Our mission
Hiring software engineers can be a nightmare.
It takes too long and takes up too much time for all parties involved. We want to make the process simpler and more transparent.
We are building a network of amazingly talented software engineers (yes, you have to earn your stripes to join). Our engineers set the grade and peer review all newcomers.
Using our unique peer reviewed code challenge platform we also work alongside employers and recruiters to help measure their candidate’s coding ability too. Candidates are evaluated by our network.
Our code challenges evaluate both overall technical ability and specific software skill sets. This allows employers to filter their final list of candidates quickly, eliminating hours of time evaluating CVs and reviewing code challenges, leaving in-house development teams to do what they do best - ship great product.
And when our network of engineers are looking for their next career challenge we help them find the perfect match through our network of clients.
The founding team
Rick Brownlow Co-Founder, CEO
Serial entrepreneur, tech evangelist and geek who can’t write a line of code.
After 10 years in the insurance industry in the 1990's, risk-managing everything from tigers in TV commercials to million pound online lotteries Rick founded Chimaera Games in 2002, a mobile casino and games start up (right product, five years too early).
Rick then joined the founding team at mobile tech start-up Mfuse, who quickly became the leading provider of mobile software to most of the UK’s betting operators.
In 2010, Rick jumped the fence to work on a new role within Sportingbet Plc as their Head of Mobile, quickly taking the vertical from zero to 20% of their business before going back to what he likes best – fast moving start ups, founding Bonza Gaming, a JV between Unibet and Plumbee; disrupting the online gambling industry with a Facebook integrated real money app Bonza Slots.
Unibet acquired 100% of the business in early 2015 leaving Rick to move away from the gambling industry to focus on Geektastic.
Charles Girdham Co-Founder, CTO
Has never found a technical problem that he didn't want to try to solve
After a decade in molecular genetics research, Charles was in San Francisco at the beginning of the 90s and was distracted by the internet.
Now with almost 20 years experience in technology, software development and software architecture from Silicon Valley start-ups in the mid-90s to London start-ups in the 00s, mobile content delivery, high-traffic customer facing web sites for Sky TV, video-on-demand platforms for broadcasters such as Channel 4, and more recently enterprise service integrations for Disney’s My Disney Experience in Florida and worldwide social media campaigns for Nokia.
Charles has a very broad platform of experience but his real passion is for start-ups with new technical challenges and new open source technical solutions.
Hiring software engineers can be a nightmare.
It takes too long and takes up too much time for all parties involved. We want to make the process simpler and more transparent.
We are building a network of amazingly talented software engineers (yes, you have to earn your stripes to join). Our engineers set the grade and peer review all newcomers.
Using our unique peer reviewed code challenge platform we also work alongside employers and recruiters to help measure their candidate’s coding ability too. Candidates are evaluated by our network.
Our code challenges evaluate both overall technical ability and specific software skill sets. This allows employers to filter their final list of candidates quickly, eliminating hours of time evaluating CVs and reviewing code challenges, leaving in-house development teams to do what they do best - ship great product.
And when our network of engineers are looking for their next career challenge we help them find the perfect match through our network of clients.
The founding team
Rick Brownlow Co-Founder, CEO
Serial entrepreneur, tech evangelist and geek who can’t write a line of code.
After 10 years in the insurance industry in the 1990's, risk-managing everything from tigers in TV commercials to million pound online lotteries Rick founded Chimaera Games in 2002, a mobile casino and games start up (right product, five years too early).
Rick then joined the founding team at mobile tech start-up Mfuse, who quickly became the leading provider of mobile software to most of the UK’s betting operators.
In 2010, Rick jumped the fence to work on a new role within Sportingbet Plc as their Head of Mobile, quickly taking the vertical from zero to 20% of their business before going back to what he likes best – fast moving start ups, founding Bonza Gaming, a JV between Unibet and Plumbee; disrupting the online gambling industry with a Facebook integrated real money app Bonza Slots.
Unibet acquired 100% of the business in early 2015 leaving Rick to move away from the gambling industry to focus on Geektastic.
Charles Girdham Co-Founder, CTO
Has never found a technical problem that he didn't want to try to solve
After a decade in molecular genetics research, Charles was in San Francisco at the beginning of the 90s and was distracted by the internet.
Now with almost 20 years experience in technology, software development and software architecture from Silicon Valley start-ups in the mid-90s to London start-ups in the 00s, mobile content delivery, high-traffic customer facing web sites for Sky TV, video-on-demand platforms for broadcasters such as Channel 4, and more recently enterprise service integrations for Disney’s My Disney Experience in Florida and worldwide social media campaigns for Nokia.
Charles has a very broad platform of experience but his real passion is for start-ups with new technical challenges and new open source technical solutions.