Some very special Blooie news this weekend, as we all give a massive congratulations to our amazing CTO Chris on his wedding!
So Blooie is going to take a couple of days to join in the celebrations, but don’t worry, we’ll be back very soon with some really exciting news!
Ellen started at Blooie as an intern in 2012, fresh from leaving university only a month before. Little did we know then that we had found a gem of an employee!
From our previous post, you can see that Blooie is more than just a place to work. We’re a close knit group of friends building something big.
For me, the number one thing in a company is the fit and the atmosphere for the people working there. So when the right candidate comes along we snap them up. This is exactly what happened with Ellen.
She can shut my nonsense up with as little as a look, all the while having the rest of the team rolling around in convulsions, so it was pretty obvious she would fit right in.
Now having worked with Ellen since August 2012, there is literally no task that you can throw at her that is too big. Her capacity for learning and growing into a role is remarkable. We are very lucky to have her as part of Blooie.
A few interesting facts about Ellen:
1. She is the first full-time English employee at Blooie.
2. Unlike Conor, she actually can dance! She spent years in a dance group and has performed up and down the country.
3. Ellen has pretty much destroyed our office with pink things. If it isn’t her pink laptop its her pink phone, notebook, bag; you name it, it’s pink!
I’m really pleased to be able to welcome Sam Sharp onto the Blooie team as an intern. He will be based out of our new Blooie Leeds office, which brings the population up to 2, go Leeds!
It’s quite rare to find people who not only want to solve problems but aren’t afraid of taking on big challenges, challenges like having to learn a whole new skill set to solve problems. Sam is one of these people, to complete some projects he decided he needed to teach himself programming. Now you understand why we hired him! You can expect to get some details on his endeavours in upcoming blog posts.
Sam now brings the total number of full-timers in Blooie to 6; 2 in Newcastle, 2 in Dublin and now 2 in Leeds, which makes for some really interesting hangout meetings.
I think I can speak for all of team Blooie when I say I am really looking forward to working with Sam and we know he’s a great fit for the company.
Some interesting facts about Sam:
He has created an awesome slug based music synthesizer that works purely in javascript (awesome or what!?) check it out http://slugjam.net/
He has a degree in Social Anthropology.
He brews his own beer! We promise this isn’t the only reason we hired him ;)
Blooie is always on the lookout for interesting people!
If you think you’d like to work for us, we’re currently looking for a UX/UI designer.
Darragh and I went to university together and most of the time we were the last two people in the lab working on the stuff we needed to do for class and also a whole load of other things we didn’t need to do! One night, we stayed late to build a homemade radio data transmitter and receiver, while popping outside every 10 minutes to do some soldering so as not to set off the fire alarms!
Myself and Darragh always work well together and, after I missed the opportunity to work with him in his successful design agency, I was delighted when he took the plunge to become Blooie’s first employee! I like to think we’re recreating those late night (underground) hacking sessions every day in Blooie ;) There is nobody I trust more with tech decisions than Darragh, if i’m busy, I know he can keep the Blooie ship on course!
Darragh has really helped to keep our feet on the ground, helping to cut through the crap and get to the crux of the issue in a way that blows our minds! Somebody with his problem solving skills and the right attitude is very hard to come by and we’re glad to have him on the team.
A few interesting facts about Darragh:
He did some work in University on an implementation of the Bundle Protocol which has applications in deep space communications. Also, the team he was working with were planning to test the protocol using transmitters tied to wild deer in Norway! Awesome!
He was a professional Bookbinder before becoming a Computer Scientist! He has even bee-n trained as a Bee Keeper and hopes to own his own bees pretty soon.
He was imaging the moon with his 11” SCT telescope when he got the first call from Blooie!
Conor and I first got to know each other in 2003 working in the kitchens of McDonalds (honestly, not a bad place to work). I’ve always known Conor to be a passionate problem solver, give him any problem and he’ll figure out the root of the problem fast and instantly starts working through solutions!
Apart from being someone who will make Blooie a more enjoyable place to work, this problem solving is why I’m really excited to be getting Conor onboard as our Lead Data Scientist! Conor and I have worked as a team many times, on the sports field, in the workplace and now once again.
When we started Blooie, Conor was one of the first people I got to weigh in on the idea and give me some grounding as to what this company could and should be. I have come to him for advice about all the big decisions we have made regarding Blooie to this date! He is one of the few people who can always teach you something new and Blooie’s application is about to get very clever!
A few interesting facts about Conor:
We had to coax him out of a career in academics, where he’d completed a Ph.D, just finished supervising two Ph.D. students and been published over 40 times in computer science, physics, and GIS!
He carries an interest in nearly everything from coding, to sports, to films, to psychology and seems to be annoyingly able to play most sports with either hand
He is also a terrible dancer… never let him tell you he isn’t!
If you want to work with us we want to talk to you, we’re still on the lookout for marketing and developer interns and a javascript developer. Contact us at: jobs@bloo.ie.
This morning, we were woken to the glorious sight of an article on the BBC site about the North East start-up scene – complete with interviews from some good friends and a cheeky glimpse at the Blooie office!
Newcastle is an awesome place to work – full of friendly people and amazing opportunities.
While the initial ideas for Blooie were born back in Ireland with Mark and Chris, the real work was put in here in Newcastle. Without the support and opportunities we got here, who knows what Blooie would be!
So take a look into the life of start-ups in the North – we hope you’re impressed!
Well, it’s been a very busy couple of months for Blooie!
Puppies, Christmas and a lot of snow!
We are based in Newcastle which, to be fair, has seen a fair bit of snow in the past two weeks.
But, we are pleased to report though, that:
So keep checking back for some more amazing updates very soon!
Keep Chatting – Blooie
(Source: bloo.ie)
Marketing Assistant Ellen here!
It’s the last day of my internship today, so I thought I’d bring the guys a little treat - two boxes of Krispy Kremes (that’s 24 doughnuts!) as a thank you for the awesome 3 months I’ve spent here at Blooie!
With any luck, I’ll be back one day, but in the meantime, please enjoy these snaps of my last day!
(Source: bloo.ie)
Office Dogs - doing what they do best!
Office Dogs, ladies and gentlemen…the way forward!
Meet CEO Mark’s big wrinkly puppies - Dudley and Darcy!
We’re hoping to start a trend with office animals, perhaps you could sport an office parrot? Or how about an office goat?
The possibilities are endless!
We are bloody delighted to have our goodies finally arrive!
If you get yourself onto our install list and are one of the first 100, we’ll send you some awesome stickers and a little hand-written note saying how great you are!
So get yourself to bloo.ie and see if you can get into the first100 club!
