We need a really passionate code hacker, someone who loves to solve problems using innovative thinking. We need someone who isn’t afraid to step into completely unknown territory. If you love problem-solving, creative engineering and love the buzz and fast pace of a web technology start-up then we’d love to hear from you.

We’re an incredibly passionate team and all love what we do and our product ferociously. If you have that same kind of passion for your work and you want to be a part of something special then read on.

Your Responsibilities

• Help design and build large parts of our core technology platforms
• Work with our CTO and senior developers to innovate and iterate our products
• Participate in all our product innovation
• Work with our partners to integrate our technology with theirs
• Improve the efficiency of our core technology
• Contribute in a major way to our infrastructure and product innovation

Our Requirements

• 3+ years experience and expert knowledge of Java, server-side Java technologies and object-oriented design.
• Strong understanding of the server side software, scalability, performance and reliability aspects
• Ability to work in a fast paced, collaborative and iterative programming environment
• Experience with Spring, Struts 2 and JPA experience
• Have worked with JAX-RS / JAX-WS or other Java based Web Services frameworks
• Prior industry experience or participation in open source projects (Java-based) is a plus
• Degree in Computer Science preferred but is not essential
• A hunger to be a part of something, to take ownership and become critical to the success of the business.

Key Qualities We’re Looking For

• Dedication, you will need to be someone who really wants to become a part of our company DNA
• Flexibility, the life of a start-up can involve late nights and long weekends, you’ll be expected to roll your sleeves up
• Added Value, we’re not just looking for staff, we want to add value to the business, that’s you!
• An Open Mind, we want to carve new paths and create new ways to solve problems
• Vision, you’ll need to be able to look ahead and think on your feet

If this all sounds good to you then we would love to hear from you.

What you need to do

We’ll need a copy of your recent resume/CV and to hear a bit about yourself as well (why you think you would be a good fit, what your passions are etc). Please make sure you send us links to work you have directly been involved in or produced. We will also need to see some of your finest code, send us a few good examples of your work, if the code is confidential then send us just enough so we can see how you have structured your work, but not enough to consider it a breach of confidentiality.

Please email your resume/CV, short bio and code examples to jobs@buildabrand.com. Set the email subject as ’Junior Java Software Engineer’

NO RECRUITMENT AGENCIES PLEASE!

We need a really passionate code hacker, someone who loves to solve problems using innovative thinking. We need someone who isn’t afraid to step into completely unknown territory. If you love problem-solving, creative engineering and love the buzz and fast pace of a web technology start-up then we’d love to hear from you.

We’re an incredibly passionate team and all love what we do and our product ferociously. If you have that same kind of passion for your work and you want to be a part of something special then read on.

Your Responsibilities

• Help design and build large parts of our core technology platforms
• Work with our CTO to innovate and iterate our products
• Participate in all our product innovation
• Work with our partners to integrate our technology with theirs
• Improve the efficiency of our core technology
• Contribute in a major way to our infrastructure and product innovation
• Mentor our junior engineers and contribute to the effectiveness and performance of our technology team

Our Requirements

• 5+ years experience and expert knowledge of Java, server-side Java technologies and object-oriented design.
• Proven prior and successful leadership or hands-on management experience
• Proven prior experience building high-performance web sites and services
• Experience with AWS (EC2, S3, RDS etc) is highly desirable.
• Experience with Terracotta / Tomcat clustering is highly desirable.
• Strong understanding of the server side software, scalability, performance and reliability aspects
• Ability to work in a fast paced, collaborative and iterative programming environment
• Good experience with at least one other high-level language (e.g. Python, Ruby, .NET, Obj-C, C++, or PHP etc)
• Solid experience with Spring, Struts 2 and JPA experience
• Have worked with JAX-RS / JAX-WS or other Java based Web Services frameworks
• Have worked with or engineered Web and API services.
• Solid XML/XSL/XSLT Experience
• Experience working with SVG Files, PDF’s and Raster Graphics is a plus
• Prior industry experience or participation in open source projects (Java-based) is a plus
• Degree in Computer Science preferred but is not essential
• A hunger to be a part of something, to take ownership and become critical to the success of the business.

Key Qualities We’re Looking For

• Dedication, you will need to be someone who really wants to become a part of our company DNA
• Flexibility, the life of a start-up can involve late nights and long weekends, you’ll be expected to roll your sleeves up
• Added Value, we’re not just looking for staff, we want to add value to the business, that’s you!
• An Open Mind, we want to carve new paths and create new ways to solve problems
• Vision, you’ll need to be able to look ahead and think on your feet

If this all sounds good to you then we would love to hear from you.

