Our Story

Pursuing perfection while chasing a dream

Rare Little Beastie is a software development company that specialises in building complete systems for a wide range of clients, including small and medium enterprises, allowing everybody to benefit from the sleekest, coolest web applications that are the Rare Little Beastie trademark. Rare Little Beastie is born from our continued pursuit of perfection and our love of writing elegant code that works to deliver seamless, innovative software to those who want and need the very best. Moving to Devon was our dream. A dream that will allow us to help business in the south west grow, offering them quality, loyalty and a little slice or perfection.

The History

Making the impossible possible

Every company has a history. But we like to believe that ours began before the printing of our first business card. What drives Rare Little Beastie now, are the very same characteristics that have always driven us. Traits that led Matt as an undergraduate to disprove his University Professor's theory on current flow in circuit boards. That pushed him to then work on an alternate theory with his Professor. And to then have this theory published. It is this inquisitive nature, brilliant mind and old-fashioned determination that can be found at the heart of Rare Little Beastie's growth and development.

The People

What's studious, honest, and easy to work with?

The answer is us. Expecting a punchline? It's not that we haven't got a sense of humour and don't delight in being playful. We're called Rare Little Beastie after all. But while we pride ourselves on our good humour and our warmth we also have a work ethic and an integrity that we don't want to hide behind some glib copy. Being approachable, bullshit-free and always ready to listen are as important to us as our wide variety of technical skills.

Matt (A.K.A The Guru)

Matt has been programming since the age of nine and 27 years later his passion remains untainted, with the depth of his skills reflecting this with clarity. His programming talents could be described as broad. Unique even. He can program anything in any language, which enables him to rise to challenges and adapt to new landscapes. He specialises in enterprise Java apps but prefers to avoid pigeonholes, so 'writing elegant code that works perfectly' is perhaps a better summation of what he likes to do. Oh, that and working on solutions others say are impossible.

Previous clients and employers include:

• American Express
• BBC
• WHSmith
• GetMapping
• Three mobile
• Financial Times
• Daily Express
• The Metro
• The Independent
• IC3

Highlights:

• Lead developer on Three's music product which enabled live streaming of a concert to a mobile handset for the first time.
• Lead developer on Three Football, voted What Mobiles product of the year.
• Many patents granted for user interface work on mobile phones.
• Launched 'MY' pages for The Daily Express, The Metro and upmystreet.
• Architected and created Zabidoo Mobile, which was featured on BBC Clic.

Adam (A.K.A The Protégé)

The Luke Skywalker to Matt's Obi Wan. Programming from an early age, Adam has grown considerably under Matt's guidance and is now a highly skilled programmer in his own right, proficient in enterprise java, javascript and xhtml.

Kathie (A.K.A The Organiser)

If Matt is the heartbeat of Rare Little Beastie, then Kathie is its support structure, handling the admin duties, the accounts, marketing and assistance with project management. As husband and wife, Matt and Kathie's vision for Rare Little Beastie is a shared one and Kathie's varied skills, poise and focus keep the way ahead as clear as possible.