At Metal Toad we aren't just about technology - we've got business advice too!
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Starting my journey with a technology company
Onboarding During my few weeks, I went through an onboarding process where I learned about the company's culture, values, and procedures.
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Lambda SnapStart
AWS re:Invent is in full swing and with it come new services that people have been asking for.
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Brazil’s Best: Metal Toad Wins 2021 Clutch Award for Top IT Outsourcing Company
From Los Angeles to Brazil Headquartered in sunny Los Angeles, California, Metal Toad is an award-winning
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Planning for Uncertainty: 7 Key Principles for Creating an Excellent Roadmap
Roadmaps are important. My summer plans often involve traveling with my family. If you’re like me, your summer travel plans have shifted from planes to local road trips.
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Ecommerce trends 2021
I recently bought a t-shirt online. Printed on the shirt is a hilarious mash-up of a cartoon from the 80s (He-Man) and a modern-day meme ("do you even lift?"). The inspiration came from hearing the phrase...
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Back to work
For the first time in 12 months, I am exploring options for an actual office space outside of my home. As many of you know, Metal Toad went...
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How to host a virtual conference
This article first appeared in the Metal Toad newsletter.
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How to work remotely
Get our top 5 tips to doing remote work right. We've been working remotely since 2019 and learned a number of things the hard way.
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What is wallstreetbets Reddit?
It's likely been impossible for you to miss all the talk about GameStop stock. This upside is due to a corner of the internet called Reddit. More specifically, a corner of Reddit called r/wallstreetbets.
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What is Clubhouse?
By now you've probably heard about Clubhouse, the hot new social app. While I'm sure many of you are already on the inside, perhaps even hosting your own events, I've learned a few things since I joined that you might find interesting.
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Work from home forever
In March of 2020, as a joke on my Instagram I posted a photo of my dog saying he hoped nobody ever went back to work. Now almost 11 months later, it turns out that my dog may have been better at seeing into the future than I was.
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The Year is 2031
This article first appeared in the Metal Toad newsletter.
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When should you use AWS Lambda?
Faster than the wing flap of a bee Bees flap their wings ridiculously fast, at around 230 beats per second (fruit flies are 80 times smaller than honeybees but flap their wings only 200 times a second.) Given that there are 1,000 milliseconds in a second, a bee wing flap takes ~4.3 mill
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5 Things New Managers Should Know
You're a boss! Now what? Before diving in the list, I'd like to make sure you're aware of something: just because you have an MBA or classes in management doesn't mean you are skilled enough to become an effective leader.
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No one ever got fired for buying IBM
Technology consulting firms are everywhere. Many have familiar names like IBM, Accenture and McKinsey. Some may be vendors you're working with. But in most cases one thing is almost certain. They sold you on their "reach" and their "scale".
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How to Close an Office
On March 1, 2020, I handed in the keys to the Metal Toad office in Portland, Oregon — our corporate headquarters for the past five years — back to the building manager.
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COVID19 and the Impact on Business
Well, it's been an interesting 9 weeks. Right?
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How Cloud became the most important buzzword in business
Cloud is not the first (and probably not the last) disruptor to business via software. Over the past 50 years or so there have been four major epochs of software, with Cloud being the latest. SaaS software is dying and the Cloud is coming for all of us.
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The Battle for Cloud Marketshare in Oregon
Oregon has always been well known for its timber industry. Indeed at one point in the 1970s fully 12% of the States GDP was produced by timber. While timber's former dominance is not a surprise, many p
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Compreendendo a Transformação Digital (Understanding Digital Transformation)
Hoje de manhã enquanto tomava um café, estava pensativa e fiquei intrigada com a seguinte questão: Por que não basta apenas instalar soluções tecnológicas? Daí surgiu a motivação para escrever este blog.
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Metal Toad launches Remote-First Work Policy
“If you want the best talent, limiting yourself to the talent that’s available in a single city (let alone a single country) is shooting yourself in the foot.
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Saas vs. Cloud
I talk a lot about the Cloud. And while, "the cloud" is certainly a candidate for buzzword bingo, unlike some other buzzwords, I really do believe this one lives up to the hype.