What you need to do

We’ll need a copy of your recent resume/CV and to hear a bit about yourself as well (why you think you would be a good fit, what your passions are etc). Please make sure you send us links to work you have directly been involved in or produced. We will also need to see some of your finest code, send us a few good examples of your work, if the code is confidential then send us just enough so we can see how you have structured your work, but not enough to consider it a breach of confidentiality.

Please email your resume/CV, short bio and code examples to jobs@buildabrand.com. Set the email subject as ’Senior Java Software Engineer’

NO RECRUITMENT AGENCIES PLEASE!

Two significant events for the buildabrand.com team occurred in December last year: the roll out of the beta site, and the arrival of Justin’s son Leo.

Here we have picked out some highlights of the interview where Justin speaks about the challenges of starting a business at the same time as becoming a father:

How do you find the balancing act between Leo and buildabrand.com?

“It has been a balancing act from the start. I started working on buildabrand.com full time and the baby was conceived in the same month. It then took nine months to get to “the release date” for both: beta launch and birth. Since then it has been 24/7 of nurturing the business and our son. It is challenging and at times exhausting but extremely fulfilling to see progress in both on a daily basis.”

Is it advantageous to have the flexibility of owning your own company as a young father?

“To be honest, I don’t know how I could make the situation as successful without having the flexibility to be at home when needed and not miss those precious first moments. Mixing being a parent and an entrepreneur is very natural, almost like having twins.”

Justin continues that flexibility is just as important for a web-based start-up as it is
for a father:

“Our team is in multi-locations and having all our assets in the ‘cloud’ enables the business to fit into everyone’s daily life.”

With a young child and a young business, sleep must be difficult to fit in. How hard do you find it to stay motivated and energised?

You find new resources within yourself you didn’t realise existed. The buzz of the birth gives you a tremendous amount of energy, having quick achievable goals and small wins within your daily work schedule is also great for motivation.”

How does starting a business compare with starting a family? Which is the more nerve-wracking – birth or speaking to 450 people?!

“I’d say birth! Talking in front of 450 people is always going to make your nervous until you get started, but with birth you feel the earth move! For me it was euphoric, Katya had a natural birth, 33 hours, it was long a journey and an adventure. When you start a business, you often have a more or less clear idea of your objectives and strategy, but when you have a family, you just want to be happy.”

How does it feel to become a father for the first time and what is your advice to young fathers who are also entrepreneurs?

“When Leo was born, it was the most amazing moment in my life. Use your entrepreneurial spirit to create as many opportunities to bond with your little one as possible, make sure you enjoy every minute of parenthood and have fun!”

Click here to read the full text of the article on pages 65 & 66 in the online version of FQ magazine.

As a start-up ourselves, it’s fantastic to hear you believe buildabrand.com has the ability to “empower small businesses”. What you really highlighted was the growing need for accessible brand building amongst start-ups and entrepreneurs.

We learnt that 38% of you are start-up entrepreneurs, 22% are running micro-businesses, a staggering 52% are technology and web focused and 8% of you have a “revolutionary new idea” (we like that!).

Most of you were interested in buildabrand.com as a low cost way to build a brand. You felt that the site has made branding less challenging and more accessible, leaving you with time to focus on other business activities.

A staggering 87% of you plan to use your new buildabrand brand on a website, followed closely by 66% who would need business cards and stationery bits, whilst 63% of you would want to get your brand out on display and shared through Twitter and Facebook.

Your feedback has been invaluable in shaping up our product and strategy, we’ve been listening and implementing as much as we can in closed beta. Listening to everyone who uses the site is really important to us, its your product and we love hearing what you have to say.

A whopping 1023 wrote us personalised feedback in the survey, we are working our way through them and will contact everyone who has asked us questions. To give you an idea of what’s being said, we created a word cloud below using wordle.net

Some of our favourite words used to describe buildabrand.com were “outstanding”, “inspiring” and “revolutionary” and it’s fantastic you believe the service will “help a lot of people realise their dreams”.

A few of our favourite comments from the survey are highlighted below:

“Love the concept, love the clarity. Looks simple to use and it’s making it [branding] more accessible to more people. Also love the fact that you can do everything and come out with a finished product to do business with. Wish you every success with this.”

“Very good initiative. Reusable and easy-to-reach expertise in all commercial aspects is a big asset for all small size companies.”

“Buildabrand sounds like a great idea for entrepreneurs like me who have little money, but big ideas.”

“I offer business planning and marketing services to other entrepreneurs and small-to-midsize businesses – there is a HUGE need for products like yours. I’m tired of having to help them coordinate amongst web, printer and branding designers/agencies.”

“Your idea is brilliant, I’ve worked with logo designers already but I did not find a single One Stop Shop as you are. Brand building online is very difficult and you make it easy.”

