John PolacekChicago Web Developer

Over the last month, I’ve been working on a secret project, to help rebrand my company and launch our new website. I’m thrilled to say that I now work at Gesture, and we make hope happen.

When I left my job at a big global corporation occupying a dozen floors in a high rise office building on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile to work at a startup in the suburbs called AuctionsByCellular, I wonder how many people thought I was maybe a little crazy.

What those people did not know is what I found when I first visited their small office space that they had just moved into (its previous tenant was a chiropractor). What did I find? An opportunity to be part of something amazing. This small team of smart and motivated individuals was onto something big and I wanted to be part of it while it was small.

So, I became full time developer hire #1. I went from working with 700 people in the middle of the city to sharing an office room with our CTO and a talented part-time UX/Front End developer who worked half days. There was so much that needed to be done. Have you ever felt like you were in exactly the right place at the right time? It was like every skill and piece of knowledge I had gained over my career were going to be useful in helping this amazing new team I found to make our vision of what this company could do into reality.

Coming up on two years later, I still feel that way. One thing has changed though, this startup that I joined is coming into its own. We are a bigger company, operating in more places, offering more products and services and helping more charities than ever. That’s the amazing thing. I get to do what I love (design and build web technology) in service of helping people help other people.

Big thanks to Listen for their help on branding and identity and Eight Bit Studios for their help with designing the website.

I cannot wait to see what happens next. Check us out at Gesture.com