OVERVIEW
Tinkerbox Studios can be many things to many people, but it is at heart a startup studio, where we build life-changing software products that people love. The studio model means that we are a kickass team with the opportunity to cut our teeth on different startups.
Our core activities include:
- Design and development services (this brings in the bacon);
- Talent pipeline (used internally, but looking to monetize); and
- Internal startup projects (our very own moon shots).
Weâve been providing design and development services to various startups and larger companies in Singapore since 2007. On the development end, we have developed a deep capability on the Ruby on Rails stack. However, we are no stranger to JavaScript frameworks/libraries such as AngularJS, EmberJS, ReactJS, to name a few.
Weâve discovered that one of the main things that we got working with us is our focus on recruiting and training the best developers. Towards that end, we see ourselves as equal parts service provider, and school.
Lastly, we bring to the table many industry insights (and battle scars) that can and will shape our own startup journey. If youâre specifically interested in building a startup with us, let us know.
Where we work
We are located in the heart of Jalan Besar, with access to bus stops, and MRT stations like Bugis and Little India (Jalan Besar MRT will be opening up some time in 2017). The folks at the studio regularly goes out for cheap food at places like Jalan Berseh Food Centre, or more expensive cafe fare if youâre feeling like a treat. The surrounding area also houses an assortment of museums like the National Museum of Singapore, and the Singapore Art Museum, and hip spots like Arab Street and Haji lane, which comes in handy when you want to get your culture on.
The studio itself is no wuss, and has its own array of perks:
- Team members are well equipped with Macbook pros, iMacs, extra monitors, etc;
- Loads of space, and different working environments (yes, weâve got bean bags) so you arenât chained to a desk;
- Decent-sized library of design, development and startup books curated over the years;
- Itâs not Facebook or Google, but our snack bar is well stocked with snacks, juices and an assortment of coffee makers (just to be on the safe side), and our team well fed;
- Table tennis table (not an actual one, but thatâs on the way), and board games like Seven Wonders;
- To combat the haze, we have heavy duty air filters, and air conditions are equipped with 3M filters; and of course
- We have an Xbox 360, Playstation and a Netflix account you can use with a large-ish LED TV.
Why you want to work with us
Before you come down to the studio to check us out, see if these points resonate with you:
- You think we have a good chance at building up the local talent ecosystem through the work here;
- You want to work in a team where âmanagementâ actually gets software development;
- You want to work with a team that gets buzzwords such as Agile, Test Driven Development, and Continuous Integration, to work;
- You want to build useful, meaningful products;
- You want to develop a broader skill set, and knowledge about different industries, business models; and
- You enjoy teaching people things that youâre skilled in.
Perhaps more importantly, we understand that not all developers want to work for a service agency, for reasons such as:
- Code quality is an afterthought, if at all;
- No ownership of the product; and
- The work is boring, we donât get to do any innovation type stuff, etc.
For us, code quality, is one of the primary concerns on each project. We take steps and measures to ensure that this is the case, so we use static code analysis and linting tools, like CodeClimate, and conduct regular code reviews (on pull requests). We take pride in the fact that our code quality is superior to some, if not most, startup/product companies. After all, weâve been doing this for much longer than some of these teams.
It is true that we do not own the products (from the service side of our business) that we build. However, we donât believe that a sense of ownership is exclusive to people having equity in the companies they work for. As craftspeople, we take ownership of the things we create; your code is a part of you because you spend a good chunk of time writing it, and a part of you is expressed within the code, which is either a sterling testament to your brilliance or stark reminder of, well, your non-brilliance.
Good teams create good code. Bad teams create bad code. Help us get better as a team!
Our criteria for projects that we take in is as follows:
- Must require bespoke design and development (no brochure, or CMS-type work); and
- Should have positive impact on society (hopefully at a larger scale).
Chances are, we fear boring work as much if not more than you do. We are like, allergic to boring work, and we hope you are like that too.
