We’ve all the time had teammates who’ve aspect initiatives along with working at Buffer. Engaged on new initiatives, constructing, experimenting, and self-improvement are constructed into our DNA as an organization. So it is fairly widespread to be talking with somebody solely to seek out out they personal a small enterprise outdoors of Buffer that began as a aspect undertaking. We even have a number of printed authors and lots of apps constructed by Buffer teammates.
We consider this entrepreneurial spirit and artistic drive not solely enhances our particular person development but additionally enriches our tradition at Buffer. These passionate pursuits outdoors of labor convey contemporary views, revolutionary pondering, and various ability units again to our crew.
Within the spirit of celebrating these endeavors, we have compiled the blogs, companies, books, and apps created by Buffer teammates. We hope they encourage you as a lot as they encourage us.
The 35 aspect initiatives the Buffer crew is engaged on
Right here’s what our crew works on outdoors of labor. Hopefully you would possibly spot some cool aspect undertaking concepts for your self, or try a number of the issues our crew works on.
Apps
Andy: Alpenglow, F1 Calendar, Starglow
- Alpenglow: An app to test dawn, sundown and golden hour instances in addition to high quality predictions. Additionally sends out notification reminders and with Alpenglow Professional will notify you if the following forecast is trying good in comparison with your required threshold. The app may be doing on each iOS and Android, usually featured by Apple and contains over 35+ localizations.
- F1 Calendar: Taking on the event from a number of pals, I rebuilt F1 Calendar as a simple strategy to test Components 1 Session instances in your timezone in addition to making the information out there through Calendar subscriptions. The positioning has been going for 14 years and we now have further websites for F1 Academy, F2, F3, Components E, IndyCar, MotoGP.
- Starglow: Basically Alpenglow however for viewing the evening sky. It’s been requested fairly a bit from customers and pals. It shows climate parameters for every hour, centered totally on cloud protection and visibility that are key to view the evening sky clearly. The app is at present on the App Retailer for pre order, aiming to launch it in April.
David: Include
Include is a browser-based, accessibility-first design device. Present UI design instruments like Figma and Sketch are nice for visible explorations however develop into cumbersome with responsive design, parts, animations, and consumer interactions. Web site builder instruments push an excessive amount of complexity on customers, and generate bloated, inaccessible code. Include solves this by residing within the browser, which means all the things you design is constructed with accessible HTML and CSS. This brings the design course of into the ultimate medium, making responsive design, container queries, and consumer interactions doable whereas reducing a lot of the waste from the design course of.
Eric: PlayCraft
Platform for everybody to create net video games and share it to their pals in seconds! We’ve constructed our personal modular framework to create video games actually shortly for PixelBrawlGames. With at present’s AI capabilities, we’re utilizing this similar framework to create new video games with a single immediate.
Martin: Palabreja, Voices.ink
- Palabreja: A NYTimes Spelling Bee Sport clone in Spanish.
- Voices.ink: Voices.ink is a cutting-edge utility that streamlines the note-taking course of by utilizing AI to file, transcribe, and analyse audio, summarizing it on to your Notion account. It identifies key factors and actionable gadgets, guaranteeing detailed but concise notes.
Mike: Carpeta
Carpeta is a project-management device for inside designers, architects, and industrial designers to assist them centralize all their conversations, budgets, and recordsdata, and higher handle their time whereas managing their initiatives.
Freelance
Karinna: Pilates Teacher
Karinna is an authorized Pilates & Lagree Teacher, and teaches lessons in her spare time.
Martin: Two Feelings
Avenue & Journey Images
Mitra: Social media supervisor for The Used, Thrice, Dustin Kensrue, and robbietheused
Mitra is the social media supervisor for bands/artists The Used, Story of the 12 months, Thrice, Dustin Kensrue, and robbietheused. She’s been working with these bands since 2017.
Mitra: Mitra Mehvar Images
Mitra does stay music pictures, primarily for rock bands.
Music
Brandon: Child Lightbulbs
Brandon writes, produces & releases music below the title Child Lightbulbs from his small residence studio. He’s launched 3 albums below this title, the newest being RUINED CASTLE in December 2024.
Nonprofits
Amanda: SheSharp
Amanda runs SheSharp: a non-profit basis based mostly in The Netherlands that makes it simpler for all ladies and non-binary folks to enter, keep, and develop within the tech trade. We host occasions, facilitate mentorship programmes and provides out funding by way of scholarships, and a plethora of different initiatives.
Kateryna: TallinnJS
It’s a technical neighborhood for JavaScript builders in Tallinn
Sofia: Nosotras Hablamos Design
Nosotras Hablamos Design is a neighborhood the place Spanish-speaking ladies come collectively to observe English and discover the world of design by way of participating conversations and workshops.
