Who are we, anyway?

I have always loved creating things. First, there were Lego buildings and comic strips, then simple Atari ST games; and nowadays, it's Mac software.

That's also why I eventually chose software over my medical aspirations. Medicine is about understanding how an organism works and fixing it, and that's undoubtedly an interesting field. But as far as I'm concerned, nothing beats making an idea come true.

At some point, though, I realized you can only get so far by creating apps and relying on word-of-mouth propaganda. In the long run, you'll need someone who knows business, someone who's good at public relations, and if possible, someone who has easy access and strong connections to the Mac universe's center of gravity at the US west coast. Here's all three of them rolled into one person…

As much as Peter likes creating products through programming, I enjoy working on the nuts and bolts of running a business, and interacting with customers and prospects. From choosing systems to developing sales and marketing plans to establishing fair pricing and upgrade programs to tracking revenues and expenses, that's what I did for a living—at least until I founded macosxhints.com back in the fall of 2000 as a hobby.

After a few years, my career path made a 90-degree turn: I quit my day job, sold my site to Macworld, and spent the next five years living a long-time dream, getting paid to write for Macworld.

In 2010, however, Peter approached me with the opportunity to partner with him at Many Tricks…and I cannot believe it was that long ago—time flies when you're having fun! We make great apps, Peter's a great business partner, and I love interacting with our customers and potential customers.