roncli.com blog

It's been a long time since I've written anything of substance here, so let this post serve as a catch up to what's been going on.

Since April of 2012, I have had the pleasure of working on the iOS application known as Sift. The company developing Sift is a San Francisco Bay Area startup, of which I am a founder. Needless to say, I put in many hours of work into the product.

Sift was more than a job to me. It was an opportunity to do something big, and perhaps make a profound impact in the way people shop online. It's still in its infancy, but the product that we put out there is pretty awesome.

However, I decided to step away from the company in February after three months of consideration. It was a very difficult decision for me, as I truly believed in the product and the company. I was a remote worker in a high-impact position, and I found that it wasn't easy maintaining the visibility required of such a position in a remote location while still being able to get done the stuff that needed to get done. This became especially true as the company grew, both with more internal employees and having to work with multiple contractors outside of the company (and the country), which would have me going as early as 8 am and as late as 2 am. Combine that with the demanding travel schedule - I spent only 8 of the final 18 weeks of 2013 at home - and it's not hard for most people to see how stress levels were through the roof.

Extreme stress levels aren't something I'm particularly fond of, which led to my decision to move on. I did spend a good deal of time with the company, accomplishing and learning plenty along the way. I learned much about the open source world, and found that I very much enjoyed working with Node JS. I met a lot of awesome people as well, and I can only wish for their further success as Sift continues to grow.

While leaving was certainly not a decision I came to lightly, I'm quite happy that I was able to leave my second startup on my own terms after being able to accomplish so much for them. My first startup, Trax in Space, ended in financial disaster, and I wasn't ready to step away when it all fell apart. This time, I look back fondly on the experience, knowing that I was a major contributor, and that the company is still growing upon the foundation that I helped to build.

So what's next for me? Well, back to the Monday through Friday, 8-hour a day grind, resharpening and honing my .NET skills while bringing my schedule back to a sense of normalcy that I have found was very much missed. What else?

Music. I'm slowly getting back into my music, and as always have several songs floating around. I want to get myself a new electric guitar next, as my last one bit the dust some years ago. In the meantime, I post things I'm working on to my creative blog as I work on them.

Coding. I'm in the process of upgrading all of my .NET projects to 2013, will be updating LibWowAPI, and plan on slowly transitioning my websites over to Windows Azure. I plan on learning Rendr and incorporating it into my personal website, roncli.com, as a way of learning and showing off my node.js skill. And I am wanting to figure out Xamarain so that I may be able to write mobile games.

Gaming. And of course, I spent a ton of time between jobs gaming. I'm big time into Diablo 3 these days, have gotten into streaming my gaming experiences, and am a regular host on the Six Gaming Podcast where we talk all about gaming.

Seems like I'm getting back to my roots these days. That could be a sign of some wonderful times to come.

Labels: Azure, Coding, Diablo III, Editorials, Gaming, LibWowAPI, Life, Node, Rendr, roncli.com, Sift, Six Gaming Podcast, Stress, Tumblr, Twitch, Xamarian

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Sift Shopping has arrived
Posted: 1:24:00 PM 0 comments

About 6 months ago, I started working full time on a startup venture located out of the San Francisco Bay Area while working from home. Since joining, I have taken five trips out to the area. Lots of planning, coding, and sleepless nights have occurred between now and then. In fact, if you're wondering why I don't write here as much anymore, this is probably the main reason. With the exception of my WoW raiding time with SMTR, most of my free time has gone into a new creation.

Today, that creation is here. Introducing Sift.

Currently it's an app for the iPad 2 or higher that basically takes all of your shopping-related email sales and puts them into one easy-to-access place. We currently support nearly 3,000 shops, so even if you're just a casual shopper like me, I'm pretty sure you'll find something of interest in Sift. It does have Chick-Fil-A, after all.

Not only can you get your sales into Sift, Sift can also bring sales to you. We get hundreds of newsletters per day, allowing users to find new places to shop. We also have social connections, so you can see what your Facebook friends are interested in buying, as well as share your interests with others.

And did I mention it's beautiful? Probably the best part of the app, and I can't take credit for it. Seriously, you've seen this site, you think I could come up with that nice of an interface? With fluid animations and clean design, it makes the browsing experience a heck of a lot more enjoyable than sifting through your email yourself.

This is something that I've poured the last several months of my life into, and I'm quite proud of the result. So if you've got an iPad 2 or newer, give us a try and let me know what you think.

Labels: Sift, Software

Friday, April 06, 2012

A New Adventure
Posted: 10:01:00 AM 0 comments

Now playing: Sixx:A.M. - Life is Beautiful (3:35)

Today, I am embarking on a new adventure. Yesterday was my final day with my previous employer, and today I'm working full time on a new endeavor. Unfortunately I can't share what I'm working on yet, but here's a few details about what I'm doing.

First of all, the company I work for today is a small startup based in the San Francisco bay area. No, I haven't moved out there, I am still based in Houston. I do all of my work remotely, contacting the team via Skype or phone. This alone is exciting. I mostly get to set my own hours and working schedule. Today I was up by 9 AM, and began to be productive fairly quickly. No more commuting or having to "get ready for work". I just get up and start. It's quite awesome.

Secondly, I'm delving out of my comfort zone. My previous two jobs involved the .Net Framework, with a lot of that work in ASP.Net. This project has me working largely with JavaScript, relying on some cutting-edge features from HTML5 and CSS3. Oh yeah, and the back end is in PHP. Talk about stepping out. The last couple of times I got tangled up in PHP I was working with Cute Trance Girls and Trax in Space 2. (No, this isn't another music site. I gave up on that a while ago, remember?) Prior to that it was a failed project run by a guy that had no idea how to code, only how to sell stuff. Here, I pretty much own the PHP coding process, and it has been far more rewarding than any previous endeavor involving PHP.

Finally, I am working with people who love what they're doing. The team is sold on the concept, and the level of excitement about what we're doing is incredibly high. I am hoping that this excitement translates to an awesome product.

Speaking of the product, we are hoping to have a beta out by the end of May, so hopefully by then I'll be able to tell a little more about who we are and what we are doing. We're still kind of in stealth mode, so we've got to keep what we're doing under the radar.

Until then, I think it's time to take my place on the couch with DarkSide and get to work.

Labels: Life, PHP, Sift