Mediumrare was started in a basement in 2005 by Leigh McDonald, Michael Tighe, and I right smack in the middle of our college years. We didn’t have crazy ambitions—we just wanted to work for ourselves by making badass websites (in glorious flash) for local clients while playing as many video games as possible.

Fast forward to the release of the iPhone. Like most designers and developers at the time, we wanted in on that sweet hype train. We kicked off a little iOS app called Next Stop that would allow us to easily check transit times and arrive as dangerously close to when the bus was pulling up, and low and behold, the thing managed to get into the #1 transportation app in the Canadian app store (mind blown).

After Next Stop, we released a little concert finder for Rdio (💀) called Setlist that would allow you to easily see if your favorite bands in your collection were playing shows near you (while common now, we were first to market). It turns out many people loved using it, and it got us a ton of exposure, as well as the attention of Rdio, who graciously invited us down to SF to be one of their featured developers in their new API portal.

After those two apps, we figured what the hell—we should probably start focusing on apps a little more since they were clearly the future, and the timing was damn near perfect at this stage in the game.

Queue 8 more years, and here we are. Since then, we’ve had the pleasure of working with kick-ass startups, as well as Fortune 500 companies, doing our best to put out delightful products for millions of people while loving every minute of it—and continuing to want to do more.

The original founders have each gone in their own directions since our inception, Leigh now being the VP of product at Muzooka, Mike founding another digital studio called Solid, and my love this entire time has still been designing and solving problems on those lovely shiny objects we all carry around in our pocket.

I’m excited to announce that as of earlier this year, Mediumrare has merged with a kick-ass Seattle based development studio called Toy Rockets.

I’m excited not only for the new opportunities but also for being part of an absurdly talented and experienced iOS team that will allow us to take things to the next level in building products for new clients while continuing to build our own.

Are you relocating to Seattle?

No. While I travel to Seattle frequently, Calgary will now be the Canadian branch of Toy Rockets.

Does this mean you’re no longer taking on web projects?

We are still taking on some select web projects, but mobile will always be our one true love and focus moving forward.

What will change then?

Honestly, not much. If you’ve worked with Mediumrare previously, you can expect much of the same, only now we have the resources and experience to take on even larger and more ambitious projects.

Check out the Toy Rockets site here, get in touch if you need some work, and I can’t wait to see what the future brings. I’ll always keep getting my steaks cooked medium rare.

👋 🥩

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