Pace Car. Non Pontiac’s include the 80’s Buick Grand National and Chevy El Camino. Anything branded with the Carroll “Shelby” logo has his utmost respect.
Angelo likes exotic cars as well, though as an spectator. Exotic cars on his mind include the Lamborghini Countach, Lamborghini Diablo, Ferrari 308/328, and the Vector W8.
2000 Civic Coupe
His passion for cars would have ended with classics if it wasn’t for his first Honda Civic. His experience owning a 2000 Civic, a small fun to drive and easy to tune car, ignited his passion for compact cars.
2007 Civic Si Sedan
In 2007 Angelo acquired a Honda Civic Si Sedan. Angelo has been quoted “this was the best all around car I have ever owned”. Some of the important performance features included a 197 HP DOHC 4 cylinder engine with a 7,7000 rpm redline (horsepower nearly matches displacement), 6 speed manual transmission, sport tuned suspension, 2-tiered dashboard, and all wheel disk brakes. Angelo regretfully sold the Si in 2013.
1981 (78 Tribute) Trans Am
In 2010 Angelo purchased a 1981 Turbo Trans Am project car that started a 10+ year restoration project. The original 301 cubic inch turbocharged engine was replaced with a rebuilt 1978 Pontiac 400 V8 by DCI Motorsports. This only scratches the surface of modifications Angelo has made to this car! Over the years Angelo has replaced or upgraded nearly everything including the automatic with a brand new 6 speed manual Tremec Magnum, FiTech EFI fuel injection, and more. The car was painted in 2017 with House of Kolor’s JetSet black by DCI Motorsports.
2011 Honda Odyssey
In 2013 Angelo purchased a 2011 Honda Odyssey mini van. It is a family vehicle that seats 8 comfortably and occasionally functions as a truck.
2000 Trans Am
In 2018 Angelo acquired a 2000 Trans Am. Visually he did not change much, but underneath Angelo made a few improvements to modernize this fun to drive modern muscle car. Improvements included a MGW short throw shifter, Strano lowering springs to provide a light 1′ drop, Koni shocks, Borla cat-back exhaust system with an electric cutout to adjust the exhaust note from inside the car, and a Sony Android Auto / Apple Carplay receiver. Angelo regretfully sold the 2000 Trans Am in Spring of 2024.
2024 Integra Type-S
In Spring of 2024 Angelo acquired an Acura Integra Type-S. He absolutely loves this car, referring to it now as “the best all around car I have owned, better than the 2007 Si”. Though Angelo has no immediate plans to modify the performance, he has made some small modifications including an Italian leather wrapped center console cover, titanium shift knob, and purchased a 2nd set of wheels with tires for winter driving.
Angelo Working on Cars
Angelo will occasionally blog about the modifications and repairs to cars on his Mods and Rods TV blog.
Ohio Route 1
Learn from Angelo’s research and history about Ohio’s route 1.