Just when you thought it was all over…

We have a brand new survey (‘Brand’ new! Get it?) click here.

As an incentive to spending 2 minutes filling this out, anyone who takes part will be entered into a competition to win a brand and $150 worth of Amazon vouchers!

We’re look forward to hearing what you have to say next and don’t forget to get in touch!

This event is all about building more influence, more recognition and more results from your business and personal brand. When you consider that getting your brand right is a key part of building a successful and valuable business!

Speakers include…

* Mike Harris – Founder of Egg, which floated for £1.3B just 3 years after launch.
* Kanya King MBE – Founder of the MOBO Awards, seen in 57 countries by 250M people.
* Sabirul Islam – A best selling author and international speaker at just 18 years old.
* Peter Thomson – The creator of over 150 products.
* Dan Wagner - On the Times Rich List, founder of Venda, pioneering internet entrepreneur.
* Justin Champney – Top brand builder and founder of Buildabrand.com
* Mindy Gibbins-Klien – Has helped over 300 people write, publish and promote their books.
* Deirdre Bounds – Founder of i-to-i Travel, which she grew from nothing to over £20M in 10 years.

See you there! Expand Your Brand

The Early Bird Offer allows selected beta-sign ups to download and apply their brand an unlimited amount of times, for the one-off price of only £10! Momblo.com were the first to take advantage of this special offer and within minutes of creating their design, it was up and running on their website – take a look!

They started out as a secondary ticketing marketplace, offering an online portal where customers could access tickets to concerts, sports, musicals and theatre events across the globe… So whether you are travelling to China on holiday or visiting the United Kingdom for a short period, Momblo can offer the best selection of entertainment venues. They also offer a 100% guarantee on authenticity of tickets, payment, and delivery before the event.

Building on that success, they now also offer customers the ability to join free guestlists and book tables at the hottest clubs, working directly with promoters worldwode to guarantee the night is a success!

So what did they want to achieve from using buildabrand.com…

Founder of Momblo.com Pogos Saiadian gives us his thoughts:

‘Branding is very important. What we wanted to achieve with our Momblo brand, was to communicate the trust and professionalism that stands behind the brand, as well as the fact that we are a fun company, specialising in entertainment.’

Did buildabrand.com live up to the task…

‘With a few intuitive clicks, I directly chose what I would like my brand to communicate, a logo that reflected this, as well as the layout and colours. It took me between 10-15 minutes to try multiple variations before choosing my design, at a very affordable price. I think the service is a must for any online vendor; whether you are a reseller on eBay or operate a website, buildabrand will make your services look professional and trustworthy!’

Wow thanks! Check out their new branding and search for an exciting event in your area!

If you haven’t had your invite, don’t worry we are still working through them… and there is still time to sign up – visit our homepage buildabrand.com

We were really impressed with the use of the brand symbols, how it was used on both their website and twitter, and wanted to find out a bit more about Cook Farms history…

They started out in 2004 when Mike retired from the Army, Marci then joined her husband in the family business two years later. What started out as a relaxing activity has now gone from strength to strength; with a speciality of Rhode Island Red and New Hampshire Red Chickens, a jewellery craft line, and regular science projects with the local schools… this is one busy farm!

Here, Marci Cook tells us why she liked using buildabrand.com so much:

“I found out about buildabrand.com through @MGrosheim from www.thesocialtweep.com when I asked him about his logo. He directed me to your site and the rest is history! Your site is very easy to use. I love it!!! I love that you narrow down the choices for us and that if it doesn’t “look right” or fit, we can always go back and rework it. Everyone that I talk to says they love our logo! They ask about it and I direct them to buildabrand.com.”

We are really happy to see buildabrand.com helping a small and inspiring business, keep up the good work! Our designers Gilles and Cecile were equally impressed, having designed the bird as a cool symbol for an independent and confident brand.

So what does the future hold for these new brands at Cook Farms?

They plan to use their new brand on a sign for their yard, business cards, t-shirts and stationary in the future… WOW, we can’t wait to see it all popping up!

A fellow brand builder in his own right, Michael allows companies and individuals to reserve a day in his calendar where he will promote them all over Twitter, Facebook and his daily blog.

The Social Tweep started out as a response to Michael losing his job over a year and a half ago and deciding to work for himself. Finding the perfect avenue to utilise his fondness for engaging with people (and talking in general) has resulted in big brand names such as Starbucks and Abc using his services!

We have Jason Sadler, founder of iwearyourshirt.com to thank for introducing Michael to the site.
Here’s is what he thought of his buildabrand.com experience:

“The website is very easy to use. Creating a logo which allows you to include personality is amazing. Coupling pictures with style, tone, outlook and character options is very unique. Having the option to go back and forth during the process, making changes to find the perfect logo, and the number of logos provided based on some very basic questions helped me find the perfect logo.”

