To Prospective Organizations

You've received an email from me asking if we can meet at your office or go out for lunch so that I can tell your story about solving interesting problems with software. This post attempts to answer some of the initial questions that may immediately come up on your side.

After reading through this post I am sure you will have further questions. When you reach that point please email me with those additional questions at matthew.makai@gmail.com. I will update this post throughout my trip with the most frequently asked questions.

What is Coding Across America?

Coding Across America is a five month road trip from March until August 2013 to tell stories of people solving interesting problems with software. I am traveling to thirty cities to meet with people in both large and small organizations.

Who Have You Already Met With?

I have met with and written up many organizations in the cities I've visited:

  1. HumanGeo (DC)
  2. WiserTogether (DC)
  3. Uppidy (DC)
  4. AgilityFeat (Charlottesville)
  5. WillowTree Apps (Charlottesville)
  6. IdeaVillage (New Orleans)
  7. mSchool (New Orleans)
  8. 4.0 Schools (New Orleans)
  9. Work for Pie (Memphis)
  10. Seed Hatchery (Memphis)
  11. Boosterville (Memphis)
  12. Screwpulp (Memphis)
  13. Launch Memphis (Memphis)
  14. Startup Texas (Dallas)
  15. The Gravity Center (Dallas)
  16. The Common Desk (Dallas)
  17. Tech Wildcatters (Dallas)
  18. Continuum Analytics (Austin)
  19. CopperEgg (Austin)
  20. Capital Factory (Austin)
  21. Startup America - Regional Summit (Phoenix)
  22. Seed Spot (Phoenix)
  23. CO+HOOTS (Phoenix)
  24. MistoBox (Phoenix)
  25. Antengo (San Diego)
  26. EvoNexus (San Diego)
  27. Barefoot Solutions (San Diego)
  28. nulu (San Diego)
  29. ForwardMetrics (San Diego)
  30. Saambaa (San Diego)
  31. Downtown Project (Las Vegas)
  32. SocialGlimpz (San Francisco)
  33. Code for America (San Francisco)
  34. Twilio (San Francisco)
  35. Banjo (Bay Area)
  36. Palo Alto Software (Eugene)
  37. Concentric Sky (Eugene)
  38. Portland State Business Accelerator (Portland)
  39. Socrata (Seattle)
  40. Factor.io (Seattle)
  41. Maker Space (Seattle)
  42. Silicon Praire News (Des Moines)
  43. Dwolla (Des Moines)
  44. StartupCity (Des Moines)
  45. Pongr (Des Moines)
  46. BitMethod (Des Moines)
  47. Hatchlings (Des Moines)
  48. GForce Group (Des Moines)
  49. Kaufmann Foundation (Kansas City)
  50. KCSourceLink (Kansas City)
  51. Entrepreneur KC Radio (Kansas City)
  52. SightDeckKC (Kansas City)
  53. Leap2 (Kansas City)
  54. Hacker Village (Kansas City)
  55. EyeVerify (Kansas City)
  56. One Million Cups KC (Kansas City)
  57. Omaha Python (Omaha)
  58. Startup Genome (Omaha)
  59. Drifty (Madison)
  60. The Starter League (Chicago)
  61. 1871 (Chicago)
  62. Matchist (Chicago)
  63. Boston Django (Boston)
  64. Appsembler (Boston)
  65. Schrodinger (NYC)

I also write a range of other posts on the general entrepreneurship and tech scenes in each city I visit.

Why Participate?

By holding up individuals and organizations doing amazing work we can inspire others to take interest in their own communities. Most of the technology press focuses on innovation happening in Silicon Valley, but there are fascinating stories in every city.

For about an hour of your time I can gather enough information and tell your story. It's good press for your organization and your city, especially as this blog gains momentum as I travel through the thirty planned destinations.

What Questions Are Asked?

There are several questions I ask to get the discussion started:

  1. What are the most interesting problems you are solving with software?
  2. What are the best and worst parts of developing software in your city?
  3. What tech stack are you using? What technologies are you most excited about working with? What are you moving away from?
  4. How does the greater tech scene in your city help or hurt your organizations' work?
  5. Do the local and federal governments impact the work you are doing? What could government do to help you better solve the problems you are working on, such as rewriting or removing specific regulations?

The conversation usually becomes a free discussion towards the end based on your interests.

We do not talk about proprietary data. Our discussions are generally on the detail level of a tech meetup or a conference presentation.

I don't charge for the write ups. I'm self-funded through remote consulting work and my own savings.

Who Are You?

I am a developer from Washington, DC. I've been writing on software development for about three years on mattmakai.com (current) and mmakai.com (moved to mattmakai.com).

I'm hoping my experience as a developer enables me to tell stories from a unique perspective that a non-technical writer would not be able to provide.

I also have additional answers on my frequently asked questions page.

© Matt Makai 2012-2017