Raspberry Pi vs. Raspberry Pie

Lessons from adding two members to our team.

This is the third piece documenting our journey, if you missed the first it can be found on our profile page.

“Why would he get you a raspberry pie as a holiday gift? There’s no way anyone loves raspberries that much.”

With that question it became abundantly clear why Reed, Brendan and I needed to add individuals with more technical acumen to the team. For those as unaware as I was, Raspberry Pi is a tiny and affordable computer that you can use to learn programming through fun, practical projects. It is not the dessert your aunt brings to Thanksgiving every year.

This was all explained to me by Caleb, who has joined the team as a design and UX/UI leader and evidently someone who will be catching me up to speed with the differences between pastries and electronics. He has experience in web design and had completed a few logo iterations before even hopping on board.

An example of Caleb’s work and the current logo of our company.

Also joining the team is Jack, who was shaking his head at me during the pi/pie dilemma. Jack has spent time at SpaceX and will be at Workday this summer as he continues working on his undergraduate engineering degree and masters in information science. He will be able to provide us direction on the feasibility of our ideas and lead discussions from a development standpoint.

It became evident early on in our first meeting that Jack and Caleb are the ideal candidates to fill the voids our team had. In our initial discussions Reed, Brendan and I vowed to stay away from starting a technology oriented company due to our lack of knowledge and experience. Though after becoming passionate when exploring the idea of Difference we knew that this was the right path for us to take, even if we would be left with a temporary deficit in technological knowledge. These additions to the team will help to alleviate those stresses and allow us to move forward with greater confidence.

Jack and Caleb both possess skills beyond their aforementioned scope that will continue to give Difference unique perspective and from a personal standpoint I am eager and excited to further my knowledge of design and development. I’ll also be keeping my fingers crossed that one of them will show up with real pie at the next meeting.

Thanks for Reading — Mark Pulaski