The formation of Downtown Cartel can be directly attributed to our work environment, The Creative Space. We all started as individual residents in a coworking space in downtown Bryan. We would come in after our day jobs and visit a bit. Kick some ideas around. Go out to eat, then come back and work on different projects. The office grew from five people to thirteen in just under 8 months.
I was one of the founding members of the Creative Space along with four others and somehow I knew that if we got this thing started, something very good would eventually come from it.
In December of 2007 - sometime between Christmas and New Years the four of us were sitting around one night and we all came to the realization that we had all the parts to start a software development and consulting company specializing in Ruby and Python.
The amazing talent of the other residents are a great value to our company. We can outsource work that we may not be the best at - like photography or video - thanks to guys like Michael Cummings.
The first ‘real’ company that existed in the Creative Space was Always Creative - a company we work very closely with when it comes to design and branding.
We also have access to PHP and ASP guys in the space that we can go to if we need expertise in that area.
And last, but not least there’s a Solaris admin in the group that is most useful not for his old-school unix admin abilities, but his home brewing of beer. We have found a need for beer far more than a need for Unix admin skills.
The folks outside of our company are the ones who provide us the ability to adapt to the different types of work that come in. We have the leanness of four and the experience of thirteen. This is a defining aspect of our company and we are fortunate to have the folks around us when we need them.
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