Audacious Software is a software and product development company located in Chicago. The company primarily focuses on mobile and passive data projects, with experience delivering solutions for most major mobile, desktop, and web platforms including:

• iOS: handheld, tablet, and wearable (WatchOS)
• Android: handheld and wearable
• Mac OS X
• Windows
• Windows Phone / Windows 10 Mobile
• WordPress
• Drupal
• Django

Who is Audacious Software?

The company was founded in 2008 by Chris J. Karr, a graduate of Princeton University (2002 B.A., Computer Science) and Northwestern University (2009 M.A., Media Technology and Society). Chris has spent over 20 years actively developing software products, from Perl-based CGI scripts in the early web days, to desktop apps in the 2000s, to mobile and ubiquitous products in the present.

From 2008 until late 2012, Chris worked with a variety of consumer and research clients to design and deploy solutions to problems in the following areas:

• User behavior research studies
• Mixed-method web use data collection
• Home automation and monitoring
• Entertainment and consumer apps
• Mobile passive data collection and context prediction
• Interactive SMS-driven experiences for low-income populations
• Value-added SMS app replacements for Android

In 2011, Chris also served as the Chief Technical Officer for Power2Switch, a funded Chicago startup that introduced tools to help consumers in Illinois, New York, Texas, and several other states take advantage of the (then) recent residential electrical deregulation. While at Power2Switch, Chris introduced the Django platform that served as the technical foundation for the company until its acquisition by Choose Energy in 2013.

In late 2011 and early 2012, Chris worked with IllCorp to implement the Meeps iOS app, an entertaining group messaging product launched at SXSW 2012 that was featured as an Apple Staff Pick on the iTunes App Store.

In late 2012, Chris joined Northwestern University's Center for Behavioral Intervention Technologies (CBITs) as a full-time member to continue developing tools to enable health-care research in mobile contexts. At CBITs, Chris developed and released Purple Robot, an Android app (and Django-driven data collection backend) designed to enable rich passive data collection in research settings. He also led the technical efforts behind the IntelliCare project, creating a suite of 13 clinical apps that helped users with depression and anxiety improve their quality of life. This work also enabled researchers to mine rich engagement data to implement coaching strategies. He also implemented an adaptive machine learner to help users identify the next app that would provide the largest benefit by generating recommendations derived from their usage of other apps in the suite. Chris also worked closely with researchers from UCSF to create new text-messaging tools to complement standard group-based mental health group therapies.

In addition to his CBITs duties, Chris moonlighted throughout his tenure at CBITs and continued to collaborate on projects with research clients. During this time, Chris completed a variety of projects for them, and continued to expand Audacious Software's product portfolio by creating new apps. The major development during this period was Narrative Realms, a reusable geo-aware software platform that combines literature and geography to create a new experiences when visiting new places or reading new authors. (This new platform powers The Pnakotic Atlas and Santa's Map to Christmas and we are currently looking for additional publishers to adopt the technology.)

In early 2016, Chris left his position as Head of Mobile Research and Development at CBITs to resume his career as a self-employed software and product consultant. Back in his full-time role at Audacious Software, he is focusing on creating the next generation of mobile and ubiquitous technologies for entertainment, health care, and early-stage company clients.

If you are interested in joining Audacious Software, please submit a resume and portfolio to jobs@audacious-software.com.

What types of projects is the company seeking?

Audacious Software is currently seeking projects that reinforce and expand its core competencies:

• Mobile software, especially challenging scenarios that require deep native integration with the host platform.
• Passive data acquisition, analysis, and application in mobile, desktop, environmental, vehicular, and wearable contexts.
• Health care applications of the above to enable better-informed patients and caregivers, and creating new approaches to improving health outcomes.

While the company has a strong mobile focus, it can also deliver the supporting cloud infrastructure using popular open-source platforms (Django, Drupal, WordPress) on cloud and dedicated hosting providers.

When is the company available to work on my project?

Audacious Software is currently committed until June 2016 and will not be able to begin any new sustained development efforts before then. However, if that timeframe can work for you, please send a note to inquiries@audacious-software.com with a brief proposal and we will be in touch.