makes a video-based practice platform that helps sales departments boost training impact and sales effectiveness. Nathan Smalley, the CTO of CommercialTribe, is in charge of keeping the company’s tech running smoothly. Smalley has over 23 years of experience leading technology teams. Over the years he has worked on a diverse array of projects, ranging from creating cyber defense software and protocols for the U.S. Army, to creating enterprise architecture and apps for sales training. We caught up with Smalley to get his opinion on the future of tech scene in Colorado. Here’s what he had to say:
What technologies power your business? We are using MEAN stack (MongoDB, Express, Angular, and Node). When we first started to work with NODE.js about 2+ years ago, we found it to be powerful and fast, and continue to approve of NODE’s performance and direction.
Angular is a different story. We used Backbone.js at first and there was a steep learning curve, but after that you really can go quickly and scale. Angular is one of those frameworks that are easier to jump into, but get harder the more you scale. For example, two-way binding of Angular seems amazing at first, but if you're not careful, as your app and team scale out very quickly, explicit data-flows and digest loops can definitely bite you on performance. We are looking at Angular 2, we’ll see. Enterprise software development just isn’t fun without technical debt, challenging frameworks, and the hope and regret cycle.
We picked MongoDB, and I know some folks are critical of it at times, but we really haven’t looked back. The MongoDB Enterprise support teams are terrific and helpful. Most of the problems we have had with Mongo were self-inflicted, and Mongo’s roadmap focusing on enterprise level features in the 3.2 release is music to our collective ears.
- Never ask someone at a Boulder Meetup to come interview in DTC
- During an interview if someone asks if you drug test, it's probably not a good fit even if you don’t
- Never trust the weather report, and always carry layers
- Only tourists wait for the cross walk lights on the 16th Street Mall
- Sitting on the Mall Ride seats is not recommended
- Never try to learn to ski on a Saturday during peak season
- Never go rock climbing if you think the scramble up to the base is hard
- Don’t under estimate the altitude adjustment the first month, and always use that as an excuse
- Never openly critique Peyton Manning
- Illegal Petes is not the same as Chipotle
Have a tip for us or know of a company that deserves coverage? Email us at [email protected].