ventur

After working normal jobs for about 2 years each, Trav began planning a bicycle tour, (which he is currently blogging at https://www.ventur.co/journals/23). This was the impetus for us to rethink and finally deploy a new version of our app using more modern tech. We now have a native iOS app in TestFlight that he is using in the field, as well as the React Redux web app.

After learning some basic coding skills (HTML, CSS, little bit of JS) - Gabe set off to create a Ruby on Rails v1 of the app. Once Travis got involved, we kept working on the Rails app, until we realized that we wanted to move away from the "Monolith" structure and only use Rails as a backend API for our separate React/Redux and React Native front ends. We then got real-life coding jobs here in SF and got distracted from the pursuit of the app for about a year.

When Gabe bicycle toured South America in 2013, he used crazyguyonabike.com to blog his journal. While the site has an abundance of useful information and stories on touring, it is difficulty to use and out of date with modern UX/UI standards. So Gabe started taking online tutorials at codecademy & teamtreehouse.com while Travis committed to a code bootcamp. Within a year, we had a clunky version of a touring app that we have since rebuilt.

We both caught the bug after doing our first bicycle tours. As a wise Argentine sage once told me, "Bicycle touring is fast enough to travel, but slow enough to not miss a thing."

Given the sheer enthusiasm that accompanies anyone who has toured before, we felt like this would be a perfect niche to embrace.