Resume for Curtis Miller

Summary

I’m a Phoenix Ruby on Rails web developer and co-founder of Flatterline, a Phoenix web development company for startups, along with my partner Chris Chandler.

I have a MS in Computer Science and have written software professionally since 2001. I’ve worked at small agile companies and large bureaucratic companies and found that my true passion lies in working in and around startup companies. With Flatterline, I get a chance everyday to help Phoenix startups realize their vision.

While I work mostly in Ruby on Rails, I’m also expanding my skill set into iPhone development as that is something often requested by the startups with which we work.

Professional Experience

  • Flatterline LLC, Phoenix, AZ
    Co-Founder (2009 – Present)

    Flatterline is a kick ass web development company in Phoenix, AZ that specializes in helping early stage startups. We work primarily as Ruby on Rails developers, but also develop iPhone applications.

    We work closely with startup founders to discuss, prioritize and implement software features in order for them to reach their goal, whether that’s generating revenue or receiving additional funding. We’re also often asked to participate in investor or partner pitches to provide technical details if requested.

    We value working code more than large documents and to that end we try to have something visible the first day we begin development. After that, we try to deploy the application as features are complete in order to gather feedback as quickly as possible. Sometimes, we’ll deploy several times per day. We find this is the easiest way for startup founders to see their idea take shape. It also provides a convenient means of giving potential investors and partners a sneak peek into the progress being made on the idea.

  • Freebootr, LLC, Phoenix, AZ
    Co-Founder (2008 – Present)

    Freebootr enables you to practice reuse in your daily life. Post, search and locate free items near you and give them a new life!

  • Integrum Technologies, LLC, Chandler, AZ
    Ruby on Rails Developer / Technical Lead (2007 – 2009)

    Ruby on Rails development using edge Rails, RESTful architecture, Rspec BDD in an agile / XP development environment. Responsible for communicating with the customer on a daily basis; planning, designing, implementing, and testing functionality in weekly iterations; and participating in a customer demo weekly.

  • Contractor, Various, AZ
    Ruby on Rails Developer / Contractor (2006 – 2007)

    During this time, I taught myself Ruby and Ruby on Rails technologies by exploring several different ideas for web applications. I also entered into a short-term contract to create a student tracking application for a community college wellness center.

    Additionally, I worked for several months for a client that was building an EMR system using Ruby on Rails and JavaScript with a MySQL backend. On the JavaScript side, we used the Ext JavaScript library to provide a highly usable and functional GUI.

    During my time at this client I transitioned their SQL files into Rails migrations, developed a portion of the system to manage patients once they arrive at the facility, completely refactored the existing schema, rewrote the existing Rails views to integrate with Ext (including wrapping much of the Ext functionality into Rails helpers), rewrote a significant portion of the existing code base, integrated many plugins (including a customized acts_as_paranoid), and generally made both the code and product a whole lot nicer.

    By the end of my time at this client, we were developing on edge Rails and implementing a RESTful architecture for the product. I also worked to introduce a more agile approach to development including pair-programming (which worked great!).

  • Raytheon Company, Fullerton, CA
    Software Engineer II (2004 – 2006)

    Used Java and C++ with CORBA to create a distributed client/server infrastructure for the Navy. Acted as deputy team lead, release lead, build coordinator, and developer. I received Six Sigma training and lead several projects to improve the process within my team with an estimated savings over $100K.

  • Project Technology, Inc., Tucson, AZ
    Software Engineer (2000 – 2003)

    Designed and implemented modifications to a UML-to-C++ compiler targeting multiple runtime environments. Created and ran manual tests for a UML modeling tool. Created and ran automated tests for a UML-to-C++ compiler.

Education