Consider this a face book of flexible web development. Whether you're researching us or want to know who is coding your software, click on any of the profiles below to learn more about each of our Bendyworkers.
A lot can be said about Brad by looking at one of his admitted pet peeves: comparing random activities to rocket science. Brad's prior professional life was spent as an aerospace engineer designing space station life support and moon mining equipment. At one point he led the design of a prototype rocket engine. So although it only comes up when comparing extremely complex tasks to other extremely complex tasks, Brad actually knows rocket science.
He also knows web development. His expertise is Ruby on Rails is nationally known, most recently putting him on the speaker list for RubyConf 2011.
When he isn't spending his waking hours running Bendyworks, Brad is either hacking on open source or playing ultimate Frisbee. And in proper Wisconsin tradition, he has a weak spot for aged cheddar and a good oatmeal stout.
Chris is Madison-native and an avowed lover of science. Before finding out that he couldn't eat, sleep, or breathe without thinking about computation, he worked on and around big science. Ask him about particle accelerators, and you'll waste an afternoon. Here at Bendyworks, Chris is happy to be working where there is little risk of his clothing becoming irradiated. Ask him about that, too.
Chris is always curious to learn new programming languages and techniques while honing his existing skills. Over the years he's worked in a bunch of languages, including Java, Clojure, and Python. These days he's focused on Ruby, Rails and Clojure. On his bold quest for bug-free code, he's eager to learn new techniques to make software more reliable.
When not at the computer, Chris relaxes by reading and hanging out with his wife and two dogs. He's President of the Madison Linux User's Group and a long-time member of the Madison Clojure meetup.
Devin grew up with a startup being run out of his house. He wanted to be a C++ programmer until he was old enough to realize why didn't. Nowadays he hacks Ruby (on Rails) and Clojure, but is always interested in learning another language. Ladies and gentlemen, this man needs 48 hours in a day.
His technical interests include ruby, ruby on rails, clojure, xmonad, machine learning, keyboards (1) (2) (loves his HHKB Professional 2), irc (devn on freenode), TOPLAP, software craftsmanship, and whatever is on Hacker News
Devin's personal interests include guitar, violin, saxophone, philosophy, literature, and art.
His favorite musicians include Avishai Cohen, Andrew Bird, Chris Potter, Dave Holland Quintet, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Adam Rogers, Wes Montgomery, Philip Glass, Esko Jarvela, LCD Soundsystem, Joe Dassin, Joe Venuti, Leonard Cohen, Aphex Twin, Ochre, Pierre Bensusan, and many, many, more.
"Big Tiger" has several years of government-sector, full life-cycle business process automation projects under his belt before joining the Ruby community via Hashrocket in 2007. Years of experience in leading a maintenance team means he has answered to angry customers and the developers, project leads, and clients responsible. A simple philosophy of building simple software that works as expected emerged from that experience. You will find him speaking at user groups, conferences, and board rooms on everything from agile development tools and techniques to deep technical dives into Ruby or other best in breed technologies.
Originally from Minnesota (shh!), I graduated with a BS in Computer Science from Mankato State University. By the end of my degree, I knew I wanted to go into web development, which made Bendyworks an obvious choice.
I have been working with software for a few years now, and am interested in many different subjects. Some of my favorite things are: Vim, Arch Linux, and of course web development.
When not computing, I am: learning piano (pretty bad at the moment, but working on it!), running/disc golfing (if it's warm), and hanging out with friends.
Kelly was born into an art family and just kept going. She took her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from UW-Madison and has continued work as a designer since then (as well as some hands-on jobs with hammers and saws and such.) She works in paint, ink, glass, screenprinting, sculpture, and, oh yeah, computer graphics.
When art is not consuming her attention, she digs comic books, horror movies, terrible movies, biking, plants, cats and dogs, and tattoos.
Her portfolios are at http://krauwerdinkdesign.com/
Matt Gauger is rumored to have been a geek before it was cool. His love of programming started at the age of 11 when he built a robot based on the book Mobile Robots, hacking C and assembly on the Motorola HC11. He has been called a hacker, a craftsman, and a maker. He was an integral part of Milwaukee's tech scene, helping organize the highly-successful BarCamp Milwaukee, helping found the Milwaukee Makerspace, and leading various tech meetups. After spending enough time in the Java consulting world to realize he didn't want to be there, he has pursued a path of the programmer-monk, avoiding the terms "rockstar" and "code ninja" like the plague.
Outside of work, he enjoys playing guitar, building robots, screen-printing, brewing strong coffee, building and riding bicycles, mathematics, reading several books at once, and using Twitter constantly. Also, he has too many hobbies.
Mic has been planning, designing and building web experiences and interfaces for over ten years, always searching for the latest methodologies, ideas and technologies to help deliver world-class websites and applications. He's passionate about building great products that users love and help customers succeed.
When not building a prototype, digging into analytics reports, or trying to wrestle a Photoshop file into submission, Mic enjoys photography, golf, cycling, and spending time with his dog, Winnie. He also helps Madison Magnet with branding and marketing and is on the board of Design Madison.
Ryland graduated from UW-Madison with degrees in CS and Biology (and a bit of Mathematics). Since then, he's been devoted to bringing his practical knowledge up to speed with his education.
Always searching for self-improvement, Ryland thrives on the daily challenges of his job and on the expertise of his coworkers. He joined Bendyworks after leading development of a startup in 94labs' Incubator program.
Ryland enjoys building and riding bikes: they've been his preferred mode of transportation since middle school. He's been known to tinker with music, but he's usually reading a book or hopelessly addicted to a video game. Although he's flirted with several languages and is always on the lookout for another, he's absolutely smitten with Ruby and Rails.
Steve has been pursuing software quality and value since 1992. This has lead him to Ruby, Rails, Behavior Driven Development, Extreme Programming, Software Craftsmanship, mentoring and teaching. His current focus in this pursuit is on growing the best damned development team at Bendyworks through selection, care and feeding, as well as providing an environment for success.