Jamie Thingelstad

Feb 2, 2019 ∞

I visited Minnehack tonight and introduced SPS Commerce to 300+ students before we fed them a mountain of pizza! 🍕

Large hall packed with hundreds of students working on laptops at tables, with a Cargill sponsor slide projected on a screen at the front.

Two women and a child at an SPS Commerce recruiting booth during a college hackathon event

Feb 2, 2019 ∞

Kubbchucks playing in our 8th annual Minnesota Kubb winter tournament, part of the Loppet! Largest winter Kubb tournament in the world!

Three smiling men in winter gear take a selfie outdoors at a snowy Kubb tournament on a sunny day.

Kubbchucks went 2-1 in this mornings Minnesota Kubb round robin! On to the Championship bracket!

Players competing in the Minnesota Kubb winter tournament on snow, one player throwing a baton toward a row of wooden kubb blocks in the foreground.

Throw off for entry into the Minnesota Kubb Championship bracket. INTENSE KUBB ACTION! Throw 3 Kubbs, then 6 batons. Whoever downs most Kubbs wins! 🔥

Bearded player in black crouching to throw a baton during an outdoor Kubb tournament on a snowy field with spectators and multiple games in background

These three Kubb professionals took the Kubbchucks down without even flinching. Brutal.

People playing Kubb on snow at an outdoor winter tournament, wooden kubbs standing upright on the field, crowd and tents visible in background.

Feb 2, 2019 ∞

Minnesota Kubb 2019 Winter Tournament

The Kubbchucks played our 8th annual Minnesota Kubb Winter Tournament this weekend. After a week of record cold temperatures we were treated to a fabulous day in the mid-30’s, nice sunshine and no wind. Perfect for winter Kubb!

Round Robin

We opened the round robin versus Team Dondante. This was their first tournament and we helped them with tournament rules. They were good players, but needed to work on their drilling technique. We took the match 2-0 and it went on way too long because we were able to close it out. We went very cold on our 8m and that makes for a long game, if you don’t lose.

We played the Free Agents next, serious Kubb talent here. We had an epic fail in our first game and left a field Kubb on our very first turn, throwing 4 batons at 2 Kubbs. The Free Agents then kindly put us out of our misery. We drug out the 2nd game for a good long time. We got to 8 Kubbs in play and went back and forth for about 20 minutes. Sadly we broke first and left a line, which resulted in the expected immediate loss. 0-2 on that match.

We finished the round robin versus The Four Old Guys, however there were only three of them. They had a good game, just lacked some consistency. We were never really at risk in these games, and closed out the match 0-2.

Bracket

With a 2-1 record out of the round robin we went into the difficult end of the Round of 16.

We had to play Skol in the round of 16. Three monster Kubb players including Evan Fitzgerald. We didn’t stand a chance. On top of that, we played horribly. I don’t mind to lose, but our play was really sub-par. It took about 10 mins for them to put us away.

Free Agents, the team that we lost to in the round robin ended up winning the whole tournament.

We had a great day of Winter Kubb! 👍🏻

Jan 30, 2019 ∞

Tech Summit 2019

View from the control room as we get ready to start #TeamSPS Tech Summit 2019!

Two technicians at an AV control desk with laptops, a tablet, and an audio mixer overlooking an empty banquet hall with a stage.

Yesterday’s rehearsal for #TeamSPS Tech Summit 2019! Excited for a great day, braving the Bold North’s -20F! 🙌🔥🥶

Audience seated at round tables in a Thrivent conference hall watching a presenter on stage with a Q and A slide projected behind them.

Great start to our #TeamSPS 2019 Tech Summit with sessions from Jim Frome, Dan Juckniess, and Karin Lucas!

Large conference ballroom filled with hundreds of attendees seated at round tables facing a presenter at a podium on a lit stage.

Man in blazer speaking on stage at an SPS Commerce event before a large seated audience at round tables in a conference hall.

Speaker at a podium addresses a large seated audience in a conference hall, with a projected slide showing customer support workers

Great highlights from more teams at #TeamSPS 2019 Tech Summit! Security, Australian Team, Career Paths, Tech Patterns & Frameworks!