Small Companies
Andy: Woof Warehouse
Andy works on a Shopify retailer that sells canine bandanas and equipment. He focuses totally on the tech aspect of issues, customizing the shop, plugins, and branding, whereas additionally caring for and photographing the cute pups.
Mike S: Otter, WTC
- Otter: Mike co-founded Otter. Based mostly in Spain, Otter helps folks make customized furnishings by connecting them to native carpenter’s that go well with their wants.
- WTC: A hat model 🧢 with statements designed for creatives, entrepreneurs, and those that embrace a lifetime of pondering and doing enterprise with objective – extra designs coming quickly!
Mitra: The Torshi Dough
Mitra bakes sourdough bread at her residence cottage bakery
Nathan: Riftgate
Nathan runs a brick-and-mortar retailer at 5412 S 900 E Murray, UT 84107.
Podcasts & Writing
Andy: Private weblog
Andy retains a private weblog the place he is written about App Clips in Alpenglow and plans to share extra clear updates about Alpenglow sooner or later.
Diego: Pink and Her Solid
Diego and his accomplice launched this e-book, which his accomplice wrote and illustrated himself. Diego did the modifying, formatting, and canopy design (+ translation for the reason that e-book additionally exists in Spanish). They needed to create a e-book with a beneficial lesson for youngsters: That generally life will throw curve-balls our method, and that despite the fact that we would really feel like we’re the one ones going by way of it, we aren’t alone, and others would possibly really be feeling the identical method or going by way of related conditions. Enjoyable reality: Their 8-year-old nephew did the Title and seems within the credit.
Hailley: Private weblog & weekly publication
Hailley writes a weekly publication in regards to the programs she makes use of in work and life; she additionally writes items for her private weblog, the place she shares extra in-depth seems at these programs and her profession development recommendation.
Jess: Pinecone Papers
A weblog about how you can mindfully journal and observe signs when you’ve gotten a continual sickness. Engaged on a downloadable printable journal that will probably be out later this yr.
Joe: Sensible Jetpack Compose, CI/CD for Android with GitHub Actions, Sensible KMP
- Sensible Jetpack Compose: A e-book to show Android Builders how you can construct apps utilizing Jetpack Compose, Googles new UI framework for Android!
- CI/CD for Android with GitHub Actions: A e-book to show Android builders how you can automate their testing and launch course of utilizing GitHub Actions.
- Sensible KMP: A e-book to to show builders how you can construct apps utilizing Kotlin Multiplatform, the framework from Jetbrains that permits for code sharing between Android & iOS!
Joel: E-newsletter
Every so often, Joel sends out a publication with hyperlinks he is saved, what he highlights in books, new and noteworthy at Buffer, one thing that is been on his thoughts, and a basic replace.
Kirsti: SA Tech Entrepreneurs Podcast and Neighborhood
The South Africa Tech Marketer’s podcast goals to assist highlight unbelievable expertise now we have in South Africa, and the neighborhood is about as much as assist us join and develop. It’s sponsored by an organization referred to as The International Expertise Co, which is successfully a recruitment company for SA advertising and marketing expertise. They assist South Africans get distant jobs — it’s neat. 😄
Lexi: The Burden of Pleasure
Lexi’s debut novel is accessible from Rejection Letters, an indie press.
Mike: Constructing Higher
A weekly podcast the place we mirror on constructing higher companies and relationships contained in the hectic startup and digital enterprise world.
Nate: Virtually Heretical
A podcast by Nate (a former pastor) and his spouse Shelby (a Bible scholar). They reimagine and revisit the Bible for these deconstructing Christianity.
Tami: Content material-as-a-Profession
Content material-as-a-Profession is a publication that shares tips about how you can develop a private model that may safe world alternatives, together with a jobs board to related Advertising and Inventive roles. Shared on Fridays.
YouTube Channel
David: Construct UX
Construct UX is a YouTube channel on centered on accessible design and improvement. Previous collection have centered on constructing out design concepts from Dribble in Figma and code to be accessible, performant, and responsive. Present movies give attention to shorter accessibility tutorials that span design and improvement, in addition to test-driven improvement (TDD) methods used to construct resilient consumer interfaces.
Honorable point out: aspect initiatives that turned full-time
You may be questioning if these aspect initiatives ever flip into full-time companies – they do! We have had a number of teammates begin a aspect undertaking at Buffer solely to go away to pursue it full-time. When this occurs, we’re past excited for that individual. It is immensely gratifying to look at somebody construct one thing and see it succeed.
So, listed below are former Buffer teammates who left to pursue their aspect initiatives turned companies, give them a comply with or some assist!
Over to You
We’d love to listen to from you! Are you engaged on any aspect initiatives? Be at liberty to drop a hyperlink within the feedback! In case you are, how do you find time for them and keep motivated, are you engaged on multiple?
