This sounds interesting; does this work like a CRM for people management (networking) ?
12 karma · joined March 16, 2014
What we do: Thimble teaches beginners the basics of building electronics by providing a monthly subscription kit and curated instructions. (Imagine building a new robot or quadcopter every month) We’ve built 16+ engaging kits, each with an intuitive web interface and video tutorials. Examples of projects include a WiFi-robot, LED cube, robotic arm, alarm clock, weather station, quadcopter, etc.
As you might imagine, we've reached a pivotal point in our startup company and we're currently looking to hire someone to run our marketing department. This is an essential hire for us as this person will run the entire department (data-driven marketing/advertising: digital and traditional ad buys, earned media, interactive content and ad copy creation). We've been doing this ourselves but need some help now.
Qualifications:
--3-5 years experience in digital marketing across all disciplines with an emphasis on media buying, campaign tracking/optimization, content marketing and influencer marketing --Being data-driven and kind of a data-geek; clear understanding of data, analytics, metrics and statistics --Maker/DIY "I can do this" attitude or familiar with Maker Movement --Being social and understanding users' behaviors. Having great customer relations skills --Graphic/web design skills (comfortable with HTML/CSS, vector and raster graphics) --A/B testing and data analytics experience --Editing and copywriting skills --Knowledge about both inbound and outbound marketing --Being curious and creative --Being relentless in pursuit of growth --Willing to learn
If this sounds like something you might be interested in, please reach out to us at oscar at thimble dot io. We're three guys at the moment and looking for someone that wants to grow and be a part of something big and meaningful. Thanks in advance for reading!
What we do: Thimble teaches beginners the basics of building electronics by providing a monthly subscription kit and curated instructions. (Imagine building a new robot or quadcopter every month) We’ve built 16+ engaging kits, each with an intuitive web interface and video tutorials. Examples of projects include a WiFi-robot, LED cube, robotic arm, alarm clock, weather station, quadcopter, etc. You can find us at https://www.thimble.io.
Traction: We launched on Kickstarter during February ‘16, and raised just shy of $300,000 with close to 1,800 backers. And we delivered! :) We started shipping in December ‘16 and have been growing significantly every month since then. We are currently delivering our kits in all 50 states and 7 continents. (Our Kickstarter can be viewed here in case you're curious: http://kck.st/1QodNaL) Since Kickstarter, we've launched our own online store and have decent monthly recurring revenue.
As you might imagine, we've reached a pivotal point in our startup company and we're currently looking to hire someone to run our marketing department. This is an essential hire for us as this person will run the entire department (data-driven marketing/advertising: digital and traditional ad buys, earned media, interactive content and ad copy creation). We've been doing this ourselves but have been half-assing it and need someone who can own it and push us forward.
Qualifications: --3-5 years experience in digital marketing across all disciplines with an emphasis on media buying, campaign tracking/optimization, content marketing and influencer marketing
--Being data-driven and kind of a data-geek; clear understanding of data, analytics, metrics and statistics
--Maker/DIY "I can do this" attitude or familiar with Maker Movement
--Being social and understanding users' behaviors. Having great customer relations skills
--Graphic/web design skills (comfortable with HTML/CSS, vector and raster graphics)
--A/B testing and data analytics experience
--Editing and copywriting skills
--Knowledge about both inbound and outbound marketing
--Being curious and creative
--Being relentless in pursuit of growth
--Willing to learn
If this sounds like something you might be interested in, please reach out to us at oscar at thimble dot io. We're three guys at the moment and looking for someone that wants to grow and be a part of something big and meaningful. Thanks in advance for reading! :-)
Hi all,
I'm Oscar and I'm the founder of GradFly, "Elance for open hardware projects". This started a year ago out of Startup Weekend where we were finalists. Since then, we've pitched live at TC Disrupt NY, Startup Fest, and recently finished a Series A fundraise (pitched to 30+ investors).
My short bio:
About this time last year, GradFly was only a couple months old. I raised a small seed round, incorporated the business (which I thought had no legs), and had just brought on our first hire. I've been checking out Reddit for some time and have received some good feedback from the rapid prototyping community which will contine to grow.
What is GradFly?
We are building an online community and repository for hardware/software projects - from Arduino, Raspberry Pi, 3D printing, drones, version control for PCBs, to designs in sync with code, etc. Basically, hardware and software developers join forces to work on specific hardware projects. (Say John Smith posts a project to have two arduinos communicate using WiFi Direct and he is seeking help on the WiFi part while he focuses on the motor controller stuff.) He is willing to pay $350 to have someone work with him in parallel and speed up the project. Anyone can submit a project. We help faciliate connections and find resources, talent, and example projects to help with products or concepts that the community is trying to create.
Current stats: (We are still a very young company)
Based in Buffalo, NY 400+ users (mostly early adopters); Some revenue but recently changed models to accomodate user growth; Team of 2; Currently part of Startup Next Toronto (Sponsored by Google Entrepreneurs); Waitlisted at TechStars NYC this past summer. (Made top 15); Partners with maker spaces, fablabs, diybio communities, and garage type groups; Just finished raising $700k. (raised $200k last year)
As you can see, I'm pretty transparent about things like this. I like to keep everyting out in the open.
