QuarkWorks: Meet the Team Series — Brandon Erbschloe
Part 3 of our ‘Meet the Team’ series introduces you to our Lead iOS Developer at QuarkWorks!
Name:
Brandon Erbschloe
Role:
Lead iOS Developer
When did you join QuarkWorks and what led you to take on this position?
I joined QuarkWorks in mid-2012. That would have been 6 & 1/2 years ago when I was still in high school. QuarkWorks was pretty young back then, and a lot of our challenges and problems were still yet undefined. We didn’t know what we wanted to do, but we had a great work ethic that could take us in many directions. That is what excited me the most really, having the option to choose what and how we worked on things.
What excites and energizes you about the company?
We are an engineering driven company that loves geeking out on how a new technology can solve a problem. We never pigeon hole ourselves with just one technology. We investigate new technologies and bring them into our toolset. When we do bring new technologies into our company, we research them very heavily and extensively to maintain a high quality bar. The two things that drive me as a developer are learning new technologies and building things with a high quality. That aligns heavily with what QuarkWorks does as a company.
What has been your favorite project to work on or are currently working on?
There was a health and fitness startup that I worked on a couple years back. Its main premise was a mobile app where you would get paired with a personal trainer that would build a custom fitness and nutrition plan for you. You would complete your workouts and upload all of your food photos in the app. Finally, the trainer would sync up with you and discuss how things were going. The product was a really cool idea, but what really drew me into the project was some of the technical challenges. The app needed to fully work in offline mode, and this was my first time handling it with this type of complexity. At the end of the project we got it mostly working and we did a light beta launch with the app with about 50 people. The feedback from everyone was ecstatic and they were thoroughly impressed with the quality of the app with the beta program. Getting that kind of feedback was really inspiring and helped drive my passion forward. Sadly, the project never got a second round of funding and didn’t see the light of day. But it has been my favorite thing I have engineered thus far.
Advice you would give someone working at a startup?
Focus on the quality of the product, not the speed of pumping out features. Startups are supposed to solve a specific problem extremely well. That’s the whole competitive advantage. The best ones that I have worked with are incredibly focused refining their idea and the quality of execution. Very rarely should new features be added. They should be very thought out and deliberate. One of the worst things you can do is go feature happy with a product. All that will result in is an inferior product with a mountain of tech debt.
What do you enjoy doing outside of work?
- To go out for bike rides and lift weights at the gym.
- Go out drinking at bars. Right across from the office is my favorite bar called Tellers. They make the best drinks I have ever had.
- I play Pokemon Go about once a week.
- Plan and go on trips with my girlfriend. Las Vegas is one of our favorite places to visit.
If you could have any one superpower, which would you choose?
Definitely Telekinesis. Being able to move stuff with my mind has always been the most appealing power. I wouldn’t be a superhero or anything. That’s not appealing. The government would probably track me down and all the bad stuff with that. I would most certainly use the power for my own personal gain, but not like evil things. Like, if I can’t reach the remote, I just move it into my hand. If there are too many cars in front of me, I would just move them out of my way. It’s a really cool power, but I would most certainly use it do to the most trivial things for pure enjoyment.
