Matthew Knippen
Verified Expert in Engineering
Swift Developer
Chicago, IL, United States
Toptal member since October 30, 2013
Matthew has been building iPhone and iPad applications since the release of the iPhone SDK in 2008, working on over 60 applications in his career. He holds a bachelor's degree in computer science from the Illinois Institute of Technology. His best strengths are Native iOS development and product development and management.
Portfolio
Experience
Availability
Preferred Environment
Git, GitHub, Xcode, TextMate, OS X, Zsh, Swift, JSON
The most amazing...
...application I've built is Charge Running, an application that provides real-time running classes with a live coach through your mobile phone.
Work Experience
Co-founder/CEO
Charge Running
- Developed an application for iPhone and Apple Watch with thousands of paying users.
- Sent over 30 versions of the application to the App Store, with each one showing improvement to our sales funnel and user experience.
- Built and led a team of trainers, marketing, PR, and business people.
- Worked with an overseas team to launch a native Android application.
- Went through YCombinator, the world's best startup incubator. Raised three rounds of funding.
President, Lead iOS Developer
Zwiffer, Inc.
- Developed 60+ iOS apps from startups to the Fortune 500.
- Provided work to clients such as AT&T, General Assembly, Bloc, bottega8, DIRECTV, and Smyte.
- Mentored junior developers in iOS, Swift, Xcode, and analytics.
- Used advanced CoreImage features including face detection to detect when a user is blinking in a photo for the application NoBlink.
- Built an app in almost every category on the App Store, from Games and Sports & Entertainment to Business & Productivity.
Lead iOS/Machine Learning Developer
AdGem
- Built an SDK for other developers to display an offerwall used by thousands.
- Provided insight in key architectural decisions for iOS, Android, and Unity SDKs.
- Utilized machine learning and AI to build a fraud protection system for our ad network.
- Built an advanced caching system for images and videos that runs seamlessly in the background.
- Implemented semantic versioning throughout the three SDKs.
Founder, CEO
Alligator Games
- Led game design and development for three titles.
- Hired artists, animators, designers, and developers for products I designed.
- Learned marketing, branding, PR and other important skills that an entrepreneur needs to know.
- Used Swift exclusively, becoming an expert in Apple's new programming language.
Senior iOS Developer, Product Manager
Deck5 Software, Inc.
- Developed iOS applications for various Fortune 500 corporations and personal R&D projects.
- Built a team of excellent people to work with, including developers, designers, project managers, and interns.
- Used new business and marketing techniques to make iOS applications successful in the App Store.
- Developed product management skills and learned what it takes to make a tech product successful.
- Created the Forte by Korn/Ferry Product, allowing users to become better employees in many Fortune 500 organizations.
- Built the Application DECKFOLIO, the go-to app for learning stocks and options on the iPad.
Senior iOS Developer
Designory, Inc.
- Built an application for Infiniti cars that is used in retail stores today.
Systems Engineer
Lextech Global Services
- Developed nearly 20 different applications for various high-profile companies.
- Built a custom drag-and-drop inventory search product for Sonic Automotive. This application had to search 25,000 cars instantly using Core Data.
- Used UIGestureRecognizers to build a 3D viewing model by splitting the object into pictures. This allowed the original iPad to render in full quality without losing performance.
- Used Infinite Peripherals Hardware to build two different applications involving barcode signing and credit card transactions. Lightning Sale won an award at iOSDevCamp in 2010.
- Worked in small teams to accomplish large goals.
- Learned how to structure time to meet tight deadlines for clients.
Mac Specialist
Apple, Inc.
- Learned how to position the perfect selling points of a Mac Computer, iPod and iPhone and the ideal way to position someone in buying a computer with accessories.
- Had several weeks with the most sales in the store.
- Became very good at suggesting additional products based on the customer’s needs.
- Learned strong customer interaction and how to address the needs of the customer.
- Asked to help lead training for every new Apple employee in the entire region.
Experience
My Interactive Application Portfolio
Charge Running
#1 Recommended Fitness Training App!
Over 35,000 runners can't be wrong! Charge Running is the most motivating, encouraging, and social way to run!
Charge hosts LIVE running classes from the comfort of your own neighborhood or treadmill. Each live run brings runners from all over the world together in one class where you can run, chat, and compete on our Live Leaderboard for the #1 spot!
Picture this: You wake up in the morning, open up Charge, and see 10+ LIVE runs happening that day. You decide to join the 8 AM run, grab your shoes and headphones, and suddenly you're running LIVE with a dozen other REAL people. You compete against them for distance as if they're running right beside you. Sounds pretty awesome, right?
That's not even the best part.
Each class is hosted and DJ'd by a LIVE, certified running coach, who will motivate, encourage, and empower you to run your best! You have the choice of joining classes varying in difficulty from light walk-to-runs for beginning runners, to hard tempos for those who are training for their next race. Just throw on your shoes, pop in a pair of headphones, and our amazing coaches will take care of the rest!
AdGem - Mobile Ad SDK
https://adgem.com/docs/ios/integration-guide/NoBlink - Always Take the Perfect Photo!
DECKFOLIO - Options Education Made Simple
Korn/Ferry Forte
Sonic Automotive - Auto Search
The Pampered Chef
Stay on top of your business anytime, anywhere. Quickly manage your contacts and calendar, set up Shows, enter orders, and submit Shows. It all syncs automatically to your data on Consultant's Corner*, so you're always up to date! Plus, you can view current and upcoming Host & Guest Specials and browse all of our products. You truly can do business wherever you are!
Diode - Award Winning Game
Education
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science
Illinois Institute of Technology - Chicago, IL, United States
Certifications
Deep Learning Specialization
Coursera
Skills
Libraries/APIs
Firebase iOS SDK, iOS Native Libraries, Flurry, Facebook iOS SDK, iRate, Core Image, Facebook API, PlayHaven, Core Animation, Core Graphics, SpriteKit, X (formerly Twitter) API
Tools
Apple Keynote, Git, Xcode, Crashlytics, RevMob, VirtualBox, GitHub, GitHub Pages, Adobe Photoshop, Coda 2, Charles, Subversion (SVN), Zsh, Adobe Illustrator
Languages
Swift, Objective-C, HTML5, Python, GraphQL, SQL, CSS3, Ruby, Java, C, Haskell, JavaScript, PHP
Frameworks
iOS SDK, UIKit, Core Data, Cocoa Touch, ImageIO, EventKit, Core Foundation, AFNetworking, MapKit, Core Location, CFNetwork, StoreKit, Core Motion, GameKit, Ruby on Rails (RoR), AudioToolbox, Core Bluetooth
Paradigms
Model View Controller (MVC), Object-oriented Programming (OOP), Agile Software Development, Concurrent Programming, Class-based OOP, Refactoring, Mobile Development, Rapid Prototyping, UX Design, Unit Testing, Scrum, REST, Key-Value Observing (KVO), Pair Programming, Extreme Programming, Continuous Integration (CI), Test-driven Development (TDD)
Platforms
Firebase, MacOS, Parse, Keychain, iOS, iCloud, Heroku, Amazon Web Services (AWS), OS X, Arduino
Storage
JSON, SQLite, MongoDB, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), NoSQL, PostgreSQL, MySQL
Other
Product Design, AVFoundation, Accounts, Multithreading, Lean Development, Game Development, Sales, Product Management, Product Development, App Store, iPad, API Integration, Development, Analytics, Security, Computer Graphics, Geospatial Data, App UX, Machine Learning, Computer Science, User Interface (UI)
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