Name: Andrew Wirick
Bio: Aspiring well funder. Penn State Alumni. Front-end web dev., amateur investor, home brewer and newly minted triathlete.
Title: Partner and Brewmaster at GoodTwin Inc.
Thanks to our sponsor
Age: 29
City: Omaha, Neb.
Website: andrewwirick.com
Twitter: @amwirick
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/andrewwirick
Intro music: “Saeed” by Infected Mushroom
Silicon Prairie News: Adam Nielsen, your partner at GoodTwin, called your November arrival “a shift in strategy and culture” for the company. How has that shift manifested itself the last couple of months?
Andrew Wirick: Adam and I have taken time daily to focus on the non-urgent but very important issues that are key for GoodTwin’s success. We’ve already changed the physical space to be a better manifestation of our culture. We’ve cut out large amounts of company time every week to devote solely to employee mentorship and training. We are revamping our process for discovering and delivering on our client’s core voice and attitude. It has been a great three months to be a part of GoodTwin.
SPN: As someone who has worked extensively with jQuery, what stands out to you about the impact that it’s had since its release?
AW: The impact is extraordinary. Fifty percent of the modern internet uses jQuery (see stats at http://trends.builtwith.com/javascript/jQuery). That is just incredible. Yet I see its impact on future libraries being just as important. jQuery showed that developers care about having coding solutions that are elegant. I believe many future open source projects will take note of that in their own designs. Additionally, jQuery helped to bring JavaScript into the realm of a respected language. Medium and large size companies are no longer afraid to push into “the front end” of the web. There are also projects that are leveraging JavaScript to do incredible things outside of the browser. jQuery helped pave that road.
SPN: You describe yourself as a “very amateur investor.” What veteran investors or general investing resources do you rely on to get you up to speed on the art of investing?
AW: Sal Khan and the Khan Academy provide an incredible wealth of free information on finance, banking, and economics (http://www.khanacademy.org/). For a less intense resource the common security investment book “The Warren Buffet Way” has interesting perspective related to Omaha’s favorite son and his techniques. Outside of that I’d suggest making sure that you are on the wealth generating side of compound interest.
SPN: Time to draw parallels. As a triathlete and business co-owner, how does the experience of running (and swimming and biking) a triathlon prepare you for the rigors of running a business?
AW: Triathlons require a certain balance of preparation in each event in order to finish first. There are certainly parallels to the many hats of a business owner there. More importantly though, triathlons have shown me the importance of downtime and understanding how to relax. Absolute relaxation and being able to turn everything off has been key to being able to find those extra gears during training and racing. This relaxation has also helped being able to walk away from certain business problems only to see them in a different light and find a better solution when I return to the issues.
SPN: You’ve been called a “world-class home-brewer.” Can you describe your best winter seasonal? How about your best brew, period?
AW: Calling my current skill level world-class may be a touch generous. My best winter seasonal would likely come down to a mesquite smoked porter, or the hoppy amber ale currently on tap at GoodTwin called “EvilTwin”. The best brew I’ve ever made was a cherrywood smoked vienna lager. It was made with the help of fellow Omaha homebrewer Tom Malowski. He entered into one of the largest homebrew contests in the nation and it nearly won. Three years later the beer still tastes great.
Image credit: Photo courtesy of Andrew Wirick.
Prairie Portraits: To learn more about this series, see our introduction post, or visit our archives for past Prairie Portraits. To suggest an individual for a future Prairie Portrait, contact editor@siliconprairienews.com.
