Most people want to start the year off with a bang, well, we like to do things big around here, so we’re going to end 2011 with a bang! SproutBox is very excited to share with everyone our three newest employees, Josh Herring, Maggie O’Connor, and Diane Cessna. We are very happy to welcome them into our loving SproutBox family.

Josh has been working with SproutBox, primarily on ScheduleThing, since September. Word of mouth helped direct Josh to Chris White. Chris then helped get the ball rolling bringing Josh closer to where he had hoped to see himself within three years, starting his own software company.

Josh went to school to study human linguistics and ended up in a program that was equal parts linguistics and computer science. He found himself more interested in the programming side of things than the academic side. He’s pretty new to being a software engineer and would love any advice from the pros out there. Josh looks forward to hopefully work on an education industry sprout, or a really math heavy application. If you’re ever looking for Josh you can most likely find him playing with his cats if he isn’t hard at work keeping ScheduleThing competitive and implementing new features.

Maggie describes the way she became involved with SproutBox as serendipitous. She was looking for work in Bloomington and stumbled upon our website. She sent in her resume and it just so happened we were just as lucky as she was. She has only been with us for about a month but her enthusiasm to learn and improve her skills are a perfect fit for SproutBox. Her ambition has already lead her to learning more front-end development.

Maggie began her career when her natural love for art married her addiction to the internet. She advises any graphic designer to never stop looking for new things to learn, because you’ll be a much stronger designer for it.

When Maggie isn’t designing you can find her baking, cooking (which we have yet to experience, wink wink), or kicking butt in Words with Friends.

SproutBox’s most recent member of the family is Diane She actually knows our founders from back in the days of 2008. Once she returned to the great state of Indiana, she realized she had to get back in touch with them knowing SproutBox would offer the best working environment for area developers.

Diane first found her love for computers in elementary school when she participated in an after school computer program but didn’t start programming until college when an employer encouraged her to take a computer science class. She loves a good challenge creating and building things that real people will use. This is one of many reasons why Diane fits well with SproutBox, she is definitely able to directly contribute to the success of some really awesome products that people use.

Diane is currently splitting her time between Proposable and new Sprouts. She has really enjoyed working on our newest Sprout, because she’s had the opportunity to start working on it in the early stages of development.  She says she has already learned new things in the couple of weeks she has been here. With that being said, she advises any fellow developers to not be intimidated by things you don’t know. She believes it is impossible to know everything because things are constantly changing. So you don’t get in a rut, make sure to always be actively learning new things and growing as a developer.

If Diane isn’t hanging out with the fun and awesome people she works with, then she is probably with her English Mastiff and Boxer or doing something equally as awesome outdoors (by the way she also likes to overuse words like awesome and cool.)

It’s great that all three of them all are very excited about what SproutBox can offer them: a fun environment where they are able to learn while working on new awesome products. The projects are always changing allowing for our employees to not get tired of the same thing over and over again.

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The temptation to hibernate through winter is strong, but don’t let that keep you inside! Bloomington and the surrounding areas are hosting a number of events that’ll keep you plugged in to the the latest tech news.

Verge Winter 2011 Meetup
5:30 p.m. Thursday, December 8 at DeveloperTown, Indianapolis, IN
Verge is for all people in the Indianapolis-area working at or investing in tech startups. The Winter Meetup will highlight three new startups:

• Quipol, a cool social polling platform
• Knomingo, a unique video community
• uFlavor, a custom beverage startup, which will be launching to the world at this event!

So whether you’ve founded a startup, hack at a startup, or both, you’re likely to have a good time and make some great connections at their monthly meetup.

Click here for more information.

Drupal December Meetup
6:30 p.m. Tuesday, December 13 at the IUPUI Library, Indianapolis, IN

This month’s meeting is a hack session –there is no set topic or schedule. The topics are determined based on those who are attending. You can work with other Drupal people on your projects and get help if you’re struggling with something specific.

This meetup is great for beginners as well as experienced Drupal developers. There will be professional Drupalers present to help, so no topic is too simple or complex.

Click here for more information.

hYPe December Social Networking Event: Martinis and Merriment!
5:30-7:30 p.m. Wednesday, December 14 at Serendipity Martini Bar, Bloomington, IN

The Bloomington Chamber of Commerce started hYPe in 2010 as a means to foster young budding professionals in Bloomington. hYPe will host a social networking event at Serendipity Martini Bar featuring door prizes, hors d’oeuvres, and drink specials. Bring three canned goods for admission!

Register for the event here.

Indy Media Artists Meetup
6 p.m. Thursday, January 19, 2012 at the J. Everett Light Career Center, Indianapolis, IN

Indy Media Artists provides a source of information and sense of community for local graphic designers, web designers, motion media and video creators. This month’s meeting will feature breakout groups on Photoshop, Adobe Suite 5.5 Demo, and WordPress.

Click here for more information.

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Last week, we announced that MyJibe was acquired by MoneyDesktop, provider of the fastest growing personal financial management platform for financial institutions. After less than 9 months on the market, MyJibe made waves in the industry. They caught the eye of MoneyDesktop CEO Ryan Caldwell, who quickly established a vision for accelerated growth.

“I was impressed with the potency of MyJibe’s team. They had accomplished, in software and business development, what most of our well-funded competitors were still working towards,” said Caldwell.

Based in Provo, UT, MoneyDesktop boasts a client base of over 200 banks and credit unions and unmatched partnerships with the country’s top online banking providers. The combination of MyJibe and MoneyDesktop will take PFM to the next level. MyJibe Founders Mike Langellier and Brandon Dewitt will join the MoneyDesktop team in leadership roles.

We’re thrilled by the success MyJibe has achieved is such a short time. We know that most of our investments won’t exit this quickly, but this acquisition is proof that great entrepreneurs can truly move markets when equipped with a great product. With only SproutBox’s investment and a whole lot of hustle (no angel round, no VC funding), Mike and Brandon multiplied their company’s value. I have no doubt that they will add fuel to the fire that MoneyDesktop has created. We’re excited to be part of it.

To read more about MyJibe’s deal check out the articles from Inside Indiana Business, Indiana Business Journal, or read the press release from MoneyDesktop.

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