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Consumer Grade Expectations
Here at Metal Toad, we’re constantly engaged in developing solutions for complex, cloud-focused application needs. What’s intriguing about the space I hold (account management and partner development) is that clients are increasingly sophisticated in their expectations.
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Metal Toad's CEO Talks Future of eCommerce at Alibaba.com Seminar
On July 26th, Metal Toad’s CEO and Founder Joaquin Lippincott, spoke at Build-up, an event hosted by Alibaba.com in partnership with the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and California Market Center.
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Why the Cloud Movement Is the Future of All Business
Cloud computing is quickly becoming not just another tech innovation, but a fundamental shift in the way businesses function. Learn the top 6 advantages of moving to cloud and the ONLY 3 ways to accomplish innovation.
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Software is a slash and burn industry
Any industry that wants to be sustainable must think long term. In the timber industry they need to worry about the future availability of trees, for fisheries they need to think about fish - you get the point.
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How to Run a Great Hackathon (and Why You Should Do It)
Working at Metal Toad is all about innovation. It’s why I was drawn to this place—a place that celebrates the unusual, gets excited about new ideas, and constantly seeks out the latest emerging tech.
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The impact of self driving cars
The self-driving car is coming. The race is on currently to see who will be first to get fully automated, and cities are scrambling to get out in front claiming that they are the most “car friendly”.
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How wasted inventory shows up in software development
In software, a feature backlog is no different than a warehouse of slowly rotting, unused goods. When you think of software features, think of inventory that is wasting away unless it is delivered to a customer.
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The 3 Paths for Digital Transformation
There's a lot of talk about digital transformation these days. I think undoubtably this movement - transforming as many processes from analog to digital - is going to be the heart of value for business for at least the next 50 years into the future. That said, there three major ways for compani
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There are no estimates, only budgets
The challenge of estimating software projects is that software is a creative act: you can paint a line, or you can paint a Monet. Every person involved has a different opinion about the amount of creativity needed for every miniscule feature.
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Be a Partner, not a Vendor
Years ago, I received a frustrating email from a disappointed client. I was confused – from an engineering perspective, this should have been a model project.
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Is your company going to be digital or not?
A month after opening our 2nd office and meeting with people in Los Angeles, CA, one thing is very clear: companies know they need to move into the digital world, and they know they need help ge
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Top 5 Ways Executives Destroy Agile Companies
A few months ago, a senior executive of a large company asked me, “With our Agile transformation, how am I going to screw it up?” The question shook me to the core. A few years earlier...
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How Much Does a Website Cost? 3 of 3: Maintenance
A good framework for most people to help understand these costs is to look at buying a website like buying a house. After you've bought it you still have to move into it (website migration costs) and maintain the house over time.
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How Much Does a Website Cost? 2 of 3: Rebuilding
In my last article, I addressed the age old question "how much does a website cost?" from the standpoint of initial purchase.
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How Much Does a Website Cost? 1 of 3: Initial Purchase
"How much does a website cost?" These are six words — when spoken in sequence — that most web developers dread.
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Tech is More Than an Industry
Some people see software and tech as an industry. Seen on it's own it is a whole category of employment including massive companies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft. Yet as time marches on, tech is becoming more than an industry. Like...
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When There is a Skills Gap, Industry Needs to Fix It
A number of industries are going through a skills gap crisis - or are looking down the barrel of one. In manufacturing, an aging workforce means that in the next 10 years retirement will free up 3.5 million jobs - and because of the skills gap, 2 million of them will likely go unfilled.
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Industry Disruption: It's All Our Fault
Uber and Darwin are getting a bad rap for killing off the taxi industry. They are innocent. As a matter of fact, Uber founders Travis Kalanick, Garrett Camp, and evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin all have a solid alibi.
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Showing Up for Our Clients: Why Nothing Beats a Face-to-Face Meeting
I’m currently on my way home from two weeks of back to back east coast travel. It’s not because I love ten-hour travel days and the resulting jet lag, it’s because I love our clients.
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Revisiting First Mover (Dis)Advantage
In 2001, the Harvard Business Review published “First Mover Disadvantage” by William Boulding and Markus Christen.
