Ventive gobbles up Pluto

Ventive, a custom software, platform, website, and application development, UX/UI design, data acquisition, Business Intelligence & CRM customization firm based in Boise, announced yesterday that it has acquired Pluto, an interactive product design, web development, digital strategy, and ecommerce product and service agency.

From the press release announcing the acquisition:

The purchase of Pluto, based in Boise, Idaho, further increases Ventive’s share in the digital product and custom software development markets. “Welcoming Pluto’s talented team will provide our clients with an even higher level of innovative product design and support,” said Jonathan Cardella, CEO of Ventive. “The acquisition is also expected to result in greater operational efficiencies and significantly increase our market share,” added Andrew Beck, COO of Ventive.

“A partnership was formed with Ventive to help Pluto broaden its ability to serve larger global clients,” commented Justin Yonk, Managing Director of Pluto. “Our expertise in open source development, creative execution, and complex project management will complement Ventive’s growth strategy, and we’ll benefit by joining a larger firm with access to more resources.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Ventive has agreed to acquire the assets of Pluto. Pluto will cease operating as a separate company upon completion of the integration and Ventive will serve Pluto’s existing clients.

Job opening: Front End Developer

Pluto in Boise is looking to add a contract-based Front End Developer to their team. From the job listing posted recently on Craigslist:

Pluto is an award winning digital agency located in Boise, Idaho. We believe in creating highly functional creative experiences based on solid strategy. We’re looking for a Front End Developer to compliment our development and design staff.

As a Front End Developer, you will work closely with our development team to create marketing websites and web applications for our clients. You have a strong attention to detail and have an understanding of UX and visual design concepts. With our client base, you will work on multiple projects each month.

Our ideal candidate is passionate about the overall design and experience delivered to the user. This person will own a project from its inception, and will only let it out into the wild if it delivers a solid experience for our client and their users.

This is an hourly on-site contract position for 30 – 40 hours a week within the hours of 8 to 5. You will work out of our office located in downtown Boise. We will not reply to distributed or outsourced work forces. Hourly rate is DOE.

Core Requirements

  • A solid understanding of vanilla JavaScript and jQuery. We are not looking for people who simply copy code from Stack Overflow.
  • An intermediate to advanced level of CSS knowledge.
  • Knows how to use CSS preprocessors such as LESS or SASS.
  • Has the ability to slice Photoshop and Illustrator files into lean markup and image assets.
  • Fully understands cross-browser compatibility and performance.
  • Has a full understanding of responsive design best practices.
  • Ability to deliver work on time.

Responsibilities

  • Slicing up webpage comps that will be handed off to the back end development team. You can view our portfolio of work at https://www.behance.net/visitpluto and http://www.visitpluto.com/work.
  • Working close to the developers to integrate your front end code.
  • Testing your front end HTML and CSS using BrowserStack.
  • Participating in regular team meetings.
  • Contributing to our best practices; recommending, exploring and implementing better ways to deliver solid products to our clients.
  • Growing personal and team member expertise through training and exploring.

Nice To Haves

  • An understanding of version control (Git, SVN, etc).
  • Has used or has a good understanding of a JavaScript framework other than jQuery (AngularJS, Vue.js, React, Backbone, etc.).
  • Has worked with CSS3 animations and transitions.
  • Has read an article or two on BEM, SMACSS, or OOCSS.
  • Has worked with a content management system such as WordPress or Drupal.

What We Need

Please send us two of the following. While we love meeting new people, please no walk-ins.

  • Resume and LinkedIn URL.
  • Link to your personal website/blog.
  • GitHub or CodePen pages.
  • Links to sites that you’ve built in which you had a significant contribution to. Please elaborate on what you did.