CrankApps In The News

CrankApps was in the news yesterday. A friend (James Colgan, CEO of Xuropa) called me in the afternoon and asked if I wanted to go to a job fair where people were there to work for free. It sounded like a good deal, and happened to be at a great bar (District) that a friend of mine owns, so I went down to check it out. It was a mob scene. People standing in line to talk to me. 

As I told the press (but they decided to edit out) I think that it is companies like ours in hot spaces that might be able to help fill in some of the gaps of joblessness in the marketplace. Yes, we are hiring (sales, marketing, systems administators, development). Who knows, we might even pay people. 

A Cloudy Seattle

Ahh Seattle. Despite the familiar gray patchwork sky, the city in which I grew up in, seems, different. The vibe is different. The city landscape is different. Heck, even the Seahawks managed 5 consecutive winning seasons. As I listened to each training session at the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Strategic Partner training, I pondered this difference.

I left Mercer Island at 18, attended Santa Clara University, started a company, and joined the fun in Silicon Valley. "The Valley", we call it, is without a doubt the epicenter of much of the world's remarkable technology. Ask anyone and you'll conclude that this is an open and shut case. However, ask those same people about Amazon.com's business model, "technology company" rarely comes up. Ask someone outside of Seattle where Amazon calls home, the Emerald city is not the popular response.

And then it hit me. While I've been at the epicenter, Amazon.com has been, somewhat quietly, building a technology empire. My Sea-town, home (sic) of the Shawn Kemp Sonics, biggest fan base of The Boz, has an innovative spirit unseen since the early Microsoft days. There's a buzz in Seattle.

But I digress...

What's really exciting for us, and should be exciting for you, is how game-changing the services offered by AWS are today. Cloud Computing is here, and it's real, and Amazon.com (the retail company!?) is leading the charge.

Whether you venture into this world on your own, or you choose an experienced partner like Crankapps to help you get there, the end result is very promising. Huge cost savings, increased time to market, disaster recovery plans, you name it, it's attainable.

Thanks Seattle.