If you were to look up Nectar in the dictionary you'd find a picture of the six sexiest guys you've ever seen, along with the definition: "A company built upon strong relationships with an even stronger commitment to serving up the best in personal branding on the web."
I first met the men of Nectar back in August, well one-half of them anyways. Josiah, Caleb, Aaron and myself got to know each other at the Dallas Museum of Art. Then I met Dave for lunch the following week and that just seemed to really open the door to working with these guys. But it wasn't until Nectar Hackathon 2.0 that I got to meet the rest of the team, Brett and Charles, and work right along side of them. These guys are the real deal with a lot of heart and a lot of passion for what they do. So without further ado, it's my pleasure to present you with an in depth look at the minds behind Nectar.
To make things more accessible, I've added links to each Nectar team member's response.
1. What is your current role at Nectar and how did you first get involved in that field?
I'm lead (only) PHP developer of Nectar. I also handle most of the frontend JavaScript goodness. Actually, when I first met Josiah years and years ago he encouraged me to learn PHP and that's what I did. I have done freelance development since then and I'm happy to be settling into Nectar.
2. Since you all are a team working together, please describe your view on the importance of team-work.
This is the first project I've worked on that has been a true team scenario. Working with guys that you love hanging out with really makes staring at a computer all day (or through the night before a launch) much more enjoyable. We've crammed a lot of work into the last couple of months and everyone has been vital in making this thing happen. I'd say the best part of teamwork is that if there's something you don't wanna do, there's likely someone to pass it off to.
3. If you could be anything else in the world what would it be and why?
Though I enjoy web development, my passion is in music. It's my goal to make a career of performing and eventually settle into a job conducting choirs at a liberal arts university.
1. What is your current role at Nectar and how did you first get involved in that field?
I'm currently focused on the sales and marketing aspect of Nectar. We love the new social media technologies and the opportunities they bring to create conversations and meaningful relationships with people. With this in mind I've really thrown myself into the world of blogging and micro blogging. It's really been such a cool journey to begin building the Nectar community from the ground up and I'm really excited to see the conversation expand in the weeks and months following our launch.
My first experience in utilizing these tools was as a youth pastor at New Hope. I was trying to email all my student leaders information and they weren't responding. I tried calling them... that didn't work either. I was baffled. How on earth do I communicate with these kids? That's when I figured out Myspace and Text Messaging. After that I had no problem at all. It was then that I realized that our world was changing in drastic ways. I call a kid and get his voicemail. I text that same kid and I get a response within seconds. I think this has huge implications for how businesses connect and communicate with customers.
2. Since you all are a team working together, please describe your view on the importance of team-work.
The importance of team work can't be overestimated. I think this is one of the reasons woman make such amazing leaders, they are so relational and skilled at building consensus that they just make great team leaders. As a company of all males we really have to work hard at building relationships with each other that foster trust, encouragement, and accountability. Another beautiful thing about teams is the way it allows you to play to your strengths and leave your weak areas to someone else. For example, at Nectar you don't want me designing or coding out your website but lucky for you, I don't have to! We'll leave that to the Josiah, Caleb, Charles, Aaron, and Dave who are experts at that stuff.
3. If you could be anything else in the world what would it be and why?
Definitely a professional surfer. Just chilling at the beach all day. Are you kidding me?!
1. What is your current role at Nectar and how did you first get involved in that field?
I'm primarily focused on front-end web development (XHMTL / CSS / Javascript) for the Nectar page as well as the various tastes. I've been doing web development since I learned it in middle school back in 1996, and I absolutely love it. I'm also very involved in writing a lot of the copy for the site, which I love equally as much.
2. Since you all are a team working together, please describe your view on the importance of team-work.
Team-work has been absolutely vital for this project. All six of us have very different strengths and skill sets, and I firmly believe that Nectar would not be a reality if any one of the other members of the team wasn't involved. Feeding off of the other guys' energy, passion, and humor has been a complete blast and made this truly the best project I've ever been a part of.
3. If you could be anything else in the world what would it be and why?
Professionally speaking, this is it. I love the web, I love people, and I love running a business. Nectar is absolutely perfect. I also love studying and performing music, but I think it would lose a lot of it's allure to me if I was ever doing it professionally. Maybe I'll define a new professional field; something like "Semi-professional musical web-development hobbiest" And maybe drop "lumberjack" in there just for fun.
