emptyspaceads corporate blog

emptyspaceads, a funded internet advertising startup with customers & revenues seeks a software engineer++;

Posted by: emptyspaceads on: March 3, 2010

emptyspaceads is growing; we’re hiring a software engineer and we hope it could be you or someone you know.  Even if it’s not you, keep reading, we have a $500 referral bonus if you refer someone to us we eventually hire (scroll down to see how this works).

Ready for our pitch to spark your interest?  Great, let’s go!

We’re building an internet advertising product that currently serves millions of ad impressions a month for our current customers, and we’re starting to see revenue.  We’ve raised money from the best investors in Seattle (in terms of their track record of picking successful startups).  This money allows us to pay competitive salaries to those that join our team.  It also allows us a few perks – a great office in Belltown with dual monitor setups to get the job done.  Because we’re an early stage startup, we’re in a position to provide a generous amount of equity – we’re guessing more than you’ll see from other startups in town. Our founder has been an entrepreneur since he was 9 years old, and has made money on eight of his past ten ventures.
Our product, emptyspaceads, is additive rather than disruptive.  It helps website owners make more advertising revenue without giving up any existing ads by using the “empty spaces” of their websites. How does it work?  Check out http://www.nutsie.com or http://www.student.com and move your mouse to the margins of the page to see our ads running.
Listen, we know there are a bunch of a lot of other startups out there… but we feel we’ve got something special here, and we’d love you to be a part of it.  Get in contact with David Parkinson, our CEO… he’d love to chat with you.
What you get to do:
  • Improve our advertising algorithms, and craft new ones
  • Scaling our ad server to serve millions, then billions of impressions per day
  • Building new ad formats to raise user engagement
  • Create new ways to detect empty spaces on websites
  • Build features to empower our customers (website owners) and partners (ad networks)
How you’ll get to do it:How you’ll get to do it:

  • Work in a small team that pushes our software to customers multiple times per day
  • You’ll architect solutions and get them peer reviewed
  • Lead/participate in code reviews
  • Break bigger work items into smaller ones and estimate delivery
  • Test your own code and get it reviewed
What you’ve gotta have to get it done:
  • B.S. Computer Science or equivalent experience (M.S./Ph.D. a plus)
  • 1-2+ years of software development experience
  • Experience with Ruby on Rails (RoR)
  • Experience with JavaScript. Experience with jQuery or Prototype a plus.
  • Experience with a compiled language (Java preferred, or C++)
  • Live in the Seattle area
Interested? Here are your next steps:
  • Please apply here: https://www.jobscore.com/jobs/keenscreeninc/softwareengineer/bepFcckAer348ZeJe4aGWH
  • [Requried]: Attach a resume w/ contact information
  • [Required]: Attach a cover letter that includes the line “emptyspaceads software engineer++”
  • [Required]: Provide at least two references, one of which was a direct manager of yours
  • [Optional but very highly encouraged]:   Pointers to software you’ve written. Examples: open source contributions, examples of source code you’ve written, examples of software you wrote or contributed to (please do not violate NDAs)
  • [Optional but very highly encouraged]:  Link to places you discuss software. Examples: your blog, your website, your HackerNews Nick
  • [Optional but very highly encouraged]: Complete at least one of the puzzles here: http://www.facebook.com/careers/puzzles.php
Not interested?
  • We are offering a $500 referral bonus for referring someone we eventually hire.
  • See https://www.jobscore.com/jobs/keenscreeninc/softwareengineer/bepFcckAer348ZeJe4aGWH for details


A word from the VP of Engineering

Posted by: emptyspaceads on: March 3, 2010

As you may have heard, emptyspaceads is looking for a Software Developer. I want to share some thoughts on the sort of person we are looking for, and how you can maximize your chances of working for this awesome company. You can read the official job description on this blog. I will give you the skinny on what we are REALLY looking for in our next Software Engineer hire:

  • Raw intelligence. You must be smart, smart, smart. Be prepared for mind-bending coding problems.
  • Coding skills. Make sure your code is such high quality that it compiles!
  • Ability to roll up your sleeves and “just take care of business”. Our best hires (including two great interns) have never hesitated to learn a new language. We’re looking for someone who does not box himself or herself into a narrow role.
  • Ability to think “360 degrees” about a problem. We want someone who can think of 5 ways to solve a problem, and if those 5 ways don’t work, he or she will think of the 6th.

So are you up to the challenge? Read the job description and apply!

~Bilal Aslam

VP of Engineering
emptyspaceads

Startup code velocity

Posted by: emptyspaceads on: December 17, 2009

Startups are supposed to be places where things happen quickly – right? Wrong! Many startups struggle with getting things done. In this post, I’ll talk about some lessons David and I learned which helped us deliver better code, faster. Caveat emptor: these are lessons that worked for us:

  1. Move fast and break things: Simply, check in and deploy code every single day. Keep your sprints short, preferably to less than a week. If something breaks (in production, gasp!), think about why it broke and try not to do it again. Pat yourselves on the back for shipping quickly, and do it again the next day.
  2. Don’t mix platforms: In fact, I’ll repeat it – stick to a single modern language and platform. Early in the development of v2, we started using Python (for our data mining) and Ruby (on Rails) for the application. If you have met us, you know how much we love Rails. Well, Python pales in comparison to Rails when it comes to almost anything – the language is cleaner, it has a better package management system and there are new packages being developed for it every day. Even if you like Python a lot, there’s a simple reason for sticking with the most modern platform – no integration costs! If you stick to Rails (or PHP), you have to deal with just one object-relational mapping layer instead of two, and a single logging mechanism instead of two or more.
  3. Invest in your deployment technology: We use Engine Yard instead of naked Amazon EC2. Yes, there’s a management premium, and yes, it’s a pain to configure custom deployment scripts on it, but the easier deployment and scale-up are worth it. Deployment can be a tax if you use hand-crafted scripts that are held together with duct tape.
  4. Copy-paste: Yes, you’re a fantastic developer, but someone has probably already done it before you. Microsoft probably has a persona for these types of developers. Put aside your pride, and log on to a chat room or forum. Copy-paste. Rinse. Repeat. Ship.
  5. Use mockups: Before you write code, use a tool like Balsamiq to show mockups to your customers. The hour you spend creating mockups is much better than a day or two you spend coding features no one uses.
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