Feb
16

Startup Growing Pains and Working on my Google-fu

You see in the news all the time “Startup acquired in $$$$ deal” or “Local Startup hires 2983742742 new employees”. But how do those companies get to that point? Growth is hard guys. Can’t we just work in our own little bubbles?

When starting LunarLincoln, we knew some of the basic things we needed, and we knew we wanted to be one of those companies in the news with fantastic results, but connecting the dots from point A to point B – well, we weren’t so sure about how that worked.

How do you get from the beginning to the end?

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Things we knew to do:

  • Register a company
  • Pick a name
  • Build a website
  • Get some clients through word of mouth or past contacts
  • Promote on the interwebs
  • Go to events/meetups
  • DO GREAT WORK

But doing the work is the easy part. We knew how to do that, whether it was code or design.

But how do you do all that other stuff that gets in the way of work?

Things we had to google in the past year during super-growth-time (and are still not sure we did it the “best” way).

  • How to rent commercial office space
    • What’s a CAM?
    • Why are there no office/commercial spaces that are small/medium sizes and NOT in a coworking space?
    • What are some commercial real estate sites that AREN’t horrible to use?
    • What do you mean we have to build the office after we rent it?
    • Where do you buy office furniture? Should we even buy “office” furniture?
  • How to properly interview developers
    • Average salaries for developers in the southeast
    • Good interview questions
    • How to fire an employee
  • How to write an employee handbook, offer letter, contract, etc
  • How to find a lawyer
    • How to negotiate contracts
    • How to leverage your legal team when problems arise (Why can’t you pay on time!!!)
  • How to find an accountant
    • How to use Quickbooks
    • Why is Quickbooks the devil?
    • Alternatives to Quickbooks
  • Do we charge sales tax in Tennessee for development?
    • Why do we have to pay tax on our stuff (I’m looking at you Schedule B)?
    • Payroll taxes, sales tax, federal tax, unemployment tax – why so many taxes?
    • How to not miss a random tax payment
  • How to buy small business and health insurance
    • Tech insurance
    • Dental & vision insurance
    • Rental insurance
    • ALL the stupid insurance (I left out workers comp, short term disability, & long term disability ugh)
  • How to set up a company 401k
    • Why are 401ks so expensive?
    • What is a simple IRA?

That list above – there was hardly ever a simple google answer. The internet always had 200 different ways to do each task. What was right for us? What was right for Nashville? What was right for a tech-services company?

Late at night after sifting through the conflicting advice and moaning “whyyyy, whyyy” at the wall about the most recent puzzling question, we would joke that there had to be some sort of AA meeting for startups.

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So, my lovely internet peoples. I would welcome with open arms any of the following:

  • Not a tech mentor, not a design mentor, but a small business mentor. A fairy godmother of answers. A veritable Ask Jeeves
  • Some sort of “How do you do this business thing?” Question-Time Meet-up
  • A wonderously detailed forum or QA series on a local tech site so I can quit trawling page three of the Google search results
Maybe these things already exist…
…but, I’m just too tired to google them right now.

I just want to get back to the work part of work.

Feb
15

2015 State of the Union

Clients, Crew Members, Friends, Family, and Fellow Americans: welcome to LunarLincoln’s State of the Union address.

What a difference a year makes. What an incredible rollercoaster ride. We experienced so many highs last year, and we rode out the lows knowing that they were necessary to gain the momentum needed to reach the next peak.

Halfway through 2014, Wiley, Travis, and I (Jennifer) had just joined forces and were working out of a windowless 100 sq ft office attempting to pretend that we knew how this “running a company” thing works while writing code. Here we are taking a group photo and bemoaning moving out of our first office:

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Since then, we’ve said hello to new team members Todd, Ben, Patrick, and Jack. And then said goodbye again to Todd as he headed off to the big Apple (Cupertino, not NYC).


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We moved into a palatial residence (bigger than our own house) and we began what has become a pretty impressive collection of moon AND Lincoln memorabilia.

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But lets get to the interesting stuff:
Code. Apps. Creating Things. Amazing Clients.

We’ve worked on so many interesting projects. Some we can shout from the rooftops and some we can’t. Some of those we can talk about are on our snazzy new portfolio section of the website – go look at it, its beeeyutiful.

