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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Submission deadline is fast approaching, August 8^th to be exact. To help you understand what we’re all about, we turned to a former sprout and successful entrepreneur, James Kappan.

James is the founder of our fifth Sprout, Proposable. This subscription software makes creating, delivering and analyzing web-based sales proposals easy and efficient. Since his months in “the box,” James is successfully managing Proposable, and has a lot to say about how working with SproutBox has helped make his vision a reality.

What made you decide to work with SproutBox to launch Proposable?

Sproutbox offers to fund entrepreneurs based on the quality of the idea presented and the resourcefulness of the entrepreneur.

What was it like going through the application process and selection weekend?

The application process was surprisingly straightforward and fun. It helped me put some more “meat” around the idea I had been thinking about for so long. The weekend was cool, but sort of stressful as you are presenting your idea to a very top-notch group of investors and entrepreneurs. It was great meeting everyone and seeing that Bloomington is a cool town.

How do you feel SproutBox has helped your business in terms of development?

Sproutbox provided everything I needed to make Proposable a reality. From the intense planning sessions to the rapid code writing, the entire team did a stellar job of moving from the idea stage to the working site stage.

What was the atmosphere like in “the box?”

The best way I can describe the box is that it’s like your favorite uncle’s basement. Comfortable chairs, games, food and just enough distraction to make it feel like you’re not at “work”. It’s a great place for collaboration among the team.

How did the SproutBox team support you during the transition process?

They provided guidance and strategy right out of the gate. The transition process was the hardest part of the process, as you now have to actually make your idea make money. This was challenging at first, as the project needs time and development to become a stable platform.

What did you most benefit from working with SproutBox?

I think I benefited most from having so many minds to glean from. I tried to learn as much as I could from each person on the team. I realized the value in having others who think very differently from me.

What advice do you have for those who are interested in working with SproutBox?

Really understand and communicate what pain your idea solves. If you can effectively communicate the pain that your ideas solves, then your idea will sell itself.

If you would like to apply to be our next Sprout, applications are due August 8^th.

Apply at http://www.sproutbox.com/apply

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Proposable.com is now live! We are so excited to unveil this game-changing sales platform to the world. The Proposable team has put in late nights, long days, and blood sweat and tears into this project (well.. not too much blood was spilt, actually) but now they’re open for business.

Proposable was released Thursday evening (2/11/10) and was immediately covered by the most well-read tech blogs, including TechCrunch and TheNextWeb.

Read the Techcrunch article here.

Click here to read TheNextWeb coverage.

Proposable offers revolutionary sales intelligence and a ridiculously simple platform for creating, delivering, and analyzing all your sales material online. Tell the salespeople in your life that they never again need to ask questions like, “Did they open my email?”, “What sections did they look at?”, and “How interested are they?”. Proposable has the answers.

Everyone gets a free 30 day trial – No credit card required.
Try it for yourself now at http://www.proposable.com.

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