Brand New Box

2024 unboxed! BNB works with clients, which means most people only see a fraction of what we do. Here's a quick look at notable projects from 2024. https://lnkd.in/gfGfw4gh

Three times each year Brand New Box's fully remote team meets up IRL. Here are some thoughts from the time we secluded ourselves in a massive ranch somewhere in Texas for 3 days. One of BNB's core values is that we are creative. Not only do we create interesting work for clients from 9 to 5, but we all have interesting side projects as well. Our CTO Will Carey leaned into this when he decided to shape this trip as a hackathon-meets-Big-Brother-meets-Texas party. Relative to some of our other meetups, this one was pretty unstructured. We loaded up groceries for breakfasts and lunches, and way too many snacks. Will booked dinner reservations. The house had a game room, a movie theater, tons of outdoor activities, llamas, and more than enough room for everyone to spread out or work together. The goal was to work on our personal projects and spend time together. And it was awesome. Our individual projects were great: Ted Tash worked on his homeschool curriculum project. Jace Bayless is building a car show app. Vika worked on designs for her family's landscaping business. Matt Kirkland (despite having the most personal projects) worked on BNB's end of the year site. Ashley Weinaug worked on an e-commerce tool for her dad and brother. Ian built a bowling social media app. Will Carey worked on HyperLifter, his high school weight lifting meet software that runs most of the meets in Kansas. And I added some sweet customization features to MD5 Records. But the best parts were all the things we did together: watching F1, playing putt putt in the back yard, hanging out on the back porch, eating Texas BBQ, watching movies, staying up late to do Advent of Code, cooking breakfast on the grill, navigating a power outage, sharing project updates, playing so many games of pool/air hockey/shuffleboard, helping other folks with their projects, and generally having a great time. When folks learn how many problems BNB helps solve, and how wildly challenging the problems are, they sometimes wonder: "How?" My take is: a team that is empathetic and competent, a framework that can be quickly leveraged in any situation, and stuff like this that builds relational equity. Here's to BNB, and your team as well in 2025!

And you may have seen his Form Builder writeup in #ruby weekly this morning! Kudos, Will Carey!

Our CTO, Will Carey, has been promoting this approach to form builders for years. Our devs love how easy it is to use. Our designers love the consistency. And our clients love how fast it delivers. And now you can use it on your next #rails project!

We have an amazing apprenticeship program at Brand New Box! Learn alongside some of the most caring engineers you'll ever meet, and see why Rails is truly the best framework available. https://lnkd.in/g5B2mxEY

I got to advise and judge at Launchpad - a hybrid pitch competition / hackathon - and it was so fun to see what people are cooking up. I always say the most fun part of Brand New Box is getting to know a business and think through how tech can help transform and accelerate other people's work. This was a rapid-fire weekend of that!

We were stoked to see this photo of our own Ted Tash hacking with his Missouri neighbor Chris Oliver in the #rubyconf Hack Day newsletter! Hack Day was THE team highlight from #railsconf.

If you don't start a presentation with a greeting and your name, then you're just being impolite.