Cool things we got to learn more about last year
Items we shipped publicly (mmm, yes shipping)

We volunteered a ton. We pulled all-nighters at hackathons. We explained how pocket computers work to high schoolers. We gave talks to our fellow developers and also exchanged heated words at usergroup cage matches.


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We made a ton of new friends at events around town and across the country

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We did a bad job podcasting. We did a better job making our internal processes even stronger. And we’re building things for ourselves.

  • Finally finishing our own internal CI/CD system
  • Building a reporting platform to augment our JIRA instance
  • Starting on some products of our own (more details on that coming soon)
  • What happened to NSVille? (Ask @microchip128 & @ianbroyles to get back on the wagon)

 

It was a good year. Based on everything above – I’m not sure how we’re alive, but I can’t wait to do it all over again.

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Love, love, love (and code),
Jennifer (and the guys) (and Abe)

Feb
02

Life in the Fastlane: CI/CD Tools for iOS

LunarLincoln’s own Patrick Goley spoke at CocoaHeads Nashville this week about continuous integration and continuous development tools for iOS. Some highlights of his talk were:

  • How to build and upload to iTunes Connect (or other services) with a single command
  • How to use Match to manage code signing for teams and build servers
  • How to generate screenshots for your app in every device/language combination (OMG!)

Check out his sample project with Fastlane integration on Github: https://github.com/patgoley/Todo

Download his slides here: Continuous Deployment with iOS

Or watch a video of the real deal:

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We’d love to see you out at CocoaHeads Nashville each month – great talks, great people, delicious pizza, and beer. It is run by the talented and charming Blake Merryman and Bryn Bodayle and there are a myriad of topics covered each year. Sign up for updates at www.meetup.com/Nashville-CocoaHeads/.

Hungry for more? Here are some videos of past CocoaHeads talks:

 

Sep
04

Launching Expo

letsdothisWe spend a lot of time behind the scenes building the structures and underpinnings of apps. However the buck doesn’t stop once the app is built. We’ve talked about our own promotional journey on the blog, but it is also exciting to see others gain the same traction. When it is time for an app to go to market, our role begins winding down but the promotional process is just beginning. Let’s go!

Recently an app we built has begun making the rounds.

A little background on Expo:
Expo works seamlessly with Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive, making it simple to find, organize, and use the content you need regardless of where it is stored. Expo gives sales reps instant access to the right content at the right time, so they can create perfectly tailored presentations, have more engaging conversations, and share follow-up materials like never before.

Our part:
When we first started working on Expo it was in its early prototype stages. We transformed the app from a good demo into an amazing working product. This involved writing a syncing engine that made sure users had the latest content, ensuring that the app handled offline usage gracefully, and updating the UI so that the look and feel of the app was totally customizable for each user’s business. We also added all of the little things that make for a great user experience, including implementing a smooth onboarding and cloud connection experience for first time users.

Initially Expo was built to use  javascript webviews for their documents, however the end result wasn’t the sleek, seamless experience that Expo wanted. The client brought us this and asked “Can you build it?”. While the provided example contained static content, Expo had to account for many different, modular file types – it wasn’t an easy request (it was more along the lines of: Here is a paper-mache llama, can you build me a real llama?). We completely rewrote the presentation code and optimized it so that the user could showcase their content elegantly. We also wrote a custom PDF renderer to handle even the most complicated files gracefully. Custom page transitions and a unique multi-document navigation round out an experience that helps users showcase their content unlike any other app on the market.

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Outside of presentations, Expo retains its high sense of style. Files are presented in visual galleries with generous thumbnails alongside their file names and types. A user can create collections and dynamically resize the files added to those collections. A gesture based sidebar helps a user navigate through their content effortlessly. Modals pop up and gracefully display follow up items before they are shared via email. And Expo is ready for white-labelling, which means that every company can customize the interface with their own branding by simply adding their logo and specifying their brand’s primary and secondary colors.

Now that it is built, Expo is totally ticking our suggested boxes for what to do when you’re ready to launch. 

