We’ve thus far avoided the blogging world as a company, although I have in the past been known to have the occasional run of blogging. Why did we do that and why are we blogging now? The answer is sort of complex – many corporate blogs are highly controlled or sort of bland or are just
boring rehashes of press releases without much more to say. We’re all actual people with interests that are varied and sometimes surprising, so while we’ll probably spend a lot of time “talking shop” I think it would be safe to say that we’ll likely cover any topic we feel like covering.
We have also stayed away because frankly, we’re busy. Its hard to set yourself a weekly deadline even if there are a handful of people you can round-robin the responsibility to. Its even harder to make it interesting. You, as a blog reader, know this.
Who are we?
Since you are reading our blog, its probably true that you arrived here via our homepage (http://www.deeplocal.com) where you’d see that “We are an innovation studio that helps companies rapidly develop and implement new ideas and technology. We apply the ingenuity of art to the challenges of business.” which is all well and good, but here in the blog we can tell you a little more. As you can see from our webpage, we’ve got a lot of products and services that we get up to. This blog will be a great place to get to know us and the kinds of things we do.
Who writes here?
Since the opening section largely covers the first two goals of this post, I think I’ll take this opportunity to go quickly over who does what here outside of what you see in our bios here (http://www.deeplocal.com/about/people), and what a day here is like.
I’ll start with our newest member, Eamae Mirkin. In addition to being our only physical interaction designer, he’s also our shortest, red-headdedest, vegetarianist member. He is also an amazing designer, bikes to work, and generally laughs at my jokes without pointing out that they’re almost all mean-spirited. He drew the Squid attached to this post and has interned at Apple (yes, the real one in Cupertino, not the one in Oakland). Right now he’s getting ramped up on our frenetic schedule and culture here.
Moving in reverse-chronological arrival order, there’s Heather Estes our Director of Product Evolution. It is true, she is the only woman in the office and also the first person who brought the idea of, you know, actually promoting what we do to the table. This was revolutionary. She assigns special ringtones on her phone to different people, so on Sunday mornings the churches in my neighborhood make it seem like her parents are calling me all the time. This has made for more than one awkward “WHY ARE YOU CALLING ME” yelled into my phone (at no one).
Matthew Pegula is sort of our systems assassin. He sits back, absorbs a situation, processes it, thinks about it, and then cools out. Approximately 15 seconds after everyone else has said whatever the first thing to come to their mind was, he says the clearest, best thing. This guy can make a prototype that is well thought out, clean, with graphics, fully functional, and ready to be pitched – and shrug at it. He’s a testament to modesty and makes me feel like everything I say is braggadocio sometimes – and thats a great thing!
Dimitry Bentsionov comes to us by way of Yahoo. Also Ukraine, but his formative years in the North Hills always stick out in my mind. He is what is colloquially known online as a “CSS Ninja” but to people who are not internet meme freaks or who are actually normal people he is simply one of the best visual design implementers and creators in the game. He has the rare ability to think straight back from a button or a checkbox into a server that is hundreds of miles away. He’s also got a knack for accidentally breaking his iPhone in increasingly strange ways. Because he spent his formative years in a foreign country, he never gets any of my (obviously hilarious) 80’s movies references.
David Evans (Me). I am basically the “rainy day” of the crew. Quick with a snarky comment, I am known mainly for my distaste for anything that exists outdoors. I loathe having my picture taken, stay in the office late most days, and am obsessed with Squids. I also run our twitter account. I will be writing at least one post here a week – this is important later. To cope with stress, I bake pies. I have a love/hate relationship with the internet and am not active on Facebook at all. This isn’t to suggest that I don’t pay very close attention to most things happening around the web of course, I’m just intensely private and can only think of three pictures of myself that I ever actually liked. Most of the time I have earbuds in even when I’m not listening to anything.
Nathan Martin, our artist in permanent residence and captain. What can I say (that won’t get me fired)? Nathan’s bio on the site says a whole lot, except doesn’t really cover his love of the everything hiking. Nor does it mention his love of tailored shirts from United Colors of Benetton. Nathan and I both grew up in Westmoreland county within about 20 miles of one another. We actually went to rival high schools. Nathan’s constant stream of ideas is what drives our innovation. He manages to be our lead designer as well as most recognizable public face, all while being the guy that makes Quick Books happen. You’ve most likely seen him speaking somewhere or met him at an event that he spoke at.
How this is going to work.
We’ve got a system in our office dictating who does the dishes. This system works (generally) so we’re co-opting it for the blog. Every week you’ll get a post from one of the above people and also me. On my week to do dishes (which I can’t stand) I’ll probably write two posts and blame the dishes not being done on the blog. I like this setup.
Wrapping this up, I’d like to simply fire off some links to our product pages and API:
http://www.routeshout.com
http://www.tinyblast.com
http://www.gumband.com
Expect us to talk about our products and projects in detail, there are (not unexpectedly) some interesting stories to be told about the things we’ve done. This blog exists not only to let our (extremely) strong personalities to see the light of day, but also to make it easier for people coming here to get to know what we’re about.
Welcome. I’ll be seeing you again soon.