WEBVTT 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:11.440 "Our company exists because gay, bi, trans, and queer men need spaces where they can connect, 00:00:11.440 --> 00:00:16.600 where their sexuality, their humor, their norms and culture are understood. 00:00:16.600 --> 00:00:21.600 Perry Street Software is the largest independent queer software publisher in the world, and 00:00:21.600 --> 00:00:24.560 we focus on communities that our competitors overlook." 00:00:24.560 --> 00:00:27.920 "Design starts with really understanding the community. 00:00:27.920 --> 00:00:32.840 You really get in, you understand the world and the people, and then you can build something 00:00:32.840 --> 00:00:35.640 that fits this world and feels at home. 00:00:35.640 --> 00:00:39.240 Today we published three of the most popular queer social apps in the world. 00:00:39.240 --> 00:00:43.480 I like to say that Scruff is a look that became an app that today is one of the most popular 00:00:43.480 --> 00:00:45.440 gay hookup apps in the world. 00:00:45.440 --> 00:00:49.520 Jack'd is the number one app for queer black men in North America and is the number one 00:00:49.520 --> 00:00:50.720 gay app in Korea. 00:00:50.720 --> 00:00:54.680 Growlr is the most popular app in the world for gay bears and their admirers. 00:00:54.680 --> 00:00:57.920 Being able to design for the queer community is a really lucky thing. 00:00:57.920 --> 00:01:00.200 I feel really honored to be able to do that. 00:01:00.200 --> 00:01:03.360 At SCRUFF and Jack'd every community's different. 00:01:03.360 --> 00:01:09.280 When we launch a product, we go to the local market, we listen to the people, we learn 00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:15.000 about their culture, we hire local people, and that's how we make sure that everything 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:16.800 that we do feels authentic. 00:01:16.800 --> 00:01:21.440 Our team really prioritizes software architecture, and that starts with pairing every single 00:01:21.440 --> 00:01:22.440 day. 00:01:22.440 --> 00:01:26.880 At Perry Street, design systems free us from having to think about every choice. They let us focus 00:01:26.880 --> 00:01:28.360 on what matters most. 00:01:28.360 --> 00:01:34.240 We don't have iOS only or Android only engineers. We develop people across languages and platforms, 00:01:34.240 --> 00:01:37.360 and that makes our development process go faster and work better. 00:01:37.360 --> 00:01:41.760 Perry Street was the first company I ever joined. I was able not only to write software, but 00:01:41.760 --> 00:01:45.000 they gave me the opportunity to write and publish blog posts. 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:48.800 So a team can have up to five engineers who are connecting across different time zones 00:01:48.800 --> 00:01:54.880 countries. We have core hours where we will pair code review and align with product and design. 00:01:54.880 --> 00:01:59.920 Since starting at Perry Street, I was invited to speak about architectural topics at DroidCon 00:01:59.920 --> 00:02:05.680 in places like Berlin, London, and San Francisco. Some companies expect developers to solo until a 00:02:05.680 --> 00:02:11.840 piece of code is done. You cannot achieve architectural excellence in a vacuum. We want our team to 00:02:11.840 --> 00:02:16.640 collaborate and build a collective understanding of our system architecture. Architecture still 00:02:16.640 --> 00:02:22.720 matters in the era of AI, because AI does not innovate. AI just implements. So if you don't have 00:02:22.720 --> 00:02:27.760 the correct architecture in place, then you're just gonna get AI slop. We connect millions of 00:02:27.760 --> 00:02:32.560 people every single day and we're so fortunate to have that be a part of our core mission. 00:02:32.560 --> 00:02:38.160 Working at Perry Street Software, it's not just like working for any company. It's working for 00:02:38.160 --> 00:02:43.360 a company that I can make an impact in the community. I can just go for any company but no, 00:02:43.360 --> 00:02:46.240 This is a company that I feel that I belong to.