Do you write apps in React Native? Do you want to add authentication — that is, login and logout — to those apps? If so, these articles are for you!
If you’re writing an Android app in React Native and you need users to log in and log out, don’t roll your own authentication! Use Auth0 instead. You’ll get full-featured authentication and have more time to concentrate on your app’s full functionality.
There’s also an iOS-specific version of this article: Get Started with Auth0 Authentication in React Native iOS Apps. Just like the Android version, this article walks you through the process of making an iOS app that lets users log in with an app-specific username/password combination or a Google account.
Here’s the list of tech, entrepreneur, and nerd events for Tampa Bay and surrounding areas for the week of Monday, May 30 through Sunday, June 5, 2022.
As far as event types go, this list casts a rather wide net. It includes events that would be of interest to techies, nerds, and entrepreneurs. It includes (but isn’t limited to) events that fall under the category of:
Programming, DevOps, systems administration, and testing
Tech project management / agile processes
Video, board, and role-playing games
Book, philosophy, and discussion clubs
Tech, business, and entrepreneur networking events
Toastmasters (because nerds really need to up their presentation game)
Sci-fi, fantasy, and other genre fandoms
Anything I deem geeky
By “Tampa Bay and surrounding areas”, this list covers events that originate or are aimed at the area within 100 miles of the Port of Tampa. At the very least, that includes the cities of Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Clearwater, but as far north as Ocala, as far south as Fort Myers, and includes Orlando and its surrounding cities.
StartupBus 2022 will depart from Tampa Bay!
If you’re looking for an adventure, a chance to test your startup skills, and an experience that will make your résumé stand out, join me on StartupBus Florida, which departs Tampa Bay on July 27, when it sets course for Austin, Texas!
On this three-day journey, “buspreneurs” will form teams, create a business idea, build a software demo for that idea, and develop pitches for that idea. When they arrive in Austin, they’ll spend two days pitching their startups to a panel of judges.
I was a “buspreneur” on StartupBus Florida in 2019, the last time the event took place, and our team made it to the finals and got the runner-up position. This time, I’m a “conductor” — one of the coaches on the bus — and our team is here to help you rise to the challenge.
I try to keep this list up-to-date. I add new events to this article as soon as I hear about them, so be sure to check back here throughout the week!
Monday, May 30
Keep in mind that it’s Memorial Day and some people post events on “autopilot,” forgetting that they may fall on a holiday. Check with event organizers before going to any of the listed events below — they might not be happening!
If you’d like to get this list in your email inbox every week, enter your email address below. You’ll only be emailed once a week, and the email will contain this list, plus links to any interesting news, upcoming events, and tech articles. Join the Tampa Bay Tech Events list and always be informed of what’s coming up in Tampa Bay!
I’ll repeat what this post’s title is telling you: Everything you need to know in order to win StartupBus North America 2022 is contained within a podcast. More specifically, the “Startup Bus” series of episodes from Gimlet Media’s Startup podcast, which covered the New York bus’ journey during StartupBus 2017.
This five-part series covered the journey from its start in New York City to the finals in New Orleans. It features reporter Eric Mennel, who “embedded” with the StartupBus New York bus in July 2017 to follow the participants, talk to them, and report on what happened. It gives you a look not just into the teams and their projects, but the people in those teams, what drives them, and the very personal reasons why they chose to go on the bus.
Rule number one of StartupBus is that there is no “number two” on the bus. Bus toilets aren’t as well-sealed as airplane toilets, and if you poop on the bus, it will be bad for everyone concerned — especially you, because we’ll all be giving you the stink-eye from now on.
You’re going to make your first pitch very soon after the bus departs. At the start of the ride, every buspreneur stands in front of the bus and makes a first pitch. This pitch will be for two things:
Yourself: You’ll be selling yourself to prospective teams. You’re going to need to convince people why you should be on their team or why they should be on yours. It works best if you can have your unique value proposition ready in advance.
Your startup idea:If you have a startup idea — that is, if you have a problem and a solution — you should be ready to pitch it. You want your fellow buspreneurs to want to work on your startup idea!
Be ready for chaos after the first pitches. After the pitches, people will start looking for and forming teams. Be ready to move about the bus to talk to different groups.
Build a balanced team. You’re going to need a variety of skills to get the job done in three days.
Day one of StartupBus is about coming up with and validating your idea. Your idea will be tested, and you may need to modify it slightly — or make a big pivot. Be prepared to do either.
There’s a difference between a technology and a solution. One of the teams that initially looks like a collection of all-stars ends up without a product idea because they were focused more on blockchain than a solving a problem with blockchain. As the saying goes: “People don’t really buy drills, they buy holes.”
