About Eric Davis

Highlights

headshot

  • Web developer creating and maintaining Ruby on Rails applications since early 2005
  • Founded Little Stream Software in 2007
  • Worked with Ecommerce since mid-2005 and Shopify since 2014
  • Creator of various Shopfy apps (mini-SaaS products)
  • Open Source developer
  • Author of five ebooks on various topics: refactoring Ruby code, Redmine, writing/publishing, and business
  • Ultramarathon runner, with 50km runs through the forest my favorite

Background

Hi, I’m Eric Davis. I’m the founder, developer, marketer, cook and everything else for Little Stream Software.

As you can tell, Little Stream Software is a company of one (human. My assistant Sara doesn’t do much more than sleep all day and wag her tail…)

When you work with me, you’re working with the person who actually does the work. This means there are 0 communication issues once I understand you, and I don’t have to tell an employee how to do something risking a loss in translation.

Being a solo consultant also means I approach projects differently, but that’s another topic entirely.

My background first and foremost is business.

Entrepreneurship bug

Early on in college I got the entrepreneurship bug, which I can blame my (now) wife for. The entire aspect of creating a business from scratch and filling a need in the world is great. This caused me to switch my major to business. However, entrepreneurship wasn’t taught there so I supplemented with a lot of business and startup books.

During these years I got into programming and self-taught a lot of what I know now.

…and then a developer

Since 2002/2003 I’ve been running servers and doing web development on personal and community sites. It wasn’t until 2005 that I really got seriously into development when I first found Ruby on Rails.

I’m going to skip over a lot of the boring history here, but here are some highlights:

  • I started with Ruby and Ruby on Rails in 2005 and have worked with them ever since.
  • I’ve gone "off the Rails" and done quite a bit of pure Ruby.
  • Since college I’ve started four major business. I really enjoyed my 18th birthday, not because of a party but because I could finally enter into a legal contract on my own.

Consulting and marketing

Over the years I’ve been a consultant, I’ve been learning and teaching myself marketing as it was the one weak area from my schooling, where marketing meant more about the 5Ps and branding than communicating with customers.

That journey has lead me through direct response marketing, copywriting, conversion optimization, email marketing, marketing automation, SEO, and all over the map.

With my skills at writing and programming along with an analytical perspective, I’ve become drawn to marketing that uses those strengths: direct response marketing, conversion optimization and copywriting. These are three areas where technology and automation can really do amazing things for businesses that "get it".

So that’s me. I’m a mixing pot of web developer and entrepreneur, with a strong streak of marketing.

Past adventures

  • Podcast co-host on Freelancers Show
  • Writer of technical, business, and consulting topics
  • Was one of the core developers for Redmine and lead the project for several months
  • Ex-maintainer of ChiliProject, an Open Source fork of Redmine focused on community
  • Author of over 100 Redmine plugins

My writing and appearances from around on the web…

My Practical Ecommerce column

I also write a monthly column for Practical Ecommerce covering development topics for ecommerce executives.

Interviews and speaking

I’d be happy to participate in written interviews or write articles for ecommerce sites or sites who cater to ecommerce people. I’m really passionate about:

  • Software development for ecommece businesses
  • Shopify and the app ecosystem
  • Starting a solo consulting business
  • Building marketing systems for consultants
  • Bootstrapping self-funded startups