About Me
Are you a development contractor?
Not really. Generally speaking, a development contractor has some familiarity with every aspect of building an application, but has a skill set tailored to provide perhaps only one or two components of the overall project. A good end product typically requires multiple contractors.
Imagine that you are building a house. You will likely hire several contractors to complete the project – a framer, an electrician, a plumber, and a few others. Of course, a good plumber knows a thing or two about framing, drywall finishing, electrical wiring, and perhaps a number of other construction disciplines. Despite this, you likely wouldn't even ask an exceptionally good plumber to build a house.
I am a boutique consultant. I have an in-depth understanding of what it takes to deploy secure, user-friendly, scalable enterprise systems – from the visual to the functional, and all the important pieces in between. You can sit down and discuss a project with me, and I will personally design and build every aspect of the solution at the same high level of quality you would expect from a user interface designer, an API developer, an end-user application developer, etc. This means I simply do not have most of the coordination and overhead costs encountered by most development agencies. This key difference results in significant savings for my clients on small to mid-size projects.
How do you know all of this stuff?
A really awesome, really unique set of circumstances. After attending college, I started out as a highway and civil site designer at a large architectural engineering firm in Rochester, New York. Immediately annoyed by the repetitive nature of quite a few aspects of my job, I started learning and utilizing scripting languages to automate many tasks I had to perform within the computer-aided design (CAD) software I used from day-to-day.
At about the same time, I began working with three-dimensional design technologies. After a while, my work with 3D modeling, rendering, and application development caught the attention of the firm's Advanced Technologies department, and I began working within that area of the firm as a graphic artist, 3D modeller, and software developer. Throughout this time, I continued my involvement in civil site and architectural design, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), CAD software automation, and application development. After almost seven years, in 2008 I began working as an application development consultant.
2008 was not a great year to start a business. Much of the construction/real-estate related development work I did up that point pretty much dried up. This change actually benefitted me by motivating me to expand my skill set to serve a more diverse customer base. I worked on several projects in addition to those involving visual technologies, including development of a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system for a Fortune 500 company, a social media website later sold to a large investment firm, multiple search engines, as well as applications for real-estate, insurance, finance, large-scale print media and the entertainment industry. As a result, I developed an unusually diverse skill set particularly valuable to businesses with a need to communicate and manage information at an enterprise-scale.