Getting to know Ryan Carson & Carsonified
For the last couple of months (since about September / October last year), I’ve been truly inspired with the activities of the guys and girls over at Carsonified. At one stage I felt so inspired, I considered applying for a job and moving over to the UK (which is a lot to ask, considering we have sunshine every day of the year, which beats the UK’s weather hands down) if I got the job. That aside, I think the company has been built on awesome foundations and I can only see them going from strength to strength, as well as seeing small new companies - influenced by Carsonified’s “way of life” - pop up all over the world.
So a while ago, I decided that I really needed to get a mini interview done again and Ryan Carson seemed like to perfect candidate, considering my fascination with his company. Fact is, wouldn’t you want to get into the mind of a boss that buys you cool new schwag when you join the team, let’s you work 4 days a week and “orders” everyone to take a week off to create HugMyMac? Well, I certainly wanted a glimpse on the ideas and thoughts involved in creating Carsonified, so I figured I’d shoot a few questions off to Ryan…
Hey Ryan. It’s great to welcome one of the unsung heroes of modern day web business (in my mind) to adii.co.za. You’re the co-founder of Carsonified (along with your wife, Gill) and I’m sure everyone would like to know more about the Ryan Carson behind Carsonified. Please share a bit of your history, education, previous business experience and the journey that led you to start Carsonified…
I’m originally from Colorado Springs, a small town nestled in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. I finished my Computer Science degree in 2000 and then decided it was time for a life-changing adventure. I wanted to experience life from a new point of view so I packed my bags and got a job in the United Kingdom.
I started off as a Coldfusion developer. I had never written a single line, but I figured if I could code in C++ then I would probably be OK!
And then the dot com bombshell hit and the company I was working for went down in flames. I had only lived in the UK for six months and I decided I wasn’t ready to go home yet. That led to a number of jobs in London at various web design firms, lastly with Fingal Design
During my time in London I made a ton of friends who were passionate about web design but were really discouraged about the rough times the industry was experience. So in response, my good friend Ryan Shelton and I started By Designers for Designers or BD4D. The idea was to get web designers and developers together to show their work and meetup - an escape from al the time we were spending at our laptops. I guess it really struck a cord with people because it quickly grew and before we knew it, we had done 50+ events in 16 cities in 7 different countries. It was a blast.
I met people like Eric Meyer, Joshua Davis, Jemma Gura, Matt Owens, Mike, 2advanced, Design is Kinky, Peter Reid & Cuban Council.
A really wonderful magazine called Create Online decided to write a feature on Ryan and I and that’s how I met Gill, my wonderful wife. She was the editor of the magazine and once we met, it was hard to keep us apart.
I decided to quite my job as Lead PHP Developer in London and marry Gill. It was the perfect opportunity to move to Bath and start Carsonified.
Describe Carsonified and its operations in your own words. What is it that Carsonified really does?
Everyone at Carsonified is passionate about the web. We want to encourage, inspire and unite the web community. We do this in two ways:
- Building web applications (DropSend and Amigo)
- Running events (Future of Web Design, Future of Web Apps, Future of Mobile, Fuel, Carson Workshops)
- Curating Vitamin, our online magazine for web developers, designers and entrepreneurs
- Having fun
(Hug My Mac, FOWA Road Trip and Web App Charts)
We just moved into our new office and we’re up to 10 wonderful team members. We’re loving it.
Not many people would recommend going into business with one’s wife, yet it seems that Carsonified is a perfect contradiction of this… Is it easy to run a business along with your wife? Do you feel that it presents some unique challenges? Do you think that it has benefited Carsonified more?
I *love* running Carsonified with Gill. It allows us to be connected in a way that most couples will never experience. Every day we get the opportunity to work as a team, hatch new ideas, support each other and have fun. It also means that we don’t have to have the ‘How was your day’ talk at the end of each day. We already know!
Of course there are days when we get on each others nerves but I guess we’re lucky to be able to work together all day and not get annoyed.
We’re going to have a baby on April 18th, so that will change things quite a bit. Initially Gill will be spending less time in the office, but as soon as she can, she wants to get back to Carsonified. I’m really going to miss having her at the office during the time she’s at home though - she’s smart and she adds a huge amount to the business.
Carsonified’s 4-day work week and extensive staff perks (Macbooks, iPhone’s & Aeron chairs to name a few) is well known around the web. Do you think that these play an integral part in recruiting and retaining top talent amongst your staff? And do these perks result in increased productivity from Carsonified staff?
I think those things really help to recruit amazing people but all that stuff wouldn’t matter if we didn’t treat our team with respect and trust. We hire really smart, fun and interesting people and then we try to get out of their way. I give them the support they need and then trust them to do a great job.
We don’t treat our team like teenagers who need to be constantly monitored (nagging them about what time they arrive or leave the office, what sites they browse, how long they spend on lunch, etc) because they’re responsible adults who are passionate about what they do. If they were dishonest or untrustworthy, then what time they get into work would be the least of our worries!
Why did you decide to go into organizing conferences / workshops? Do you have a passion for education? Or collaboration / knowledge sharing?
I think I have a deep-seated desire to connect and encourage people. Events are a wonderful way to do this as it gets people away from their typical settings and allows them to connect with other people.
Everyone spends so much time on computers that it’s amazing to get out and physically meet people and get inspired by amazing speakers.
Do you have anything new in the pipeline? Any new avenues that Carsonified will be exploring in the next few months?
We’ve just launched Fuel, our new conference in London on June 13th. We’re going to share some amazing tips on how to take your business/product/service from good to amazing. Here’s a quick summary:
“Fuel gives you the opportunity to get inside the mind of some of the most remarkable companies online. Find out how they use new web tools to interact with existing customers and bring in new ones by the droves, build strong and loyal communities, use the latest in online marketing (heck, even invent their own!), and use brand new technology to push every boundary of web business.”
It should be a lot of fun!
We’re also completely re-building our events backend system. It’s called Event Stream and it’s going to kick ass!
Thanks for interviewing me - it’s an honor.
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