For almost the entire time I have been traveling, our software business has been in the midst of a significant “pivot” (that’s developers language for “We’re changing what we do!”). In January of 2012, we identified an area, social media management, that had several existing applications, but we knew we could design better. We did. Sidekick’s dashboard was an excellent product and we are very proud of what we created.

Changes in the social media landscape made keeping up with the code a 24 hour a day project, and decisions were made that affected us with no warning or human interaction. We were starting to live a lifestyle that wasn’t interesting to either of us, in addition to battling robots on a never ending basis. It was time to move on. In fact, today is the last day of its operation.

Through the course of Sidekick’s development, we identified an area that we wanted to explore: the creation of beautiful, printable reports from the data on our dashboard. Have you ever noticed the difference between what you can see for a report online and what it looks like once it is printed? Horrible, right?

As we began exploring PDFs, there were issues on the consumer facing side and the developer facing side. We tackled both.

For most of us, editing, filling out and signing forms is a pain in the neck! We asked how do you edit a pdf online and found what people already did. Some solutions did already exist, but they were either poorly designed, very expensive or lacking in security features. In some cases, they made it harder to get the forms completed than printing, writing and scanning. This was just unacceptable.

pdfbuddy_iconWe’re happy to introduce PDF Buddy, the easy to use, web-based application to fill out, mark up, edit, sign (and more!) PDF forms. So simple to use, free for up to 3 documents a month and very inexpensive thereafter. We take security very seriously and implement best practices at every level. Most important, we make it simple and quick for you to get your forms taken care of and move on with your day.

So if you wonder what it is I “do all day” sometimes, when we aren’t adventuring, exploring and taking photos of Jerome, head over to PDFBuddy.com and give it a whirl. Would love to know what you think!

Next up: Rapid Reports, our API solution for developers, will be released. This is what will make all of those reports so much nicer to look at and utilize.

We are concurrently working on the expansion of Ultimate WP Help, our boutique WordPress site service for small businesses and solopreneurs to remove the stress of the tech side of site maintenance. More to come in my next post!