High Performance Database Consulting

Hi! I’m Charlie Rubin. I run a boutique consulting firm specializing in complex database problems. I design databases, build databases, fix databases, and create elegant tools to help you figure out what all the data means.
Services
Database Architecture
PERFORMANCE TUNING
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
DATABASE-INTENSIVE WEBSITES
Fast flexible data grids optimized for large datasets
Find Out How Catskill Data Can Take Your Database To The Next Level
TOOLS











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Started MIT at 16; Degree in MIS
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Over 30 years' experience
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Consultant & Entrepreneur
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SQL Server Expert
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Build cloud data warehouses
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Create ad-hoc teams as needed
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Full resume on request
About Me
I was born and raised in the Hudson Valley in upstate New York, near the beautiful Catskill Mountains. I wrote my first computer program when I was 13, and was soon taking local college classes and tutoring college students in software. I was pretty nerdy and managed to finish high school and get into MIT when I was 16. My degree focused on Management Information Systems.
After college I built a commercial voice-response product in C/Unix with its own high-level programming language and sold it to clients around the country. It was my first entrepreneurial venture.
I then worked at Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street firms for many years doing various kinds of database consulting, usually with Microsoft SQL Server. Among many projects during this time, I supported the bond trading desk at Bank of America, optimizing their database code by orders of magnitude.
For six years I worked as the Senior Database Architect for White Mountains Re, a $7 billion international reinsurance firm. I developed catastrophe modeling and portfolio optimization tools that were critical for running their business.
I then attempted a social welfare project of my own design – I started building ShareTell.net, a meta-IVR system to act as an alternative to the Internet for people in the third world. It was a good idea, but smartphones proliferated faster than expected.
My next big entrepreneurial project was TaxTrim.com, a database-intensive website that helps homeowners find out if they are over-assessed and build optimized tax grievances to reduce their property taxes. It currently has data on over 2 million homes.
In the last few years, I have continued my consulting work, building cloud data warehouses for both the ACLU and the National Suicide Hotline, among other projects.
About Me

-
Started MIT at 16; Degree in MIS
-
Over 30 years' experience
-
Consultant & Entrepreneur
-
SQL Server Expert
-
Build cloud data warehouses
-
Create ad-hoc teams as needed
-
Full resume on request
I was born and raised in the Hudson Valley in upstate New York, near the beautiful Catskill Mountains. I wrote my first computer program when I was 13, and was soon taking local college classes and tutoring college students in software. I was pretty nerdy, and managed to finish high school and get into MIT when I was 16. My degree focused on Management Information Systems.
After college I built a commercial voice-response product in C/Unix with its own high-level programming language and sold it to clients around the country. It was my first entrepreneurial venture.
I then worked at Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street firms for many years doing various kinds of database consulting, usually with Microsoft SQL Server. Among many projects during this time, I supported the bond trading desk at Bank of America, optimizing their database code by orders of magnitude.
For six years I worked as the Senior Database Architect for White Mountains Re, a $7 billion international reinsurance firm. I developed catastrophe modeling and portfolio optimization tools that were critical for running their business.
I then attempted a social welfare project of my own design – I started building ShareTell.net, a meta-IVR system to act as an alternative to the Internet for people in the third world. It was a good idea, but smartphones proliferated faster than expected.
My next big entrepreneurial project was TaxTrim.com, a database-intensive website that helps homeowners find out if they are over-assessed and build optimized tax grievances to reduce their property taxes. It currently has data on over 2 million homes.
In the last few years, I have continued my consulting work, building cloud data warehouses for both the ACLU and the National Suicide Hotline, among other projects.
Clients
















Industries
Investment Banking
Reinsurance
Mortgage Servicing
Non-Profits
BioTech
Manufacturing
Healthcare Analytics
Real Estate
Marketing Analytics
Software Consulting
Ecommerce
State Government
Telephony
Internet Backbone
Renewable Energy
Academia
Human Resources
Music
Event Planning
Investment Banking
Reinsurance
Mortgage Servicing
Non-Profits
BioTech
Manufacturing
Telephony
Academia
Music
Event Planning
Healthcare Analytics
Real Estate
Marketing Analytics
Software Consulting
Ecommerce
State Government
Internet Backbone
Renewable Energy
Human Resources
How I Work
I do projects large and small. Some clients need a quick repair, others have massive projects that may go on for years. When I take on a project, I am fully committed, however long it takes.
Depending on requirements, it may be just me, or I may bring on additional specialists to help out. In those cases, I do the design and architecture, the core database work, and I oversee and review everyone else’s work.
I do all work remotely.
Client Testimonials
AGATHA M. COLE
Associate
Chaitman LLP New York, NY May 2019
DANIEL KOROVIKOV, PSY.D.
Director of Analytics
Astor Services for Children & Families Bronx, NY May 2019
DAVID KOOSIS
CIO
Vibrant Emotional Health (runs the National Suicide Prevention Hotline) New York, NY June 2019
“As a food historian, I hired Charlie to implement my system for organizing food history data into a user-friendly and comprehensive tool freely available on the internet.
Working with myself and my two children (Catherine Saines and Joe Wheaton), Charlie has incorporated my data and method into a Wikipedia-like website (https://thesifter.org). The site is complicated in that it includes a wide variety of ways to search across languages and time. This includes browsing, sorting, filtering, exporting, advanced search capabilities, detailed auditing, security and recovery, and multiple language support, all based on metadata tables that allow easy structural changes.
He has been extremely agreeable and determined when issues have presented themselves. This past 12 months Charlie has stayed with the project, worked steadily and communicated with us effectively.
Our website went live at the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery in July 2020 and has now received positive attention from media sources around the world. We are very pleased with the job Charlie has done and would enthusiastically recommend him to anyone who has a challenging project.”
Barbara Ketcham Wheaton
The Sifter, Lexington MA October 2020
Projects
The Sifter
Barbara Ketcham Wheaton was one of the first food historians in America and is renowned in her field. Now 89, she has been dreaming for decades of building a free public database with every historical cookbook from medieval times to the present.
Starting with 100,000 recipes she has collected in her private database over many years’ effort, we are now building out this website, called The Sifter, to be a Wikipedia-like research tool that anyone can use or contribute to. It has a highly detailed search function, plus filtering, exporting, auditing, multi-language support, and many other features.
It’s been an honor to work on this site, which was officially released in July 2020 at the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, and has since been featured in news articles around the globe, including the Wall Street Journal.
TaxTrim
After moving into a new home, my neighbors told me that I was over-assessed. I didn’t believe it initially but decided to simply analyze my home against every other home in our town and see what the numbers said. It turned out that I was two standard deviations above the average for homes similar to mine. Armed with detailed spreadsheets, I was able to get a 25% property tax reduction.
That was the impetus for developing TaxTrim, a site that lets New York homeowners compare their assessment against all of their neighbors, comparing both recent sales and other assessments. It provides detailed statistical comparisons and has point-and-click tools to build an optimized property tax grievance.
To date, we have helped hundreds of people grieve their taxes, and savings in the 10-30% range are quite common. We currently have data on over 2 million homes. Ultimately, I hope to expand this tool to a nationwide audience.