Circle K Software
About Circle K Software
Circle K Software is the brainchild of Dave Martino, who has been involved with the computer industry since he first took a Fortran IV class at Ohio State University in 1966. At the time he was still a senior in high school, but as part of their advanced math program, he has given the opportunity to audit the class at OSU. After writing his first program on a keypunch machine, Dave knew he was hooked.
After completing his degree in Mathematics at Ohio University, Dave moved out to California to seek his fame and fortune. He settled in San Jose and ran on the Silicon Valley Treadmill for about 25 years. His career covered a number of computer biz companies (Computer Automation, Fairchild Semiconductor, Digital Equipment Corp), but he spent the most time working at Lockheed and later Lockheed/Martin.
There he became the Chief Systems Engineer responsible for the overall design and operation of a dozen or so IBM mainframes tasked with supporting Mission Control for a number of satellite programs which were part of the United States Air Force Satellite Control Network. However, with the fall of the Iron Curtain, life in the intelligence community just was not much fun anymore. So after finishing up one big final project (consolidating five big datacenters with about 12 mainframes down to one datacenter and one big mainframe), Dave called it quits and rode off into the sunset.
For the next several years, Dave spent his time working on his ranch house in Salinas (it's actually in Prunedale, but that sounds too much like a retirement community). After remodeling nearly the entire house (remodeling is never finished - by the time you think it's done, it's time to start over again), he began to wish he had a real job to go to so he could get some rest - don't know how he ever had time for a career with all the personal stuff to do.
Dave volunteered to be the webmaster for his Cowboy Action Shooting club, not knowing anything about authoring web pages, but the previous webmaster told him "It's just like using Word", referring to MS FrontPage. So, armed with a CD of FrontPage, and a couple of old books about web design, he sat down to create a web site (feel free to check it out at www.faultlineshootistsociety.org). Having done that for a while, the thought occurred to him "Ya know, I could do this same service for other folks, and I bet they just might pay me for it". Such is the stuff of brilliance! Please read on.
So, enough already with the 3rd person narrative, let's talk philosophy - business philosophy. If you have read this far, you must either be starved for intellectual discourse, or just maybe, my style has begun to resonate within you.
I did not start this business to make a million dollars, hire large staffs of people, and eventually become a legend in my own mind. My intent is to create a business which will offer a useful service to a limited number of folks who may find that Circle K Software helps their business grow. Circle K Software is Dave Martino; no one else will provide my service to you - no business partners, no associates, no interns, no team members, et cetera. My plan is to grow this business up to a fixed number of clients who will stay with me and partake of my services. Some will come and go over time, I always expect change, and that is OK. In fact this web site is not really about advertising my business as it is a reference point for folks to go to for more details about my service - a living brochure, if you will.
I will not ask for a contract for my service. I prefer a more friendly "agreement" between you and me that spells out what each expects of the other. If you decide for any reason that you will no longer pay for my service, I will be glad to unwind our deal and we can go our separate ways. I will not threaten or sue anyone - life is too short for that.
Let's talk pricing. Most web developers I have seen on the web ask for a big chunk of money up front to build your web site, and then charge you on a per hour basis for any maintenance later on. This is sort of like buying a house. My pricing is more like renting an apartment - one low fixed rent per month with the maintenance built-in. That's right, if anything needs to be fixed, or if you want to change something on the site, that is included in the low monthly fee. That way you have a fixed and known budget for your web expense. The only exception to that is a one-time setup fee at the start.
Now let's talk about development style. I see two paths I can follow with this design business. One way is to become a super-html-web-geek and learn all the little bits 'n bytes tricks in order to dazzle all the other developers with my programming expertise. The other is to take a higher level view of things. Concentrate on the artistic aspects of the page design in order to portray the most artistic setting for the customer's business, while still conveying the information my customer needs to publish. If you are looking for someone to design a web site that consists of a lot of boxes and rectangles plus about 50-100 links scattered over the page (or lined up vertically down the sides - then I am not the designer for you. I wish to design pages that are artistic, that convey the customer's message simply, concisely, and in an interesting manner, so that a visitor can find the info they need without searching through dozens of links/drop-down menus/pop-ups/etc. trying to find their phone number.
So, if this sounds like I can be of service to your business, please call me at 831.262.7404, or email me at dave@circleksoftware.com. If you are within an hour's drive of Silver City, New Mexico, I can bring my laptop to your place of business at a time convenient to you, and we can sit down and see what we can accomplish together. Thanks for taking the time to visit my site and read all this. I wish you health, wealth, and much happiness!
- Dave Martino
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Copyright 2006 by Circle K Software