My Background:
Worked in Western NY for the last five years before founding GradFly. Started in grants, college admissions, and makerspaces before throwing in the towel to become founder. Learned to code Python on CodeAcademy and have since been improving over time. Just started tinkering with Arduino and Hummingbird. I row and swim competitvely to keep my sanity. I also speak Spanish and French.
Who I'm looking for:
Up until now, I've relied mostly on part-time and student developer talent to help me build GradFly. I've been grateful but with this recent fundraise, I need to raise the bar a tad bit. I'm looking for folks who can and want to commit full-time to an early-stage company with room for growth and various opportunities. I'm also looking for individuals that are passionate about where the open hardware/software movement is heading. It's hard to try and explain it to someone if they're not immersed in it already. I've done the whole remote thing and it didn't work out - therefore I'm looking for someone who would be willing to relocate given the right package and circumstances. I can be flexible for someone who is very curious and wants to spend a little of time figuring out a move like this.
All in all, I'm looking for three people:
1) Lead Engineer, potential CTO - (Backend) - The site is Python backend in flask using s3 for asset storage along with rabbitmq and celery for messaging and tasks. We are using redis and Postgres for temp storage/caching and database respectively. Currently on github using wrecker for CI and builds to deploy to heroku - where everything is hosted. We're looking for someone who is familiar with these stacks yet is willing to push the envelope and try new things. The foundation is there, now we just need to build on top of it.
2) Frontend Engineer/Designer - Frontend is built with grunt and is split between foundation and bootstrap templates with jinja2. Styling is done in less and stylus, and we're using plain old JavaScript and jquery. The design on the site currently lacks but it's only uphill from here. We have ideas about what we'd like to see but we're open to different kinds of aesthetics out there.
3) Marketing/Business Dev - Really looking for someone who has an understanding of this space and knows how to build a community and identify the right channels for hypergrowth. So far we've been presenting at all types of events (makerfaires, trade showes, fablabs), reaching out to influencers, and spreading more awareness about ourselves. The person who joins us on this end would continue to help us address the number one pain point we're addressing. Must be willing to travel across US, Europe, and Asia.
PM me with your portfolio. Really looking forward to connecting with anyone that this might resonate with.
Thanks in advance for reading. I know this was long.
Oscar
@oscar_pedroso oscar at gradfly dot co
The only other idea I've been tinkering with is an 'Elance for hardware' type of gig where hardware and software developers join forces to work on someone else's project. (Say John Smith posts a project to have two arduinos communicate using WiFi Direct and he is seeking help and willing to pay $350 to have someone work with him in parallel and speed up the project.
So we'd help teams find resources, talent, and example projects to help with products or concepts that they're trying to create. Still playing around with ideas. Thanks again for the podcasts!
That being said, I've had team members come and go....mostly because I was hiring young developers that were still in school. Even though I was doing most of the leg work, I did have that assistance at times and was able to have that team feel that investors very much liked.
Teams are always in flux and if you have a bad team member, you'll have to face the difficult decision of letting someone go. It's an evolving process but it gets better everytime. I've been at this for a couple of years and I'm not convinced I have that A+ team quite yet. So on certain occasions, I still think I'm a solo founder (if that makes any sense.) I suppose it's how you look at things.
On a side note, I'm trying to validate a concept along the lines of elance-for-hardware. Thoughts?
So far, I've interviewed a few of our users and they seem to be looking for an elance-for-hardware type of site where technical people submit ideas and a budget and hardware/software developers come together, create teams, and build that concept into a product. Quirky and Maker's Row do something like this but I'd still have to do a bit more customer discovery.
A bit far from what I'm aiming to build but I'm wondering whether I should listen a bit closer.
About us:
GradFly is a repository for hardware projects kind of like github is for code. STEM students, inventors, tinkerers, and do-it-yourselfers document the step-by-step process of building a project from idea to implementation. Projects include robotics, electronics, programmables, and manufacturing objects in the K-12, higher ed, and maker spaces. We are growing and would like to extend an invitation for someone to join a small team with dynamic power. Ideally, we’d love to find 2 Software Engineers. Remote is okay.
Press:
http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/30/gradfly-launches-an-online-...
http://www.fastcompany.com/3022198/innovation-agents/4-lesso...
* About the role:
Seeking full-time Software Engineer experienced in enterprise python development with competency in frontend development in css, html, javascript. Required to have a working knowledge of git, and able to deploy code 10+ times a day (or something like that) :-)
Everyone is fullstack and interacts with cto and product management for features they build.
You have room to make this position as autonomous or collaborative as you'd like. We are free thinkers but also lean on each other when we need help. We are open books in that sense.
*
Applying:
Joe and I are the cto and ceo respectively, you can reach out to us at oscar (at) gradfly dot co OR joe (at) gradfly dot co ;Happy to answer questions, share stories, and carry you under our wing. Thanks for reading!