Team Contrast

Contrast is finally what I always hoped it could be: a team. Not just by head-count, but with an incredible mix of passionate, ambitious guys. Today we officially opened for business as a web app development company.

The team

There are a number of remarkable points about the Contrast team:

1. we’re all in our 20’s,
2. we’re all equally passionate about producing innovative, world-class software with modern technologies (and most importantly, capable of delivering on this),
3. we’re all bloggers (which is very important to me),
4. we’re all Mac users (which is also very important to me) and
5. we all found each other through the Irish web scene.

The last point I think may be the most remarkable because I don’t know of another company that’s a direct product of the modern Irish web scene. I have a lot to say about this scene, but in a nutshell, I believe it’s got a way to go before it can stand proud on a global stage. However — and I’ll leave myself out of the following description! — I can say with great pride and sincerity that the guys that have joined me in Contrast are the cream that has risen to the top and are destined for great things.

Paul Campbell

Paul triggered the idea that we might work together back in January of this year. We had been sharing space in CoWorking Dublin and discovered we had a lot in common. Like myself, Paul had been freelancing for different folks from a young age; earning money through the skills he developed in his spare time. Previous to joining Contrast, Paul had been making great Rails software for the likes of Reads and Eason and is now one of two awesome developers in the company.

David Rice

Dave is the second and joined me at the same time as Paul in February. Again, Dave had been swapping cash for Ruby code for many years and has been on my radar for a long time (Dave, along with Paul, was part of our web app development group called Patchwork, that we started last year). Dave has developed many sites for Front as well as playing a lead role in the development of San Francisco-based Howcast. Where Paul often works close with me implementing the front end-functionality (in the views, for those au fait with the Rails way), Dave often works with the back-end architectural aspects of our apps (for example, Dave is in charge of the plugin part of Exceptional (more on that later)).

I’m not afraid to say that in Paul and Dave we have two of the very best next-generation developers in the country; they surprise me with their speed and ability on a daily basis.

Des Traynor

Des is number three in the team and the most recent to join us. But I’ve known Des for just as long as the other guys, originally through his popular blog and later through Open Coffee Club Dublin. Last year Des left a lecturing and research position in NUI Maynooth to join iQ Content (one of my heroes) as a Senior Usability Analyst. After helping some great clients like Dublin City Council, Hibernian and ESB with iQ, Des is now the resident UI / UX guy in Contrast, already working his magic on the next version of Exceptional and ready to work wonders with our new clients.

Our past and our future

The new incarnation of Contrast, the company with more staff than just me, already has a past worth mentioning: since April we’ve been developing Exceptional, an exception tracking app for Rails developers, which has seen a massive amount of interest from around the world and sign-ups from most of the leaders in the Ruby on Rails field; we also developed the prototype app of Dublin-based IGOPeople and have been consulting for the great teams in dotMobi, Eason and Annadale Technologies, amongst some other up-and-coming Irish firms. But the real fun is just beginning, starting with some fresh content for this blog and some hard work with our new clients: anyone that needs a great app and has an open mind (we don’t want do standard here, I’m afraid).

Thanks

But finally to the real message of this post which is simply “thanks”. Whatever I have to say about the Irish web scene, it’s the scene that made us. It’s with the encouragement and enthusiasm of some great folks in this community, through this blog, through networking events, through Twitter and elsewhere, that I managed to stay focused and motivated in the past year while getting this company together and I know that myself and the rest of the guys couldn’t have done it without their help.