Smartlife

Ruby on Rails is an ideal framework for building web applications: it’s designed with rapid and flexible development in mind, making it a cost-effective option for getting a web application up and running quickly. Between the fact that Ruby on Rails is open source and it was developed to work with Agile software development methods, it can be a particularly useful framework for startups. That fact has lead more than a few Ruby on Rails developers to become very comfortable working with startups, even to the point of offering flexible payment arrangements (cash, debt, and equity) and providing access to their own network of resources, like private investors, angel investors, and venture capital firms.

Freelancers

1. Matt Griffin
   Location: Boston, Massachusetts
   Additional Areas of Expertise: Java/Spring/Hibernate, XQuery/MarkLogic
2. Tesly
   Location: Kirkland, Washington
   Additional Areas of Expertise: iPhone Applications, Consulting
   Sample Work: Fretbase, NextProof
   
3. Greg Leuch
   Location: New York City, New York
   Additional Areas of Expertise: Web Standards, Usability
   Sample Work: Politics4All
4. Ryan Felton
   Location: San Diego, California
   Additional Areas of Expertise: rSpec, Test Driven Development, Startup Consulting
   Sample Work: Assay Depot
5. Charles Crawford
   Location: Boston, Massachusetts
   Additional Areas of Expertise: User Interfaces, Web Standards, AJAX
6. Eric J. O’Kelly
   Location: Palm Springs, California and San Dimas, California
   Additional Areas of Expertise: Usability, Design
7. Mark McDonald
   Location: Foothill Ranch, California
   Additional Areas of Expertise: Perl, MySQL, Startups, Plugin Development, Legacy Application Rewrites, Training and Mentoring
8. Randall Thomas
   Location: San Francisco, California
   Additional Areas of Expertise: Data Warehousing, SQL, Java
9. Michael Cerna
   Location: Chicago, Illinois
   Additional Areas of Expertise: Data Aggregation
   Sample Work: Gnomon Online
10. Paul Hamann
    Location: San Jose, California
    Additional Areas of Expertise: Startups
11. Stephen Wilson
    Location: Austin, Texas
    Additional Areas of Expertise: PHP, Python
12. Jacques Crocker
    Location: Seattle, Washington
    Additional Areas of Expertise: User Interface, Startups, Web Development
    Sample Work: White Label Apps
13. Akshay Surve
    Location: Mumbai, India
    Additional Areas of Expertise: Nonprofits

Boutiques

1. Snooty Monkey
   Location: Raleigh, North Carolina
   Additional Areas of Expertise: Product Design & Management, iPhone & Mac Development, Simplifying the Complex, Training & Mentoring
   Sample Work: BubbleTimer
2. ThoughtBot
   Location: Boston, Massachusetts and New York City, New York
   Additional Areas of Expertise: Technology Consulting, Training, New Business Development
   Sample Work: Umbrella Today?
3. Terralien
   Location: North Carolina
   Additional Areas of Expertise: New Business Development, Project Launches
   Sample Work: Local Eye Site
4. Obtiva
   Location: Chicago, Illinois
   Additional Areas of Expertise: Training, Partnerships
5. Lone Star Software Engineering Services
   Location: Los Angeles, California
   Additional Areas of Expertise: PHP, J2EE, Perl, AJAX, Web Design, Product Development, Project Management, Quality Assurance
6. Pivotal Labs
   Location: San Francisco, California
   Additional Areas of Expertise: PHP Migration, Training
   Sample Work: Cookstr
7. Viget Labs
   Location: Washington, DC and Durham, North Carolina
   Additional Areas of Expertise: User Experience, Online Marketing
   Sample Work: Spoonflower
8. Mutually Human
   Location: Grand Rapids, Michigan
   Additional Areas of Expertise: Information Architecture, Web Design, Training & Coaching
   Sample Work: Joecartoon.com
9. Dakic OnLine
   Location: Chicago, Illinois
   Additional Areas of Expertise: Online Storefronts, Content Management Systems
   Sample Work: Casa Zocalo
10. Intridea
    Location: Washington, DC
    Additional Areas of Expertise: Web Design, Project Management, Strategy
    Sample Work: VisualCV
11. Sinai Studio
    Location: Miami, Florida
    Additional Areas of Expertise: Strategy, Usability
12. Brown Beagle Software
    Location: Leederville, Western Australia
    Additional Areas of Expertise: Training, Cocoa, Mac Ruby
13. Lunar Logic Polska
    Location: Krakow, Poland
    Additional Areas of Expertise: Ajax, Flash
    Sample Work: Zenbe
14. Austin Rail Yard
    Location: Austin, Texas
    Additional Areas of Expertise: Intellectual Property
15. Andy Mayer
    Location: Sheffield, England
    Additional Areas of Expertise: Social Networking, Social Web
16. Esomnie
    Location: Sunnyvale, California
    Additional Areas of Expertise: Interface Design, Deployment and Launch
    Sample Work: Paybackable
17. Sixteen Ventures
    Location: Dallas, Texas
    Additional Areas of Expertise: SaaS Consulting, SaaS Vendors
18. Flatsourcing
    Location: New Orleans, Louisiana and Kazan, Russia
    Additional Areas of Expertise: Business Model Development
19. Railsware
    Location: Beaverton, Oregon and Kiev, Ukraine
    Additional Areas of Expertise: Technical Consulting, Web Design
    Sample Work: Ratepoint
20. BetterLabs
    Location: Silicon Valley, California
    Additional Areas of Expertise: Startup Incubation
    Sample Work: Dealplumber
21. Altura Labs
    Location: Rome, Italy
    Additional Areas of Expertise: Online Marketing
    Sample Work: Publicis
22. ELC Technologies
    Location: Santa Barbara, California
    Additional Areas of Expertise: Branding
    Sample Work: ESPN

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Additional developers: RoRCraft, Squeejee, DevFu!, RailsFactory, Less Everything
Job boards: 37signals Job Board, Rubynow, Ruby on Rails Jobs, Ruby on Rails Contractors

Tags: Application Development Outsourcing, Ruby on Rails, Software Development Outsourcing, Startups