Tell us about your startup!
We can take over the development and support of existing applications, or we can help you plan and build your startup from the beginning.
We build web applications, complex data processing projects, mobiles apps for iOS and Android, and more.
The greatest value we provide is showing you what NOT to build. Sometimes the best solution to a problem facing your startup is not the technical solution.
Our software developers have built over 50 applications over the past 8 years. We've built startups that have gone from bootstrapped to acquired and we have open source projects with millions of downloads.
Branding and graphic design for startups is tricky. You need a professional and unique brand that builds credibility and memorability with early adopters. However, you don't want to invest a lot early on in a brand from which you may iterate or pivot away. We've mastered the art of iterative design.
Send us a message to set up a phone call. In the Ann Arbor or Detroit area? Let's grab a coffee! If we're a good fit, it's on to Step 2!
Wherever you are in the startup planning process, we'll creat an outline and budget for building your Minimum Viable Product. This MVP will include what we'll build and more importantly what we won't build.
We build the MVP. It's important to launch an MVP as quickly as possible, so you can start gathering feedback and iterating.
Now that the MVP is launched, we can gather feedback from users to expand and refine the product.
I have worked with many software developers in my career. Alfa Jango has not only deep technical expertise, but what is more valuable and rare, is a team that acts as a founding CTO, providing great advice on what to build, in what sequence, saving you money and increasing the likelihood of your success.
— Ed Farrell, 
Alfa Jango brings our ideas to life, but more than that, they constantly go above and beyond, applying their insight and care to every aspect of our application. Thoughtful, thorough, and true professionals - it is an absolute privilege to work with this team.
— Cait Holman, 
I'm certain that my start-up wouldn't be at the point it is now without the professional work of Alfa Jango. I hit a home-run by working with Alfa Jango!
— Nic Stelter, 
Steve Schwartz and the rest of the Alfa Jango team have been absolutely integral to the development of PriceLocal from conception to launch and beyond. Alfa Jango listens well and always provides solutions that exceed expectations.
— Matt Chosid, 
Steve has co-founded several successful software start-ups as managing partner at Alfa Jango. Steve co-founded and served as CTO for CarCode, which was acquired by Edmunds.com in 2014. He is highly involved in the open source software movement having developed and maintained several popular open source projects, including jquery-ujs and jquery-rails in Rails core, which has been downloaded over 30 million times. He has his BS in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering. When not building startups, Steve plays guitar and soccer (not at the same time usually) and races cars.
Kevin leads all our design from UI/UX Design, Branding, Graphic Design and Illustration. After years in the agency world Kevin brings his skills and creativity to Alfa Jango's team. He loves to spend time with his kids, floating on the pontoon in the summer and skiing in the winter.
Angie came to Alfa Jango in 2013 with experience in real estate, but a passion for start-ups. As office manager, she keeps everyone in line, making sure they are where they need to be and have everything they need to be their best. She can easily be found at the local coffee shops, spoiling her Chiweenie, or raving on and on about Jared Leto.
Jonathan came to Alfa Jango a wide knowledge of Ruby, Javascript and CSS. He began his programming career with front-end web design, adding javascript UI enhancements as a specialty before moving to MI. Jonathan has a BA from Carleton College and MFA from Rutgers University. He taught Sculpture, 3D-design, Ceramics, Drawing, and Digital Arts, and currently teaches Contemporary Art Theory online for Mercer College.
Richard specializes in Ruby on Rails, AngularJS, Elasticsearch, and Modular CSS. Richard's full-stack experience and passion for modular, reusable code brings amazing value to the team. When he’s not busting out awesome code, he can be found swing dancing, biking, hiking, and disc golfing.
Tim is a passionate developer and leader with 28 years of experience in roles including CTO, VP of Engineering, and Director of Mobile Development, along with many years of hands-on development experience. Tim has a great deal of experience in the areas of leading development teams, development process, full-stack web development, mobile development and scalable architecture. Tim is the author of two published books, the Java Phrasebook and the Ruby on Rails Bible. Outside of work, Tim is always reading and loves baseball, the Detroit Tigers, comic books, pop culture, and horror.
Emily comes to Alfa Jango specializing in Ruby on Rails, Angular/Typescript, and React. She is passionate about building great UI, and making technology simple, effective, and joyful - with many years in the educational technology sphere putting that to the test. When not coding, Emily can be found cycling in beautiful Northern Colorado.
John comes to Alfa Jango with experience in team leadership, product development, project management, and business analysis. He has worked with everyone from Fortune 10 companies down to small entrepreneurial startups. John's passion is people and building amazing applications for his clients. When John is not working he loves to spend time with his wife and three daughters and is passionate about long-distance running.
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Our software developers have built over 50 applications over the past 8 years. We've built startups that have gone from bootstrapped to acquired and we have open source projects with millions of downloads.
View Work
We've been quietly building a jQuery plugin over the past couple years to help make tabular data more interactive. You might be familiar with existing plugins such as DataTables. But after extensive use, we finally made the decision that it wasn't for us.
This exploit is similar to the XML vulnerability explained in our last post. This exploit, however, is in the JSON parsing of Rails 2.3.x and 3.0.x, due to the fact that the built-in JSON parser in those versions of Rails delegated a lot of its logic to the YAML parser. The exploit and official patches were announced here on the official RoR Security mailing list.
There's been a lot of commotion lately about the critical vulnerability in Rails (>= Rails 2). And with good reason. For technical details, you can see any number of write-ups, including the post on the Rails-core mailing list from Aaron Patterson, this post on Rapid7, and this discussion on Hacker News. There are also posts on the EngineYard blog and Heroku blog. In this article though, I'd like to 1) boil the issue down to its most basic principle, and 2) outline your options for fixing.
