It’s 2020, the world is burning before our eyes, institutions are crumbling and so it feels like the right time to start blogging again about important stuff like code, beer, cars and probably ice cream.

15 years ago I started a simple personal blog which led me down a long and productive path into the world of web development. It was a blog post that I wrote sometime in the late 2000’s that helped me land my first notable client, a then small and local brewery, Seattle’s Elysian Brewing. Until that point I had made a number of small websites for a handful of clients, family and friends and managed to put together a decent portfolio of work. In my portfolio blog posts I often referenced my love of craft beer and web development, so when the marketing department at Elysian simply Googled “Seattle Web Designer Beer“, I came to the top of the search results. Had they instead Googled “Seattle Web Designer”, I probably would have been listed somewhere on page 147.

Q: Do you know where to hide a dead body?
A: Page 2 of Google search results.

That first project for Elysian was scoped to just an effort to take over some WordPress duties on the site. Had I heard of WordPress?? Yes, but that was about it. I just assumed I would figure it out as I went and well, that’s exactly what I did. Lots and lots of Googling, code “borrowing”, and trial & error. That first small project led into a multi-year relationship where we worked on all sorts of projects together. I ended up working as a freelance developer for Elysian all the way up until they were acquired by the beer-behemoth, Anheuser-Busch in 2015, which of course has resources and teams of people that can far surpass this team of one. But that experience led me to found and start a business, Imbibe Digital. With Imbibe Digital, my focus was to build applications and websites for the craft alcohol producers of the world. As part of this I built a SAAS (Software as a Service) web application called AgeVerify, which is now used in dozens of countries on several thousand websites.

As was my relationship with Elysian, the development of AgeVerify was also the result of simply blogging. One of the many projects I worked on for Elysian was to create a simple age gate for their website. Are you over 21? Yes /No. And as simple as that sounds, I was amazed at all of the small items of consideration that go into an age gate and make them quite difficult to create.

  • Prompt on every page, regardless of entry
  • Write a timed cookie
  • Don’t impact search engine indexing
  • Work on all devices and screen sizes
  • The list goes on and on

Once I had a solid understanding of the correct approach to an age gate, I wrote a blog post on the topic and then watched the comments and traffic to that specific post take off. It occurred to me that there was definitely a market for this product so I used my off-hours during an 18 month span to experiment, create a product, launch it and to my amazement, it has been a steady upward rise ever since.

Because of AgeVerify, I have had the opportunity to work with thousands of clients, including many household brands (Guinness, Miller-Coors, Bacardi, Heineken, and more). But honestly, I have reached a mental fatigue with AgeVerify…I have been building age gates for clients for over 7 years and for the last 5 years this was almost my sole employment. And while I could continue down this path and try to take this service to a higher level, mentally I just can’t. I’m beat. Recurring revenue is the holy grail for web developers and while I am thankful for the benefit of what I have created, I would love nothing more than to sell it to the highest bidder. Which is exactly what I tried to do in late 2019 / early 2020…but COVID has changed the world in so many ways and selling small internet SAAS businesses no longer has the market it once did.

In March of 2020 I returned to the corporate world back at Starbucks HQ in their technology organization. I had previously worked at Starbucks for 15 years from 2000 – 2015 and left a senior manager role to pursue Imbibe Digital and AgeVerify. But I miss working in a team environment, new projects and deadlines so when I felt it was time to return to corporate life, I was excited to quickly find an opportunity to get my foot back in the door with an excellent company and an awesome team. Ironic that I was only in the office for two days before we were all sent home to work remote until further notice…back in the same home-office I have been in for the last 5 years. But I’m not complaining. Businesses (small and large) have been devastated by the impacts of COVID and the fact that I was able to rejoin the workforce while maintaining my business at the same time is truly the best case scenario. Because of my new role with Starbucks, I have been able to hire and outsource some of the work I do for Imbibe Digital making this all the more manageable.

I still though have this desire to always create something new, to always be working on a new challenge. But no longer having the pressure to make something profitable is freeing. So, just as I left blogging when AgeVerify took off, I am now returning to that same original concept of posting different experiments, technical issues / solutions, and of course my thoughts on beer and ice cream.