alfajango.comAlfa Jango - Building Startups in Ann Arbor with Ruby and JavaScript

You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser or activate Google Chrome Frame to improve your experience. Company Design Open Source Blog Home What We Do Process Clients Team About Design Contact We help you build your startup. Tell us about your startup! Contact Us We are your acting CTO and development team. We build your minimum viable product and beyond! We can take over the development and support of existing applications, or we can help you plan and build your startup from the beginning. We build web applications, complex data processing projects, mobiles apps for iOS and Android, and more. Learn About Our Process Technical Planning The greatest value we provide is showing you what NOT to build. Sometimes the best solution to a problem facing your startup is not the technical solution. See our presentation given at Startup Weekends See our presentation given at Startup Weekends Scalable Dev Team Our software developers have built over 50 applications over the past 8 years. We've built startups that have gone from bootstrapped to acquired and we have open source projects with millions of downloads. Check out our open source projects Check out our open source projects Branding / Design Branding and graphic design for startups is tricky. You need a professional and unique brand that builds credibility and memorability with early adopters. However, you don't want to invest a lot early on in a brand from which you may iterate or pivot away. We've mastered the art of iterative design. See our design work See our design work Get started building your startup! Let us show you in these four steps , and we will be on our way. Step 1 Talk with us Send us a message to set up a phone call. In the Ann Arbor or Detroit area? Let's grab a coffee! If we're a good fit, it's on to Step 2! Step 2 Dive in and plan Wherever you are in the startup planning process, we'll creat an outline and budget for building your Minimum Viable Product. This MVP will include what we'll build and more importantly what we won't build. Step 3 Build We build the MVP. It's important to launch an MVP as quickly as possible, so you can start gathering feedback and iterating. Step 4 Support & iterate Now that the MVP is launched, we can gather feedback from users to expand and refine the product. What our clients say I have worked with many software developers in my career. Alfa Jango has not only deep technical expertise, but what is more valuable and rare, is a team that acts as a founding CTO, providing great advice on what to build, in what sequence, saving you money and increasing the likelihood of your success. — Ed Farrell, Alfa Jango brings our ideas to life, but more than that, they constantly go above and beyond, applying their insight and care to every aspect of our application. Thoughtful, thorough, and true professionals - it is an absolute privilege to work with this team. — Cait Holman, I'm certain that my start-up wouldn't be at the point it is now without the professional work of Alfa Jango. I hit a home-run by working with Alfa Jango! — Nic Stelter, Steve Schwartz and the rest of the Alfa Jango team have been absolutely integral to the development of PriceLocal from conception to launch and beyond. Alfa Jango listens well and always provides solutions that exceed expectations. — Matt Chosid, We work with startups from: Take a look below on how we have helped starups in many different ways. Acquired by Edmunds.com! Text messaging platform for car dealerships. Experienced rapid growth and then acquired by Edmunds.com in 2014. Now used by 7,000 dealerships worldwide! Over $5 million raised! Genome interpretation software for diagnosing and treating cancer and other inheritable disease. Co-founded by leading genomicists at the University of Michigan, and won stage 1 and 2 SBIR grants. Over $3 million in grants awarded! Learning management platform for gameful university courses. A research project by the University of Michigan, the project has been Awarded over $3 million in grant funding. Featured on USA Today! Purchase Amazon products at local businesses for the Amazon price. An inventory-sourcing platform coupled with browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari to shop online and buy local. Accepted into the 2015 Hackomotive! Your CarFriend is with you through the entire car-buying process, from showing you whether you should buy new or used, to advising you through maintenance services and more. Graduated from YCombinator! High-end venue booking and customization platform. Founded by the first all-female founding team to go through the venerable YCombinator accelerator program in San Francisco. We the Team Steve Schwartz Managing Member / Developer Steve has co-founded several successful software start-ups as managing partner at Alfa Jango. Steve co-founded and served as CTO for CarCode, which was acquired by Edmunds.com in 2014. He is highly involved in the open source software movement having developed and maintained several popular open source projects, including jquery-ujs and jquery-rails in Rails core, which has been downloaded over 30 million times. He has his BS in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering. When not building startups, Steve plays guitar and soccer (not at the same time usually) and races cars. Kevin Ryan Creative Director Kevin leads all our design from UI/UX Design, Branding, Graphic Design and Illustration. After years in the agency world Kevin brings his skills and creativity to Alfa Jango's team. He loves to spend time with his kids, floating on the pontoon in the summer and skiing in the winter. Angie Mininni Office Manager / Project Coordinator Angie came to Alfa Jango in 2013 with experience in real estate, but a passion for start-ups. As office manager, she keeps everyone in line, making sure they are where they need to be and have everything they need to be their best. She can easily be found at the local coffee shops, spoiling her Chiweenie, or raving on and on about Jared Leto. Jonathan Gabel Developer Jonathan came to Alfa Jango a wide knowledge of Ruby, Javascript and CSS. He began his programming career with front-end web design, adding javascript UI enhancements as a specialty before moving to MI. Jonathan has a BA from Carleton College and MFA from Rutgers University. He taught Sculpture, 3D-design, Ceramics, Drawing, and Digital Arts, and currently teaches Contemporary Art Theory online for Mercer College. Richard Peng Developer Richard specializes in Ruby on Rails, AngularJS, Elasticsearch, and Modular CSS. Richard's full-stack experience and passion for modular, reusable code brings amazing value to the team. When he’s not busting out awesome code, he can be found swing dancing, biking, hiking, and disc golfing. Tim Fisher Developer Tim is a passionate developer and leader with 28 years of experience in roles including CTO, VP of Engineering, and Director of Mobile Development, along with many years of hands-on development experience. Tim has a great deal of experience in the areas of leading development teams, development process, full-stack web development, mobile development and scalable architecture. Tim is the author of two published books, the Java Phrasebook and the Ruby on Rails Bible. Outside of work, Tim is always reading and loves baseball, the Detroit Tigers, comic books, pop culture, and horror. Emily Jeanes Developer Emily comes to Alfa Jango specializing in Ruby on Rails, Angular/Typescript, and React. She is passionate about building great UI, and making technology simple, effective, and joyful - with many years in the educational technology sphere putting that to the test. When not coding, Emily can be found cycling in beautiful Northern Colorado. John Hoinville Director of Operations John comes to Alfa Jango with experience in team leadership, product development, project management, and business analysis. He has worked with everyone from Fortune 10 companies down to small entrepreneu...