Consulting Services

Who are you?

You represent an organization with a substantial investment in Ruby/Rails code and related technologies. You’re looking for immediate help evolving your codebase and maturing your development team to confidently meet emerging needs.

(Are you an individual looking for a one-on-one consulting session? You might benefit more from a Rubber Duck Session!)

Who am I?

If code matters to your business, this is a guy who loves code, understands code, and inspires coders.

Kent Beck

Hi, I’m Avdi Grimm, and I’d like to help you evolve graceful systems and confident developers.

I have 20 years experience in software, working on everything from aerospace embedded systems to enterprise web applications. As an educator and coach I’ve helped thousands of developers level up their skills in web programming, object-oriented design, refactoring, and testing. If you have Ruby/Rails developers on your team, chances are their programming education included some of my books, videos, courses or talks.

For a limited time I’m making my consulting services available to the right client.

What am I looking for?

Here are some of the things I’m looking for in a consulting gig:

  • A primarily (but not exclusively) Ruby/Rails codebase. Ruby is my deepest competency.
  • Remote. I live in the hills outside Knoxville TN, so remote work is essential. I’d love to travel to meet your team, though.
  • 1-3 days/week commitment, with a lot of flexibility. I also run an education business, and as both a conference speaker and a dad with out-of-state kids, I do a lot of traveling.
  • Gnarly code. If technical debt is holding you back, you have the kind of problem I enjoy sinking my teeth into.
  • A team I can teach and learn from. I’m not here just to level-up your codebase. I’m in my element when pairing with and coaching other developers. And distilling their deep institutional knowledge into training that brings everyone up to a common level of competence.
  • An inspiring mission. I love working with people who are making the world a better place. It doesn’t have to be exciting, but I’d prefer to work on something I can be proud of.
  • BONUS: permission to broadcast/record [some] of my work. This is a nice-to-have, not a requirement. But as an educator, I’m particularly interested in an opportunity where I can enable the larger community to benefit from my coding and coaching via livestreaming and screencasting.

Get in Touch

Why should you trust me?

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You are someone that I think of when I try to figure out how to move myself forward. I know that your work will be empathetically considered and that it is of high quality. Although I expect these impacts to be greater in the future, I think the biggest impact on my life and work has been your impact on others. Others are more empathetic, confident, and write better code because of their interactions with you and your work and I benefit in a substantial way from their growth.

Whitney Levis
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You are able to communicate clearly and delightfully that software development is an elegant craftsmanship, especially with Ruby. Keep going with your "happy hacking!" 🙂

Gabriele Pulzato
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The number one thing that you helped me with is self-confidence. I feel more comfortable contributing to professional discussions and code reviews armed with the insights that you have helped me to gain. 🙂

Marian Mosley
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Avdi has made me a more confident coder, a better, more critical analyst of my work, an example of how to go about helping other people learn, and just a general interest in my questions and answers. His work has helped me to reduce the tech debt in my code, increase the confidence that it's bug-free and high quality, and to be able to point problems out in others' code during reviews. It's just a general joy and uplift to me when I get something from Avdi, whether it's a new RubyTapas episode (or an oldie but goodie!), or a question, or an answer to one of my many questions.

Tamara Temple
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I have learned several tidbits as well as full architecture lessons that made code for my projects and clients better. Saving me and my clients thousands of dollars and making me look like a hero.

Jamie Wright
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Your work and wisdom has been instrumental in my growth as a dev.

Dustin Brown
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I feel the biggest impact your work has had is the injection of new ideas and approaches. As a self-labelled, "insatiably curious" developer I'm always looking to learn from others. And while I can't quantify it, I find your screencasts, your approach, really connects with me. And it's the little things that, so far, has had the most impact... I write code that is easier to maintain and refactor.

Mel Riffe
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You help me think about code in an organized way, and you put a loving, human face on difficult and abstract technological issues. Your honesty and vulnerability make hard problems feel more solvable and success and fulfillment more reachable.

Aaron Wolfson
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Apart from teaching me a lot about Ruby & Rails, your work has made me a better programmer in general. Which obviously led to a better job at a great company, as well as a sense of confidence and happiness with my work. I'll be forever grateful for that.

Mateusz Luterek
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Your technical videos, etc have raised my game as a programmer. You have helped me understand various patterns and helped me improve my code.

Bowen Masco
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I’m really thankful for your influence on the way I do my work and approach and solve problems.

Wolfgang Rittner
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Your work has been absolutely foundational for me.

Chris Toomey
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@avdi is a great codesmith, but he really stands out by communicating difficult concepts in a way that just seems... inevitable.

Rebelpig Glumhippo
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I can honestly say that your videos have helped me take my development abilities to the next level.

Adam Fernung
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Exposure to Avdi's work made me a better programmer, with wider knowledge and deeper understanding of tools and techniques used. It also made me more conscious about how I organize and design my code.

Tomasz Stachewicz
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You help me to improve as a developer and other aspects of my life, like thinking about life itself and all the little things surrounding us every day. The way you teach is specially simple and direct, the way everything should be.

Thiago Ramos
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You've made a huge impact on the way that I think about what well-designed software looks like as well as helped me learn more about the Ruby language. Your communication skills and insight into the software development process have been instrumental to me!

Tim Jegels
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I am a much better programmer because of you, and those who work with me or after me are much better off dealing with the code I write now.

Greg Silcox
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The idea of confident code was a real paradigm shift for me. Trying to think in terms of patterns that avoid needless conditionals and null checks really upped my game.

Chris Patti
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You inspire me, I carry many of your teachings and thoughts and I frequently find myself using them.

Brenno Costa
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I value your contributions to my life - I'm just a stranger from the internet - but I've followed your writings, talks, books etc. for a number of years. You've helped me in immeasurable ways - I recently got a job at [famous consultancy]; and a lot of the knowledge, points of view, etc. that got me here are thanks to what you have shared over the years.

Vishal Bardoloi
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Avdi with his incredible teaching abilities has truly pushed my development abilities and confidence to another level. Not only in the Ruby language but in many core programming concepts. If you're looking to break the barrier of being a mid level developer, Avdi's material is the BEST first step.

Hassanin Ahmed
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News flash (for those that weren’t in the know already): @avdi is amazing. #seruby

James Gifford

Let’s talk

If you think I might be the right fit to augment your team, contact me!