Press "Enter" to skip to content

Category: Five Questions

5 Questions For Dmitry Buterin, Chief Apricot

Published November 12, 2006

Dmitry Buterin (aka Chief Apricot) is the co-founder of BonaSource, the company behind the creation of Wild Apricot. His passion for planning and implementing sophisticated IT projects led him to the company’s creation in 2001. BonaSource takes great pride in having completed eBusiness projects for some of the world’s largest companies. A member of the Society of Association Executives (Canadian and US chapters), he is justifiably proud of his new “baby”, Wild Apricot.

One Degree: What is Wild Apricot?

Wild Apricot is a set of web-based tools to run a non-profit organization: Hosted website with content management, database of members, event registrations, email blasts, online donations. All these tools are integrated into a single system, which saves a lot of time and hassle for people running a non-profit. Now they do not have to juggle six different clumsy tools and spend hours on mindless export /import copy/paste retype kind of work – which quickly burns out staff and volunteers. Wild Apricot is tailored to small and mid-size non-profits – because they hurt the most and have the least money and resources for their technology needs. What 37Signals did for project management with Basecamp, we strive to do for running a non-profit with Wild Apricot.

One Degree: How does Wild Apricot fit into the bigger picture of BonaSource?

We have always planned to transcend from a purely consulting company (we do usability consulting and custom web apps design and development) to offer our own software. And Wild Apricot has become a perfect convergence point for a lot of trends for us: usability focus, prior work for non-profits, AJAX technology expertise, Agile (iterative) methodology, experience building large-scale custom web apps for enterprise customers. We still offer usability consulting and design and development services – focusing on a few select clients who share our passion for user experience, embrace the principles of agile development and collaboration – and are building really unique and innovative web apps.

Continue reading5 Questions For Dmitry Buterin, Chief Apricot
Comments closed

5 Questions for Steven Harmer, Blast Radius

Published October 10, 2006

Steven Harmer.JPG

Steven Harmer is Executive Vice President & General Manager for Blast Radius‘ eastern and central North American client portfolio, and also heads up the Toronto office. His superior communication skills are matched by his commitment to delivering innovative customer experiences. With a thorough understanding of Internet technologies and best practices, Steve previously led the company’s global production and delivery teams. He holds a BIS from the University of Waterloo and a degree in New Media from the Vancouver Film School.

One Degree: The last time we checked in with Blast Radius was when we did a Five Questions with Gurval Caer back in June of 2005. What’s been happening at Blast Radius in the last year?
Things have been very exciting and busy for Blast Radius in the part year, especially for our Toronto team. Recently we have enjoyed some great client wins with high-profile US-based companies such as Time Inc., Newell Rubbermaid, Meredith Publishing and OfficeMax. We also continue to work with great long term clients like EA, Nike, Air Jordan and BMW.
Our industry is in a very interesting state right now, as more and more companies are realizing the power of the Internet and are seeking new and innovative ways to connect with their customers online. We are enjoying the challenge of working with them to create meaningful experiences.
*One Degree: I hear you’ve signed several large deals with multi-billion dollar US-based companies including OfficeMax (the #6 North American on-line retailer), CarMax (a $6 billion US/year online car retailer), and Meredith a multi-billion dollar publisher). Can you tell us a bit about how a Canadian company approaches such large US businesses?*
Blast Radius has a long history as an innovator within our space which has led to our strong leadership in the marketplace. It is this leadership position which creates opportunities for us. We have a pretty constant flow of clients referring us to their network.
So it’s nothing new for us to compete with top tier companies south of the border. However, it does mean we compete with the best of the best which means we need the best talent; especially in Toronto. All our recent new client wins, you mentioned as well as Time Inc. and Newell Rubbermaid in the past couple of months, have been a result of very competitive pitches

Continue reading5 Questions for Steven Harmer, Blast Radius
1 Comment