#limulus systems

[funnelcakeapp]

Funnelcake Founders' Stories 3

So far you've been introduced to the heart of Limulus Systems LLC, consisting of Tom Norton and Winthrop Jackman. As talented as those gentleman are, it takes a bigger team to make a successful iPhone app. You didn't think those two were going to do the programming for Funnelcake, did you? No, once it was decided to do an app, the experts were consulted. One of the first people brought in was Casey Cobb of Project Ricochet, Inc. His story follows.

Casey Cobb is a man who gets things done. He loves apps, languages, and personality profile tests. After college he backpacked around the world visiting 35 different countries in 2 years. He has co-founded several companies and is most recently a new, proud father of  a son. He has over 15 years of experience in web and software development. He has a B.S. in Computer Science and his specialties include Open Source web development (most notably Drupal), custom PHP, MySQL, jQuery, Zend Framework, mobile development, as well as project architecture and project management.

[funnelcakeapp]

Funnelcake Founder’s Stories 1

Despite what you might have heard, the Funnelcake application did not spring up out of the sea, fully formed, nor was it forged by the blacksmiths on Mount Olympus. Such stories are spurious nonsense, told to children before they go to bed at night.

No, it was handcrafted by people like you and me, people dedicated to creating something new and different, something that will make life better for us all. But who are these wondrous people who want to benefit the earth? Who are the founders of Funnelcake?

You are about to find out.

We can do no better than to go to the source, the founders themselves, to learn the stories that they tell about their lives. This is the first such story; there will be more in future posts. Read it and be enlightened:

Winthrop "Jack" Jackman (Executive Director, Limulus Systems, LLC) is an entrepreneur with a diverse array of expertise, from biotechnology research to software development. After earning a B.A. in Biology at Colgate University, Jack received a Ph.D. in Cell Biology from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He worked for ten years in biotechnology, including stints at two different startups, Aviron and Arriva Pharmaceuticals. As a result of his career in biotechnology, he earned several publications and patents, and an appreciation for what it takes to start a successful company.   His experience in startup ventures was invaluable as he founded his own company, Limulus Systems LLC. In conjunction with Project Ricochet Inc, Limulus Systems LLC developed Funnelcake, a novel photo- and message-sharing application for iPhone and web, with Jack serving as Executive Director, Marketing Director, and Product Tester. Jack lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and son and aspires to one day play bass for Parliament Funkadelic.

[wjackman]

Funnelcake Released!

Funnelcake has been released from its’ bondage and is in the App Store! Here at Limulus Systems, we couldn’t be more excited that the app is finally available for iPhone. Now you can create your location-based photo and message albums, or “funnels”, to share with the people around you. The app is dead easy and fun to use.

We’re very proud of what we’ve done to develop Funnelcake. However, this…

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[wjackman]

Me And the Boys

Me And the Boys

Recently I’ve been participating in Sprint planning with the guys at my Funnelcake development team, Project Ricochet. The Sprint planning meetings are weekly video conferences in which we go over the list of tasks that need to be accomplished to develop Funnelcake further. We prioritize tasks and assign the tasks to the participants to be done that week as a way of managing the complex job of…

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[wjackman]

Working Virtually

Running Limulus Systems as a virtual company has always been my dream. With no offices to pay for, no soul-sucking commute, everyone working on their own schedule at their own rate, no interruptions unless you want them, working virtually has the advantages of being more cost-effective and more productive. Who needs to physically meet? My partners and I communicate regularly by email, Skype when…

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[wjackman]

The Prescription for Startup Development

The Prescription for Startup Development

Growth, Engagement, then Revenue! That’s the mantra for startup development from Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn (as quoted in The Startup Playbook, by David S. Kidder). I suppose Hoffman should know, since LinkedIn has been a pretty successful venture. That mantra is also the path we have been pursuing at Limulus Systems, though perhaps less purposefully than one would like.

This is a…

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[wjackman]

Getting Connected

Getting Connected

It goes without saying that almost any product these days needs a web presence. Unless you’re producing special limited-edition hand-made goat cheese from a small farm in the Ural Mountains – or perhaps even then – you’ll use the web to tell the world that you exist. Maintaining a presence on the web may not be your only marketing strategy, but will have to be a component of it.

This is…

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[wjackman]

Curio 8 - A Review

Curio 8 – A Review

Every now and then, I like to talk about some of the software tools I’ve used recently for Limulus Systems. In this case, it’s an application for thinking and planning, Curio 8.

I’m a big-picture thinker. That means that I like the 30,000-ft view of things, where you get a general sense of what is going on without all those messy little details. However, the devil is in the details, as they say,…

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