Austin Taylor

Software Developer, Designer

Austin began apprenticing at RoleModel when he was 15, having already built some web sites and done some game programming in C++. We soon discovered that he was far smarter than most of us who were far older than him. Austin thinks deeply and then performs bursts of superhuman programming feats. He has a knack for identifying the essence of a problem and the strengths and weaknesses of the tools he's using.

In recent years, he has become particularly adept at JavaScript magic, having built a number of custom effects and controls for use in web applications.

Austin has a number of other technical interests, including graphic design, typography, copywriting, user-interface design, graphics programming, parsers, databases, server administration, marketing, and customer development.

Austin has worked in a variety of domains, including non-profit management, automotive diagnostics, curriculum and group management, drug discovery support, medical records, medical diagnostics, and music pedagogy.

For a long time, Austin has had the desire to work on his own product businesses. His first attempt at product development was Courtyard, an online church directory service. Austin designed and built Courtyard with Paul Nicholson under the brand Sheltered Apps.

His latest project is called VerseURL, which he hopes to release in September, 2009.
Austin has also released a number of open-source projects, which are available on GitHub.

Austin lives with his wife, Saki, in Apex, NC. Austin and Saki originally met because Austin worked on a project at RoleModel with Saki's father. You can read more about their story on their wedding website, which Austin also designed.