If the technology you plan to use isn’t something laypeople are familiar with, you may need to spend some time explaining it. The blockchain team ended up spending a lot of the time allotted to their pitch explaining what a blockchain was, and why it might be essential to the problem they hadn’t quite settled on solving. Remember, this was 2017, well before the time when crypto exchanges were easy to find online and celebrities were shilling for cryptocurrency companies; in fact, it would be a little bit before “BitConneeeeeeeeeeect!”. Keep this is mind if your startup is going to be NFT-based — you’re going to spend a good chunk of your pitch explain them to the judges, which will take away from the time to pitch what your project actually does.
The conductors are there to help you. Not only that; all the conductors have been on StartupBus before, so we’ve gone what you’re going through now, we learned from our experiences, and we’ve internalized those lessons. Our job is to actively help you make your startup, project, and pitch be the best they can be.
The conductors are there to challenge you. The ride to Austin will not be direct. There will be stops, where you will face challenges. A mere 4 hours after the New York 2017 bus departed, the teams had to make their first pitch in front of a panel of judges in Washington, D.C..
Try to avoid talking over other team members. Day one is about initial ideas and refinement, and there’s a lot of talking and brainstorming. Your team should try to make sure that team members don’t talk over other team members.
Find out why your fellow buspreneurs are there. There are all sorts of reasons why someone would go on StartupBus, but there are a few particular categories of “why” that you’ll definitely see:
Seekers: There are always a number of buspreneurs who are participating because they’re looking for something: options for a new career path, new perspectives, new experiences, a chance to see parts of the country they otherwise wouldn’t see, and meaning. They can be great “idea” people, as they’re on the bus with the specific goal of trying new things.
Shakers: There are also always buspreneurs who want to “shake up” their current situation. Perhaps they’re in a job or life situation they don’t like, feel they’ve fallen into a rut, or want some experience that will set them apart from other job candidates (this is one of the reasons I went in 2019). These are great “doers,” because their reason to be on the bus is to do new things.
Hackathon junkies: Just as there are people who regularly compete in marathons and triathlons, there are people who regularly compete in hackathons (and remember, that’s what StartupBus is). Having one on your team is a real help — they have experience delivering a proof of concept in short order.
Watch this blog for the next episode, and my notes from that episode!
Here’s the list of tech, entrepreneur, and nerd events for Tampa Bay and surrounding areas for the week of Monday, May 23 through Sunday, May 29, 2022.
As far as event types go, this list casts a rather wide net. It includes events that would be of interest to techies, nerds, and entrepreneurs. It includes (but isn’t limited to) events that fall under the category of:
Programming, DevOps, systems administration, and testing
Tech project management / agile processes
Video, board, and role-playing games
Book, philosophy, and discussion clubs
Tech, business, and entrepreneur networking events
Toastmasters (because nerds really need to up their presentation game)
Sci-fi, fantasy, and other genre fandoms
Anything I deem geeky
By “Tampa Bay and surrounding areas”, this list covers events that originate or are aimed at the area within 100 miles of the Port of Tampa. At the very least, that includes the cities of Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Clearwater, but as far north as Ocala, as far south as Fort Myers, and includes Orlando and its surrounding cities.
StartupBus 2022 will depart from Tampa Bay!
If you’re looking for an adventure, a chance to test your startup skills, and an experience that will make your résumé stand out, join me on StartupBus Florida, which departs Tampa Bay on July 27, when it sets course for Austin, Texas!
On this three-day journey, “buspreneurs” will form teams, create a business idea, build a software demo for that idea, and develop pitches for that idea. When they arrive in Austin, they’ll spend two days pitching their startups to a panel of judges.
I was a “buspreneur” on StartupBus Florida in 2019, the last time the event took place, and our team made it to the finals and got the runner-up position. This time, I’m a “conductor” — one of the coaches on the bus — and our team is here to help you rise to the challenge.
If you’d like to get this list in your email inbox every week, enter your email address below. You’ll only be emailed once a week, and the email will contain this list, plus links to any interesting news, upcoming events, and tech articles. Join the Tampa Bay Tech Events list and always be informed of what’s coming up in Tampa Bay!
Five years ago today, I submitted the first of two programming assignments as part of a job interview with a company that makes applications for the trucking industry.
May 2017
My interview at the company’s head office is going well. I’m giving them my Q&A A-game, the back-and-forth is flowing smoothly, and my knowledge of the trucking industry and lore — a combination of having done some research as well as repeated listenings to the Mark Dalton, Trucker/Detective audiobook series — seems to be paying off.
Ninety minutes into the one-hour interview, the CTO puts the brakes on the conversation and proposes a next step.
“We like your breadth of experience,” he says. “Now we’d like to test your depth. If we gave you a quick programming assignment, which would you prefer — writing an iOS app, or an Android app? You should go with the one you’re stronger in.”
I’m a much stronger iOS programmer than an Android one. The smart move would be to answer “iOS,” and be done with it.