We’re so glad they’re taking this beautiful code-baby to market in the right way. If you want to learn more about Expo or take it for a trial run – check out their website for more details.
(If you’re in sales or marketing – don’t walk RUN your cursor over to that link. You’ll love it. I promise)

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Jul
17

No we don’t have a foosball table

We moved offices a few months ago. Our first office (if you could call it that), was a 100 sq ft basement room in Center615. To get an idea of how small 100 sq feet is – it is approximately the size of your home bathroom or a modest walk in closet. When Jennifer joined Wiley and Travis in October – the closet office suddenly became less “cozy” and more like a claustrophobic nightmare.


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We needed a new office.

After some meh searching of Craigslist and the awful, ugly, un-usable commercial real-estate sites out there we found TenantBase. It was great. The people were great, the listings were great. The weird size/pricepoint we needed no longer seemed to be a problem. So after signing a terrifying 50-page lease (no hermit crabs, no using the office shower), we were in.

To here.

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Why thank you. I know. It’s great.

We love the space.  We love filling it with the very best developers and designers and being the preferred place for client meetings. Creating a comfortable work environment is important for quality work. We may not have all the fancy-fun trimmings of San Francisco startups, but we have what you need for a solid day of coding. A couch to chill on, a coffee pot for chemical energy, and a candy dish that mysteriously empties itself at least once a week.

We also really enjoy being in Germantown. Despite rivaling the Gulch in ongoing construction, the ever changing view from the conference room window is pretty entertaining. Plus we have oh so excellent neighbors, including XOEye, Mountain, Onin Group, Tempured European Indulgence (yum chocolate), and the Skillery, just to name a few. Now all we need are a fewwww more lunch places to make the neighborhood perfect. (I can’t live on Cupcake Collection forever).

 

Jul
09

And then there were…six

When it rains it pours…work. And then you drown in it. And then you get to hiring. And then you find lots of awesome people and have to get creative with the desk-situation. So now that we have everyone settled into desks, I’d like to present LunarLincoln’s newest crew members: Ben Schwartz and Patrick Goley!

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Ben Schwartz earned his Bachelors of Science in Computer Science from the University of California, Davis. Prior to joining LunarLincoln, Ben developed software solutions and mobile applications for UC Davis, Marin County, and Workday. Ben specializes in Android mobile development but has also worked on web and software for scientific research. 

A San Francisco transplant, Ben dreams of delicious California burritos, motorcycle trips to Alaska, and new woodworking projects.

 

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Patrick Goley has been developing amazing iOS apps since 2012. During this time he has become the “King of Shipping” by publishing over 100 apps to the App Store. The former Lead Developer at Aloompa, Patrick has architected and implemented complex codebases for iOS products, as well as trained and overseen junior developers. He specializes in Core Location and iBeacons. Patrick received his Bachelors of Science from Belmont University in Audio Engineering with a minor in Computer Science. When he’s not brushing up on various programming paradigms he can be found playing the guitar and drums and reading sci-fi novels.

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Feb
05

Ground Control to Major Todd

We’ve added a third developer! And after a month, we’ve decided to keep him. (In fact, we’re never letting him leave).

MAY I PRESENT: TODD GROOMS!

We first met Todd Grooms at another dev shop here in town, where Wiley also worked. In addition to his usual coding duties Todd had a bevy of n00bs that he trained and answered dumb questions for. Wiley was one of these dumb n00bs. Years later, LunarLincoln is doing pretty well, well enough to lure Todd away from a perfectly good job with the promises of friends, flexibility, and bright futures.

A little formal background:
Todd has a Masters of Engineering in Computer Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Louisville. Todd has been a mobile developer at several of Nashville’s leading tech companies, including Metova, Lonely Planet, and Asurion. He develops for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry(hah). He has experience in training junior developers as well as setting up development tools and services, such as continuous integration and automated build tools. Todd has also published his own app: Scenic Viewer. Scenic Viewer is an iOS app that allows you to view nearby Instagram photos taken at Foursquare points of interest.

In his free time, Todd will dazzle you with his vast knowledge of useless trivia and his passion for hockey (Did we mention that he plays hockey? Because he does). He has an awesome wife and a pretty adorable kid. He also semi-regularly publishes thoughtful articles on software development, complete with gifs, on his own blog.

Gif’s, hockey, and 90’s pop culture aside, Todd is a great third-wheel for our dev-tricycle here at LunarLincoln. We’re definitely excited to have him on board.