Michael is very happy to have created the “perfect” logo with buildabrand.com, one that shows his fun side, is eye-catching and prompts people to ask more about The Social Tweep. Well… that makes us very happy too! You can even purchase your own jumper or t-shirt featuring the design through his Tweep Store!

The symbol was designed by Gilles and Cecile as part of a series inspired by happy, chirpy, twittering birds – very fitting for Michael’s brand, whoopie it’s working!

So what does the future hold for The Social Tweep?

Michael has big future plans to build on the community effect of his business – prompting followers to engage and be in with a chance of winning prizes from the brand of the day!

We wish Michael every success with The Social Tweep and will be watching his tweets eagerly!

Our aim? To bring business and individual ideas to life by matching them with great designs!

We are looking for designers from any background or discipline to create unique brand symbols which can be purchased and used by our customers. They can be everything from intelligent everyday logos to urban inspired graphics and even unique, stylised or illustrative characters.

You will have the freedom to upload a wide range and unlimited number of designs and set the price point yourself. We will then match your design to our users and you will receive 50% 70% of the net sales price! That could be anything from £35 ($56 or €39) up to £1050 ($1,705 or €1,175), you decide.

Sound like a good idea to you? You can register your interest here and we’ll make sure you are invited to upload your designs!

Need a bit more information?

It’s so easy – A quick registration so we know who you are and how we can pay you is all  it takes to start uploading designs.

No stress – We don’t ask you to define colours or select fonts, you just create brand symbols and upload them instantly.

You have control - There are no design briefs, restricting site styles or controlling customers to deal with; you decide what you want to upload, when, where and how many designs!

Everyone can get involved – Whether you are a student or graduate in London, a freelancer in Sydney, a professional in Berlin, or hobby designer in Tokyo, you can upload your work for sale on buildabrand.com.

Simple Design Upload - All you need to do is design a vector based brand symbol saved as an SVG file. We can even show you how to do this if you’re not sure.

One price, one sale – You set the price for your design and one lucky customer receives that symbol exclusively for their brand. Once an individual symbol is purchased, it will be removed from the site and all associated rights are transferred to the customer.

Royalties – You will receive a 50% 70% share of the net sale price for each brand symbol sold. Remember, there’s no limit to the amount you can upload!

Convinced? Register your interest here so you can be one of the first to experience it for yourself!

(We don’t condone this sort of behaviour but love the outcome it creates!)

Our beta testers have been really impressed with the ease of use, functionality of the site and ability to create relevant brands. These are some of the brands that have been created so far… (let us know your favourite in the comments)

There have also been plenty of suggestions for the team to take on board and excellent feedback to help improve the branding experience; we are now working hard to make these last few tweaks!

Here’s a round up of our favourite feedback so far and we’re really looking forward to hearing more…!

- we LOVE @buildabrand – we made our brand in 30 mins flat! love it. thanks chaps @engagefirst

- Having so much fun with @buildabrand Beta that I am not getting any work done today. oh well, this is much more entertaining. LOVE IT!!! @McGrosheim

- @theycallmeShua: @iwearyourshirt oh and i got an @buildabrand invite today. its cooler than i expected i have to admit

- @TriFunk: thanks for the invite @buildabrand wow! just playing around in the site and I am blown away. this is going to change the world! love it

- Thanks a lot!! Just made my first logo. Really cool end easy at first glance. Looking forward to test it in full … andersbn

- jonlongoria: Davey, want to say ya’ll did a great job. Left a lot of constructive criticism in feedback, hope this takes off! @daveshanley @buildabrand

- @buildabrand Yes…I had so much fun…I’m wondering what to do with the last of it [credits] because we do other things here…so I’m saving them @TheMarciFactor

- thanks a lot for your email! I was really looking forward to it…Merry Christmas and thank you for the great gift - Aspiring Entrepreneur in Maritime Equipment and Services

- I starting playing around with the site and it is fantastic. Love the usability and design. Ariel Remer, Aspiring Entrepreneur in Clothing Line

- The whole process is really intuitive, I like it. – Benjamin Larralde, Apiring Entrepreneur in funding platform for individuals

- Thanks so much for the invite. Your team has built an impressive site – Dennis Lyandres, Early-stage non-profit organisation

- Simple and clean interface generally.  Good staged process – Philip Wilkinson, Founder & CEO at Crowdstorm

- I saw a few logos there that really inspired me, and that could become new the logo for our company! – Alicia Navarro, Company Founder and CEO of Skimlinks

- Worked really intuitively and easily – Kate Siddiqui, Marketing and Editorial Manager at start-up company – www.leaveitout.co.uk