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Brand Strategy Planning Tips for a New Year
3 Fundamental Underpinnings for Successful Brand Planning
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How to Select an Ethical Software Vendor
Many software firms believe that building great software is important. We believe it is important to take it one step further by committing to great business ethics along the way. We bring this into play through four key axioms:
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Are You Prepared?
It happens every couple of years or so. There's a a shocking or (dare I say) earth-shaking article that is published. YOU ARE ALL GOING TO DIE IN THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE OF THE WHATEVER!
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CoverOregon goes Open Source
Ten months since my open letter to Oregon Governor Kitzhaber, challenging him to fix CoverOregon and to use more local companies and more open source in their technology solutions, we have come full circle.
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Defining Client Success
I’ve recently joined Metal Toad as Director of Client Success. My role here is to hone the vision for successful, long-term partnerships with our Clients. I’m excited about the opportunity to contribute to an already successful and talented team of Toads.
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The Toads Have Leapt!
After three wonderful years at our previous office, Metal Toad has outgrown our lilypad.
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Seeing Long Term Technology Adoption as Evolution
Much like an evolutionary tree our goal in technology adoption is too continue to move forward and evolve, rather than getting caught in a dead end. In the natural world, becoming bigger can be good but can lead to extinction events should the environment or food source change. Right now we are in a technology Jurassic...
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DC Comics & Hip Hop
Many years ago I got into skateboarding, soon after, that lead to hip hop. Something about the two seemed to be synonymous around that time, or perhaps it was just my area (Metro Detroit).
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Beware the Matrix Model?
And now for the fifth post in the series following my Drupalcon Austin session, entitled "Oh look, we're growing!" This post follows closely on the heels of
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Family-Sized Business Units & The Agency Holding Company Model
Here is part four in the series following my Drupalcon Austin session, entitled "Oh look, we're growing!" This post takes a look at the goal of maintaining s
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Why More People Select WordPress than Drupal to Build Websites
First off, Drupal has had a great year and a great quarter. According to builtwith.com Drupal is second among all Content Management Systems at 13.75% of the top 10K websites and has added ~250K new website this quarter.
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Going Paper-less with Google Drive
As a technology company, we tend to go full-bore with any tools that can move us away from paper. When Google Drive (formerly Google Apps) made authoring, organizing and sharing digital documents something available to the masses, we jumped on it. Fully three years later, for us it has been a huge success.
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You Should be Paying More Than $50/month for Hosting.
In the year 1999, if you ran a business and you had a website, you were ahead of the game. It meant that in addition to finding you in the Yellow Pages (where most people still looked) you could also be found on the "World Wide Web".
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Web Agencies Need Code Review
Web design and development agencies are lacking in code review practices, and our collective clients are suffering as a result.
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How to Convince Your Boss to Let You Work From Home
So you want to work from home? Well, you have to convince me first. Ok. Maybe not me exactly, but I am a business owner and for years I successfully ran my business with the mom-and-pop mentality that if I could see my employees in their seats, they must be working. If I sent employees home, who knew whether they would goof off or not? Most businesses start with this mentality and many never get past it, however, at our company we changed course and have not only improved morale, but
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2011 Knight News Challenge
If you haven't heard (or applied) be sure to check out the 2011 Knight News Challenge. It's an opportunity to pursue $5 million in funding for your idea that addresses one or more of the following topics as it relates to news...
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Shopping for a Web Developer is like Shopping for an Auto Mechanic
If you've been tasked with selecting a web developer, you may find the experience a lot like looking for an auto mechanic. Ultimately you want to get a good price, but you also want to be sure the work is good and what you are being told is true. The similarities boil down to a few key things: You could do the work yourself
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How to Create a New Facebook Network for Your Business
Facebook networks are one of the major ways that it allows people to connect to each other. Networks come in a few different types including: Regions (geographic) Colleges Workplaces High School
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What Twitter worth? I'm talking cash here...
I just read an article by @marshallk (thanks to @turoczy for the link) asking how much you would pay for Twitter
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Keeping in touch after the event
I attended the AIGA leadership retreat in Omaha, Nebraska (I'm starting in July as the new Web Chair for AIGA Portland). There were some great opportunities to talk about Web Development and get inspired about this great organization.