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Dec
12

Creative Mornings

Everyone has people they enjoy following and reading about online. One of mine is Tina Roth Eisenberg, the creator of Swiss Miss. I love her Friday afternoon listicles of cool things on the internets. (I also love her company Tattly – who doesn’t love temporary tattoos? And these are a biiiiit more refined than those free ones you used to get in packs of FruitStripe gum).

In 2008 Tina Roth Eisenberg started a thing called Creative Mornings – a meet-up for all sorts of creatives. The videos from the speakers looked interesting and I was jealous of stupid New York getting all the cool things, for now I would have to watch from afar. Luckily for me, Alicia Waters started the Nashville chapter in 2014. Woowoo!

In case you didn’t already know, we have such talented people and great public speakers in Nashville y’all! To get started you should watch this session about Beyonce and chicken nuggets. And then, follow @Nashville_CM on twitter to learn when the next session is. Do you have to be a creative? No. You just have to be interested in practically anything – learning, creation, pretty things, being inspired. We all need a little bit of inspiration from time to time.

So come on down, believe in Nashville’s creative community.

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LunarLincoln is a sponsor for the December and January sessions. We wrote a little mini-article about ourselves here. 

 

Nov
12

We live in the future

“The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.” – Abraham Lincoln

Today, we flew a probe 4 billion miles through space to land on a comet moving 40,000 miles per hour.

When we originally developed the name LunarLincoln for our company it was events like this one that inspired us. We’re explorers, we’re inquisitive, we’re resourceful. Humankind’s ability to see the future and plot its possibilities allows for organizations like the ESA to build and develop a space probe that will travel through the immensity of space for an entire decade in order to land on a comet – an undertaking that seems somewhat unreal and ridiculous to me. We not only attempted it, we were successful.

Here at LunarLincoln, we aren’t building incredibly complex space probes and rockets – but we are innovating. We are playing with the edges of developing technology. We are excited for what our fellow engineers are creating and hope to do the same ourselves (albeit on a smaller scale).

Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle. – Abraham Lincoln.

Keep hustling. Keep building. Keep exploring.

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Rosetta’s parting shot of the Philae Lander after separation.

Sep
11

LunarNoobs We

We have a new employee! (We have TWO new employees (one of which is me – but we’ll get to that later)). So who is this guy helping us write all our code now?

May I present: Travis Smith!

Travis completely bewitched us by writing the best cover letter ever... (note to future applicants – I delete emails from those who cannot form proper sentences – LunarLincoln requires a modicum of grammar skills in addition to coding skills). It was as follows:

Hello Mr. President,

 

One score and two years ago my founding father brought forth on this continent a new programmer, conceived in happiness, and dedicated to the proposition that all developers are created equal.

 

Now we are engaged in a great job hunt, testing whether that programmer, or any programmer so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.  We are met on a great medium of that hunt, the Internet.  We have come to dedicate an application with that medium, as an initial starting place that that programmer might work.  It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

 

My name is Travis Smith and I’m looking for a software development job near Nashville.  Today I found LunarLincoln and was immediately drawn by its professional yet energetic and fun attitude.  While I am still a young, blossoming developer, I feel my eagerness to learn, my propensity to retain knowledge, my drive to succeed, and my clever wit would be a great asset to your team.  I don’t have the most experience with app development or procedural languages but you can bet I’d pick up the skills like a Roomba picks up dirt: quietly and routinely but at the end of the day you’ll be very satisfied with my work.  Attached is my resume for your viewing convenience.  If you need further convincing feel free to contact me any way you’d like.

 

The moon looks great by the way; I love what you’ve done with the place.

We loved it (plus he seemed to be a pretty good coder, which doesn’t hurt). After interviewing him (and many other applicants) we, of course, picked Travis.

So who is this kid?

Travis_LLHeadshotTravis is originally from Melbourne, Florida, and we’ve pulled him all the way up to Nashville – to similar hot, armpit weather minus the lovely beach. So far he seems to like it (or at least he claims to). He graduated from University of Florida, Gainesville cum laude with a degree in Computer Science and has past experience at VeriFone, Tyco International, and Tata Consultancy. In his free time he built and maintained a League of Legends leaderboard.

Currently Travis is absorbing all of WIley’s skills at light speed levels and we’re glad he’s joined the team.

Never leave us. Never.

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