1. What is your current role at Nectar and how did you first get involved in that field?
Right now I head up everything on the Nectar design frontier. A good 90% of my work day is spent hacking away in Photoshop. The last few months at Nectar has been a blast and I'm really excited to see how people take to the look and feel of everything.
For as long as I can remember I've had an unexplainable passion for design. Not particularly web design, but just design in general. I found myself spending tons of time cruising around the web admiring the work of other designers and wanted to give it a shot myself. I love it.
2. Since you all are a team working together, please describe your view on the importance of team-work.
Solid teamwork is absolutely paramount for the success of any team. The passion and energy that each of us bring keeps us going strong day-to-day (well, that and lots of coffee :D). I've been friends with most of the guys for years, so we work pretty cohesively together. We may be talented people individually, but without the backbone of clear communication we'd be lost.
3. If you could be anything else in the world what would it be and why?
I'm gonna go with photographer on this one. Traveling the world with a camera at my side has always been something I've dreamt of doing. Maybe someday.
1. What is your current role at Nectar and how did you first get involved in that field?
I'm a bit of a jack of all trades. My background is in business, design, and technology so I weigh in on the strategic aspects of our marketing and business plans, dabble in design, and look for holes in our user interface/customer experience.
I had been fleshing out the business plan for a personal branding service that leverages best-practices employed by the top web design experts. I met Josiah through a chance encounter for a separate business opportunity which ultimately turned into a partnership with six specularly-talented guys from the Dallas area.
2. Since you all are a team working together, please describe your view on the importance of team-work.
Teamwork in any organization is critical but it's vitally important in a small company such as ours. Our creativity and business ingenuity relies heavily on our ability to feed off each other and leverage the team's strengths. The beautiful thing about Nectar is we operate more as a family than just business partners. This isn't to say we don't have conflicts but when we do we work through them without malice or resentment. I guess it ultimately boils down to trust.
3. If you could be anything else in the world what would it be and why?
Honestly, I'm living a dream right now. After extensive self-exploration I've recognized that I'm hard-wired to be an entrepreneur. My passion lies in emerging web technology and progressive design so Nectar truly represents the type of convergence I want within my professional life. Now that being said, if we're talking about anything in the world...being a test pilot for very light jets would be a close second, assuming my wife weren't to object. (Dave is private pilot in his rarely found free time.)
1. What is your current role at Nectar and how did you first get involved in that field?
I'm a front-end developing, jQuery learning, standards-nut, CSS junkie. I've been involved in web design and development since I was 13 (12 years ago - sheesh), when my partner-in-crime Caleb came over to my house and taught me HTML. Since then I've been fascinated with and involved in a little bit of almost every area of the web, and specifically in love with CSS and standards-compliant markup.
I credit the majority of my growth to the incredibly inspiring community in and around this wide world we call the web. I stumbled across one Daniel Mall back in the day on Shaun Inman's Designologue, and he has since been a gracious tutor in all things CSS / markup. I want to be him when I grow up. He's also why I'm 2 degrees from Jeffrey Zeldman, Jason Santa Maria and Happy Cog, and while they don't know me from a hole in the ground, this is both bragable and awesome.
Well beyond markup and development, my true passion lies in relationships and marketing. If you see me in a room full of people and I'm not meeting those that I don't know, chances are my legs have been recently fractured.
That's the short story.
2. Since you all are a team working together, please describe your view on the importance of team-work.
As far as teams go, I'm blessed to work with people that I not only respect, but completely love and would die for in an instant. I would do anything for these guys, and I'm confident that the feeling is mutual.
I've heard horror stories about being "friends first" in a business relationship, but I generally respond with a question about the depth of the "friendship" these horror stories speak of. I work with men as close to me as my real brothers, and while we've been at our throats more times than I can remember, we always seem to come through our differences stronger than before.
We're a tightly-knit group, and I think we're stronger for it. Where one of us is weak, another is strong. I love that I can genuinely say that we have a firm foundation of love and respect beneath us. Nothing gives me more confidence as we move forward than knowing my bro's have my back.
3. If you could be anything else in the world what would it be and why?
I like to imagine a life of boundless opportunity, and while that sounds like a bottled cliche, I really do tend to look into the future with more wonder than concrete planning. I suppose if I have to give an answer, I'd be a panther. Like a panther with wings. And like a built in coffee maker for a leg. That'd be awesome.
To learn how you can get your own sweet setup head over to tastynectar.com and see the beauty for yourself.
A special thanks to Shelby Cook for the amazing photographs.