The exciting mission and fantastic culture here at NeuroFlow are shaped daily by the individual personalities on our team. It’s important to remember that behind every line of code, every call with a customer, and every pixel on our website, is a person helping to move us forward in our mission to make every day life better for those living with a mental health disorder. We like to highlight these people and their story in a series called “Meet the Team”. For our latest version, meet Ryan Gallager, NeuroFlow’s Lead Mobile Developer!
Ryan’s impressive software career has taken him to some great companies but we’re absolutely thrilled he’s a member of the quickly growing team here at NeuroFlow. In just a little over a year, he’s become an integral part of our team and has built some incredible features and functionality for our awesome mobile app, Additionally, Ryan somehow manages to find time to help plan our latest and greatest company social outings. Where’s our next FOFO (forced office fun, optional) happening? Only Ryan knows…
Ryan enjoying New Zealand during a six month travel adventure
Q: How’d you get into mobile development?
A: I started my BS in Computer Science in 2008 and smart phones had really just come out, with the first iPhone dropping in 2007. From a professional standpoint, I had no idea what I wanted to do in the field at that point, and JMU didn’t offer any classes in mobile development yet. By senior year I thought maybe I should check out what that world was like.
While at school, I gathered all the tools I needed for iOS development and built my first basic app to consolidate the business hours of the 30+ on-campus dining establishments at my college, James Madison University. It was ugly, both the code and the user interface. In fact it got rejected from the App Store because it was so ugly, but I fought back and they eventually let it through. And damn was I proud of it. I built the same app on Android too so I could get some experience in both worlds. It ended up getting downloaded thousands of times! Eventually, I ended up taking a full-time iOS development job with an amazing home automation company called Zonoff. That’s when my professional career really began.
Q: You’ve been a software developer at some amazing companies; anything unique or different about your experience here at NeuroFlow?
A: I’ll always appreciate the roles I had that lead me to where I am today. Every opportunity has been a wonderful learning experience that I could share with great people, and has allowed both personal and career growth opportunities and challenges that have helped shape who I am today. It’s been exciting taking that growth to the next level at each milestone in my career.
At NeuroFlow the sales cycle is very fast, and product development is a good split between supporting longer term goals and responding to customer feedback. Consequently, I’ve noticed that our direction, from a product perspective is actionable, MVP-focused, has intent, and is open to getting something out there that we think (hope) is good and responding to market feedback. I also love the weekly all-hands meetings that help align vision, provide news, and encourage open and honest communication.
“I do love getting those 5-star reviews on the app store from users. Warms my heart!”
Q: Our engineering team has grown pretty quickly, what does the team look for during the hiring process?
A: Culture fit and communication are the biggest. In the development realm, obviously you need to have the hard skills too, but it feels like 50/50. If a person’s going to fit in and be friendly and a good addition to the culture, it’s worth at least as much as their ability to develop software.
Q: What’s something most people in the office might not know about you?
A: I took a six-month trip before starting at NeuroFlow where I traveled to a bunch of different countries and did some pretty amazing things. While in India, I lived in an Ashram for a couple of weeks doing 4+ hours of yoga a day, I sat ringside at a Muay Thai fight in Bangkok, walked the great wall (and had some amazing Peking Duck) in China, and went sky diving and paragliding in New Zealand. It was the most amazing experience of my life and really encourage more people to get out of the country and get a new perspective on life. I was also super grateful to have had the means to take a trip like that.
Q: You’re the expert concertgoer in the office, any upcoming show’s you’re excited about ?
A: Oh man absolutely. I’m going to Electric Forest, a four-day music festival up in Michigan, at the end of June, and Moonrise, a two-day festival in Baltimore, in August. I just went to Hijinx, a two-day festival here in Philly in December. I’m a huge EDM and general festival-experience fan. Nothing better than camping out with your best friends for a few days relaxing and listening to amazing music under the stars with thousands of other people who also want nothing but positivity and good times. Love it.
Q: You’ve planned quite a few social activities for the company, any favorites?
A: Axe-throwing has probably been my favorite to date. My first time ever doing it was with the company and man was it fun. But honestly no matter what you’re doing, we’ve found that if you mix in good people, a cool activity (and maybe some adult beverages), you’re probably going to have a fun time!
Interested in joining Ryan and others on the NeuroFlow team? Check out our career opportunities!