But in that moment, I remember the motto: Be like Han.
Tap to view the “Be like Han” philosophy at full size.
Instead, I reply “Yes, but you’re looking for someone to lead a team of both iOS and Android developers. You really should give me both.”
The CTO raises an eyebrow, makes a note on his pad, and says “Hmmm…I think I will.”
This is either a “total baller move” (to borrow a turn of phrase the kids are using these day), or the end of that job prospect. But for the job that they’re trying to fill, taking on that challenge was the right thing to do.
I leave the interview with just one thought: Good thing I don’t have a job. This is going to be a lot of work.
The app
I decided to tackle the iOS version first. The tricky part was that the assignment required that the app be written in the old iOS programming language, Objective-C. In 2017, Swift had been around for 3 years, so it was still reasonable to expect to do some Objective-C development.
Actual code from the project.
I made the leap to Swift as soon as it came out, so it had been 3 years since I’d done any Objective-C coding. It took me a couple of hours to regain my “C legs,” but after a few days’ work, I managed to come up with this app:
Now I’m in the position where I am handing out programming assignments to prospective employees. I keep my 2017 experience in mind, which means:
I try to be respectful of their time. The assignment should be detailed enough to provide a realistic picture of the the candidate’s abilities but not so complex that they have to drop everything — including home/family responsibilities and their current job — to be able to complete it.
I try to be open to communication and responsive. I never want them to have that “ghosted” feeling I got five years ago.
The business proposition happens in a laundromat. Here’s the part of the skit that pretty much sums up the idea behind NFTs:
Suit (Bruce McCulloch): “Yes!” This is how I think we should proceed — next time you come to do your laundry, you give us a call.
Mark (Mark McKinney): Heyyy! Are you trying to buy my dirty underwear?
Suit: [uncomfortable pause] N-no. I’m not trying to buy your underwear. I’m trying to lease your underwear.
Mark: I knew it!
Suit: No no, sir. It’s not what you think.
Mark: There was a guy in here, a couple of weeks ago. He tried to buy my dirty underwear, only he wasn’t slick like you.
Suit: That was my ex-partner, sir. W-we’re not trying to buy or rent your underwear, we’re just trying to lease your underwear. We just want the title of ownership.
Mark: What?
Suit: Yes, you get to retain possession of your underwear. It’s totally a paper transaction.
Mark: Huh. Is there uh money involved with this?
Suit: Of course, sir, there’s money involved. I’m a business man. There’s fifteen dollars [waves a stack of one-dollar bills so it looks like a bundle of money].
Mark: So, you’ll give me fifteen dollars for the title of ownership to my underwear, and I get to keep it?
Suit: Of course you do, sir.
Mark: But how do you make money doing that?
Suit: We’re idea people. We profit from the idea that we own the deed to your underwear.
And that’s NFTs in nutshell, once you strip away the technology veneer and blockchain bafflegab.
Here’s the list of tech, entrepreneur, and nerd events for Tampa Bay and surrounding areas for the week of Monday, May 16 through Sunday, May 22, 2022.
As far as event types go, this list casts a rather wide net. It includes events that would be of interest to techies, nerds, and entrepreneurs. It includes (but isn’t limited to) events that fall under the category of:
Programming, DevOps, systems administration, and testing
Tech project management / agile processes
Video, board, and role-playing games
Book, philosophy, and discussion clubs
Tech, business, and entrepreneur networking events
Toastmasters (because nerds really need to up their presentation game)
Sci-fi, fantasy, and other genre fandoms
Anything I deem geeky
By “Tampa Bay and surrounding areas”, this list covers events that originate or are aimed at the area within 100 miles of the Port of Tampa. At the very least, that includes the cities of Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Clearwater, but as far north as Ocala, as far south as Fort Myers, and includes Orlando and its surrounding cities.
StartupBus 2022 will depart from Tampa Bay!
If you’re looking for an adventure, a chance to test your startup skills, and an experience that will make your résumé stand out, join me on StartupBus Florida, which departs Tampa Bay on July 27, when it sets course for Austin, Texas!
On this three-day journey, “buspreneurs” will form teams, create a business idea, build a software demo for that idea, and develop pitches for that idea. When they arrive in Austin, they’ll spend two days pitching their startups to a panel of judges.
I was a “buspreneur” on StartupBus Florida in 2019, the last time the event took place, and our team made it to the finals and got the runner-up position. This time, I’m a “conductor” — one of the coaches on the bus — and our team is here to help you rise to the challenge.
If you’d like to get this list in your email inbox every week, enter your email address below. You’ll only be emailed once a week, and the email will contain this list, plus links to any interesting news, upcoming events, and tech articles. Join the Tampa Bay Tech Events list and always be informed of what’s coming up in Tampa Bay!
