Josh Smith, Developer in Baltimore, MD, United States
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Josh Smith

Verified Expert  in Engineering

Software Developer

Location
Baltimore, MD, United States
Toptal Member Since
October 11, 2012

Josh is a freelance full stack developer, from graphic design on down to systems administration. He has founded two companies and led product development and engineering work at two others. He loves data-driven design, continuous deployment, and customer development. He fully believes in applying the scientific method to everything he does.

Full-stack DevelopmentApolloSQLCSSNode.jsREST APIsHTML5RubyRuby on Rails (RoR)HerokuStripe APIGraphQLTypeScriptJestTest-driven Development (TDD)

Portfolio

Coderly
Swift, iOS, Ember.js, JavaScript, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Ruby, Mobile UX...
Coder.ly
HTML, CSS, Less, JavaScript, jQuery, Pusher, Socket.IO, MongoDB, MySQL...
Brandskore
Git, HTML, CSS, Less, Bootstrap, JavaScript, jQuery, ASP.NET, C#, Architecture...

Experience

SQL - 13 yearsHTML5 - 11 yearsCSS3 - 11 yearsJavaScript - 11 yearsRuby on Rails (RoR) - 11 yearsRuby - 11 yearsiOS - 4 yearsSwift - 1 year

Availability

Full-time

Preferred Environment

Xcode, Asana, GitHub, Git, ITerm, Sublime Text, OS X

The most amazing...

...product I've launched is a real-time social network built in a week with Node.js and Socket.IO. Five days after launch, we had over 1k users.

Work Experience

Founder

2012 - PRESENT
Coderly
  • Launched a best new App Store iOS app backed by a Rails API to acclaim by TechCrunch, Vogue, and InStyle.
  • Launched a social fitness app in the Best Fitness Apps category on iOS, also backed by a Rails API.
  • Built my own website for teaching people to cook with a Rails API back-end and Ember.js front-end.
  • Built a canvassing app for Bernie 2016.
Technologies: Swift, iOS, Ember.js, JavaScript, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Ruby, Mobile UX, Architecture, Apollo, GraphQL, TypeScript, REST APIs, Webpack, Next.js, Tailwind CSS, Jest, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Full-stack Development, Responsive, Responsiveness, SQL, Heroku, API Integration, Stripe Payments, Stripe API

Founder

2012 - 2012
Coder.ly
  • Built and launched the product in one week.
  • Iterated quickly on user feedback to get over 1k users five days later.
  • Created a realtime newsfeed using first Socket.IO, and moving to Pusher to make use of private channels for realtime private messages.
  • Created a share widget similar to that of Google+ which let users share their status, code samples, and links to interesting items on the internet.
  • Built deep LinkedIn integration, which helped the application reach a viral coefficient of 0.8.
Technologies: HTML, CSS, Less, JavaScript, jQuery, Pusher, Socket.IO, MongoDB, MySQL, Express.js, Node.js, Architecture, REST APIs, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Full-stack Development, SQL, API Integration, Stripe Payments, Stripe API

Product Lead

2011 - 2012
Brandskore
  • Redesigned the UI from the ground up, from graphic design to code.
  • Rewrote all client-side JavaScript and CSS for production, moving from vanilla JS to jQuery and from CSS to LESS.
  • Assisted lead back-end developer in re-architecting ASP.NET MVC project to produce mostly JSON, making previously static pages dynamic.
  • Improved integration and deployment processes; switching the team from Subversion to Git alone sped up iteration speeds by as much as 50%.
  • Managed marketing, metrics, and analytics, making major use of KISSmetrics for product development decisions.
Technologies: Git, HTML, CSS, Less, Bootstrap, JavaScript, jQuery, ASP.NET, C#, Architecture, Full-stack Development, SQL, API Integration

Lead Developer

2011 - 2011
bLife
  • Led the development and execution of technology strategy from architecture to completion.
  • Designed web and mobile applications with availability and scalability in mind.
  • Implemented features that improved customer experience and usability.
  • Managed development team, schedule, and budget.
  • Set high QA standards.
Technologies: HTML, CSS, jQuery, CodeIgniter, PHP, Architecture, REST APIs, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Full-stack Development, SQL, API Integration

Founder

2010 - 2011
Goals.com
  • Acqui-hired in June, 2011 by bLife, a True Ventures portfolio company.
  • Architected the entire web application from the bottom up.
  • Built a custom content delivery network on top of Amazon’s AWS.
  • Built in-house metrics and utilized external A/B testing platforms for UX optimization.
  • Designed all custom logos and iconography across the site.
  • Launched January, 2011 and grew to 20,000 members.
Technologies: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, PHP, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Full-stack Development, SQL, API Integration

Coder.ly

My last startup.

Field the Bern

Field the Bern is an iOS app backed by a Rails JSON API that helps people canvass for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

Reissued

http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/15/reissued-brings-vintage-shopping-to-mobile/
Reissued was a mobile marketplace for vintage goods. Sellers could snap photos of their products, print out shipping labels, and track their shipments on-the-go.

Languages

CSS, HTML5, Sass, Swift 2, Ruby, Swift, HTML, SQL, CSS3, JavaScript, GraphQL, TypeScript, Less, C#, PHP

Frameworks

Bootstrap, Cocoa Touch, Ruby on Rails (RoR), React Native, Next.js, Tailwind CSS, Jest, Express.js, ASP.NET, CodeIgniter, Ember.js

Libraries/APIs

Stripe, Facebook API, Twitter API, jQuery, Node.js, Socket.IO, React, REST APIs, Stripe API, jQuery UI, Pusher, Amazon FPS

Tools

Sketch, Adobe Fireworks, Webpack, Git, Sublime Text, ITerm, GitHub, Asana, Xcode

Paradigms

Test-driven Development (TDD), Agile Software Development, Responsive

Platforms

MacOS, iOS, Linux, Unix, WordPress, Ubuntu, Heroku, Amazon Web Services (AWS), OS X

Other

Lean Development, Web Development, Front-end, Full-stack, Software Development, User Interface (UI), Front-end Development, User Experience (UX), Hybrid Apps, Back-end Development, Mobile UX, Architecture, Apollo, Full-stack Development, Responsiveness, API Integration, Stripe Payments

Storage

PostgreSQL, MySQL, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), MongoDB

2004 - 2008

Bachelors Degree in Philosophy

University of Maryland, College Park - Maryland

2004 - 2008

Bachelors Degree in Art History

University of Maryland, College Park - Maryland

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