Bolles alum Matisse VerDuyn’s blinding bat speed was once clocked as the nation’s fastest.
Now 35, he’s applying that same obsession with timing, precision, and pattern recognition to new turf: artificial intelligence.
VerDuyn’s latest tech venture is causing a commotion in Jacksonville’s growing startup ecosystem — and beyond — thanks to a software platform that radically simplifies how people build AI-powered apps.
Whether they’re seasoned developers or small business owners trying to materialize a dream, his goal is for PackageJS make app creation more accessible, scalable and cost efficient.
“AI app-building platforms are growing rapidly and attracting users from all walks of life,” VerDuyn said, noting that—from corporations to your local electrician—people are lining up. “But the tools that are out there right now have lots of limitations. We don’t have those limitations.”
Born in Cleveland but raised in Jacksonville, VerDuyn moved south with his mother and enrolled at Bolles to play ball, where he became a standout slugger and sterling student.
He earned an athletic scholarship at Cleveland State, but his diamond career was curtailed by injury. A pitch during an inter-squad scrimmage shattered his wrist, robbing him of his most vital skill — bat velocity — and forcing him to rethink his future.
The natural path was coaching. But VerDuyn’s methods soon expanded beyond on-field tutelage. He developed a software that sought to predict the next pitch a particular hurler would throw in a given situation. The results, he said, were astounding.
“I wrote some software 15 years ago,” he said. “I could say, ‘Okay, the next pitch is going to be a curveball outside.’ And then it was. I was like, ‘Okay, this is cool. I can do a lot with this.’
That early experiment turned into a fixation on problem-solving and software development.
Like any respectable tech wunderkind, he dropped out of college and soon built multiple startups, with many of them gaining traction.
But his current prospect, VerDuyn said, has the rare look and feel of a generational 5-tool phenom.
It targets an acute pain point in the crowded world of AI app development. While popular vibe-coding tools help people create the first version of an app, they often fall apart as users try to grow and scale.
“The software inevitably makes mistakes,” he said.. “It’s impossible to pull off of their platform and make it into a really scalable architecture.”
Cost is another problem. Many of these platforms rely on large language models that charge clients based on token usage — a measure of how much data is processed — and those invoices mount quickly.
“You’re paying for a kind of metered usage, like water,” he said. “These app builders are using a ton of water… and that’s going to become a sustainability problem.”
Most AI app-building platforms today act like middlemen, charging users extra fees on top of the actual data costs— like a store inflating prices between the supplier and the customer.
VerDuyn’s platform takes a different approach. It cuts down on token usage with smarter efficiency and connects users directly to the source, avoiding extra markups.
He compares it to Costco: instead of charging a premium, they offer bulk access at low cost.
VerDuyn currently works out of Accelerate Ponte Vedra as Chief Technology Officer-in-residence, helping other startups grow while cultivating his own. He’s hosting a developer event this month and is actively raising funding.
“If PackageJS grows and is adopted, I think it could be a real unicorn here in Jacksonville,” he said. “And that means more local startups being built, more tech jobs, more talent staying here instead of leaving.”
But breaking through in the sharp-elbowed world of tech still demands the kind of discipline VerDuyn once brought to the batting cage. He’s working 20-hour days, driven by the same instinct for timing and precision that once terrorized opposing pitchers.
“I love solving problems. That’s my favorite thing to do,” VerDuyn said. “Baseball and coding both come down to pattern recognition and practice. The better you are at seeing what’s coming, the faster you can adapt.”
