Name: Andrew Evans
Bio: I’m either a nomadic entrepreneur or jobless and homeless, depending on your perspective. I build things, fast, for fun and profit.
Title: Beergrammer
Thanks to our sponsor
Age: 26
Residence: Kansas City, Mo.
Website: atevans.com
Twitter: @agius
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/atevans
Intro music: “Dawn of the Dead”, by Does It Offend You, Yeah?*
Silicon Prairie News: What was the series of events that led you to up and move to Kansas City and into the Homes for Hackers house?
Andrew Evans: I was working hard and playing hard in San Francisco for about two years. I got burned out. I needed a really, really big break. I decided to quit my job, transfer the apartment and travel the world for a year or two while trying to start a company. While on my first month away in Costa Rica, I heard about Homes for Hackers. Free rent and Google Fiber sounded great.
SPN: Aside from Gigabit-speed internet, what have been the biggest benefits of your time spent in Kansas City Startup Village?
AE: The opportunity to meet a bunch of amazing people. Ben Barreth, Mike Demarais, Mike Gelphman, Chris Lewman, Albert Tong, Chris Morris, Matthew Beerman, Adam Yarborough … I could go on for a while. There’s a lot of talent in KC, a lot of ideas. Having them to work with and inspire me, and the time to attack some fun problems on my own terms has been great.
SPN: Between the Compute Midwest Hackathon, Startup Weekend KC and the Old MacDonald Hackathon, you’ve packed your schedule recently with weekend hack competitions. What about that type of event keeps you coming back?
AE: My current business strategy is to build a bunch of different things and see what sticks. Each hack day lets me put something together rapidly, get good feedback and test out an idea I have. Plus it’s a lot of fun to load up on caffeine and scramble with like-minded crazies.
SPN: What’s the elevator pitch for your Gamer Talent project?
AE: You want to make a video game. You have a little cash, and you’re good at (art/sound/writing/development) but need someone to cover the other bases. Gamer Talent is where you’ll find them. If you’re a freelancer/indie dev, the flip side is also true. Find great people to work with.
SPN: As a fan of electronic music, what are a couple of newfound songs or albums you’d recommend as part of the soundtrack for a marathon coding session?
AE: For coding sessions, I listen to electronic podcasts and hour-long DJ mixes, most of which are available for free. Here’s a few of my favorites:
- The Space Cowboys – DJ collective – breakbeats galore
- DISTRIKT – Burning Man camp – tech house
- Mark Farina – Chicago house/downtempo/jazz DJ
- John B – Drum and bass and electro and 80s
- Pretty Lights – Triphop and glitch hop – all his albums are free!
Credits: Photo from Startup Weekend Kansas City on Flickr.
Updated Dec. 11 at 10:20 a.m. – The post was updated to reflect the proper names of the intro music’s song and artist, which were previously transposed.
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