QONQR started as the winner of the first Twin Cities Startup Weekend in September 2010, a competition in which teams have 48 hours to build a prototype and pitch their business. Since then, QONQR has been accepted into the Demo Track of MidVenturesLAUNCH in Chicago and was a finalist in the Entertainment Category of the 2011 SXSW Accelerator, competing against Hall of Fame Game Designer, Lord British!
QONQR is the first in a line of geosocial games from the Minnesota-based company of the same name. The six QONQR team-members have been working together for years. In addition to being friends, and passionate gamers, they are experienced designers, developers, and entrepreneurs.
Scott Davis
@scottkdavis
Codename: Silver
Partner + Spec-Ops Recon
Scott Davis has been an entrepreneur since 2001. To date, he has been a founding member of five companies, including Qonqr. Scott has been a software development consultant since 1999, working in a variety roles including Application Architect, Database Administrator, Business Analyst, and Project Manager. Before starting his own consulting company, he held a position as District Manager at Fujitsu Consulting, managing as many as 50 direct reports across a seven state district. Before that, Scott was an Associate Partner in a smaller consulting company.
Scott holds an MBA in New Venture Management from the University of St Thomas in St Paul, MN. He is the leader of the Twin Cities Silverlight User Group, and current president of the BizLounge entrepreneurship group in Minneapolis, a networking and education non-profit serving emerging and aspiring entrepreneurs. Scott is a regional conference and event speaker on both technology and business subjects. Scott is also a member of the adjunct faculty at St Mary’s University in Minneapolis, teaching evening classes in the Information Technology Management master’s program.
In addition to building new go-to-market applications for his clients in the past three years, Scott has been engaged in several unique contracts. Scott was hired to perform technical due diligence as part of four corporate acquisition reviews for a publicly held company. This required the assessment of the technology aspects of multimillion dollar companies, from coding practices to management culture. Most recently he was hired as one of eight subject matter experts to visit the Microsoft campus in Redmond, to assist in the development of the certification examination for Silverlight software developers. The recognition as an expert in the industry is not only a result of Scott’s knowledge, but also years of relationship cultivation with many Microsoft employees and influencers.
Donn Felker
@donnfelker
Codename: Dirge
Partner + Mobile Operations Commander
onn Felker is the founder of Agilevent, a agile and mobile software development company located in Minneapolis, MN. He is a partner in Qonqr and Agile Health. He has over 10 years of professional experience in various markets that include – entertainment, health, retail, insurance, financial, and real estate. He is the author of Android Tablet Application Development for Dummies and the best selling Android Application Development for Dummies as well as the Introduction to Android Development on TekPub.com. He is also a Microsoft ASP Insider, an MCTS in Web Client Development for .NET and is a certified ScrumMaster. He is the leader of the Twin Cities Developers Group. He presents and consultants on various topics ranging from architecture, development in general, agile practices and patterns and practices and of course, mobile.
Jessy Houle
@jessyhoule
Codename: Hollywood
Partner + Demolitions Expert
Jessy Houle is a Minnesota-based technical consultant and developer with more than 10 years of experience developing Web-based and data-centric applications that have contributed to the success of several companies, including GMAC, Allianz, General Mills, Best Buy, and Digital Marketing. His passion for programming was sparked by the video games he played as a kid. Jessy started his career programming with C and C++ applications; he moved to Microsoft Visual Basic and ASP; then he moved on to Microsoft Visual Basic .NET, C#, and Microsoft ASP.NET; and now he is working with ASP.NET Model-View-Controller (MVC), jQuery, and Microsoft Silverlight. He is also a fan of open-source .NET frameworks like NHibernate, S#arp Architecture, and StructureMap. Jessy continues to build on his skills and can frequently be found at local meetings like TechMasters, the Twin Cities Developers Guild, Silverlight User Group, and .NET User Group.
Dave MacDonald
@davemacd
Codename: Saphryn
Partner + CQC Specialist
Dave MacDonald is an award-winning graphic designer with more than ten years of experience. He's worked at small firms in Des Moines and large agencies in Washington, DC and Minneapolis. During his years he's developed successful visual solutions for clients such as Wells Fargo, The State University of New York, American Express and Virgin Mobile.
His true design passion, though, is working with smaller clients on developing identities and solutions that ultimately bring them success. That can mean an identity for a local restaurant, a web presence for a small retail store or game screens for an up-and-coming startup.
Dave has the experience and the tools to help both small clients and large corporations alike.
Justin Peck
@justinpeck
Codename: GungHo
Partner + Nanoweapons Expert
Justin Peck has been writing code since he unboxed his Timex Sinclair ZX81 in 1983. He has been writing applications for the web professionally since 1997. He has founded or co-founded four companies since 1995, including Qonqr. In addition to professional experience in Film and Television, Justin has been a Developer and Independent Consultant for several Fortune 500 Companies across a variety of industries including Entertainment, Retail, Finance, and Insurance. He has built and led teams of up to 20 people.
Justin was raised in an entreprenuerial family and thrives in that environment. He made the pitch that eventually went on to win the first Twin Cities Startup Weekend. He is not only an active participant in the local technical community, but is also an active Community Organizer and persistent Rabble-Rouser in his own right. He has led User Groups, organized conferences, mentored students, and rallied developers to worthy non-profit projects.
Andy Pickett
@apickett
Codename: SnowShadow
Partner + Stealth Arctic Samurai
Andy Pickett is a gamer at heart. Since the day Andy's dad brought home an Atari 2600 his path was fixed. He bought his first Apple ][e at 14 and taught himself BASIC by hand coding game programs out of PC magazines. Andy has a passion for games, but not just for the thrill of conquering challenges and winning, but for the strategic and tactical lessons learned from games that can be applied to great effect elsewhere in the real world. Life is a game, play it well.
Professionally Andy has been a Software Developer, predominantly in the Microsoft space, for over 10 years. He has lead a variety of successful development teams at major Retail, Financial, and State Government clients. Andy is an avid Community Organizer and has a drive to help developers to master their craft. He Co-Leads the Twin Cities .Net User Group and helps run major local conferences like the Minnesota Developer's Conference and Twin Cities Code Camp.