Two presenters stand on a stage beside an SPS Commerce podium with the tagline Infinite Retail Power, facing an audience.

Four people stand on a stage beside an SPS Commerce podium; one speaks into a microphone while three others listen.

Four men on a stage at an SPS Commerce event, one standing at a podium and three others facing him

Six panelists seated on stools on an auditorium stage beside a speaker at an SPS Commerce podium.

“Worry-as-a-Service” 🤣 Cloud database engineering managing hundreds of distributed databases for #TeamSPS

Two presenters on stage at an SPS Commerce event with a slide reading WaaS Worry as a Service about database management.

Fabulous third session for #TeamSPS Tech Summit 2019! Service team wins all over the place! 🙌

Three men on a stage at an SPS Commerce event, one at a podium and one speaking into a microphone, with tall chairs arranged behind them.

Four panelists on stage at an SPS Commerce event, one woman standing holding a microphone, three others seated on bar-height chairs behind her.

Bald man in blue shirt speaks at an SPS Commerce podium on stage while four men sit in chairs behind him.

Two presenters on an auditorium stage at an SPS Commerce podium with a slide showing an incident management ticket demo on the screen behind them.

We finished the fourth session of #TeamSPS Tech Summit 2019 with more service team wins! 🙌🥳🏆

Three men on a stage at an SPS Commerce event, one speaking at a wooden podium, two others standing nearby.

Woman in red dress speaks at SPS Commerce podium on stage before a large seated audience, two men seated behind her

Two men on a stage at an SPS Commerce event, one speaking into a microphone near the podium, another standing to the right.

Two presenters on stage at an SPS Commerce event, one at a podium and one standing, with an architecture diagram on the screen above.

Time to socialize and mingle for #TeamSPS Tech!

Five colleagues standing around a high-top table with food and drinks at an indoor event venue.

Three attendees smile at a high-top table with food and drinks during an indoor corporate event with blue balloon decorations.

Six men smiling and posing together at an indoor networking event, some holding drinks and plates of food, one wearing an AWS jacket.

Six men smiling around a high-top table with food and drinks at an indoor conference networking event.

Six colleagues smiling at a standing cocktail table with food plates and beer cans at a work event.

How do you wrap up the #TeamSPS Tech Summit for 2019? Trivia Mafia!

Large group of attendees seated at black-draped tables during a trivia night event, with blue and white balloons decorating the room.

Dozens of attendees sit at round tables with black linens in a conference room decorated with blue and white balloons, facing a projection screen at the front.

Hashtags IRL! #SPSTech #TeamSPS Should have gotten this before the Hors d’ouevre’s were cashed!

Buffet table with dishes set up in front of silver balloon letters spelling SPS TECH and an SPS Commerce Think Tank banner

Over 50 members of #TeamSPS Tech shared demos, milestones, learnings, and upcoming plans today. It was incredible to see how we are continuing to advance! Great tech organizations are learning organizations, and we learn fast! I am humbled to be surrounded by so much talent!

Jan 28, 2019 ∞

Schools cancelled. Kids are rejoicing. 🥳

Jan 27, 2019 ∞

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

We saw Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse today and I was completely blown away! I enjoyed the story thoroughly and the visuals were amazing. It feels like you are in a comic book! The soundtrack is great too! 😎🎬

Animated movie poster showing Miles Morales as Spider-Man swinging on a web above a golden-hued New York City skyline, releasing December 14

Jan 27, 2019 ∞

Hack the Gap 2019

Hack the Gap hosted their 5th annual Hackathon for women and non-binary individuals this weekend. I was able to attend the demo event today where each team showcased what they created. There were cool ideas, with a lot of progress in such a short period of time.

Circular wooden badge with Hack the Gap printed in bold distressed lettering, resting on blue denim fabric.

The organizers kicked the demos off.

Two presenters stand at a podium at the Glen Nelson Center at American Public Media, one speaking into a microphone, with an audience seated facing them.

Securiosity!

Group of women standing in a row presenting at a hackathon event, with Avoid Digital Hooligans slides projected on screens behind them and an audience seated in white chairs facing them.

Security education for non-technical people. Built with React. They worked as a group to get the initial things running, then split into feature teams. Design friendly focus. Humaaans free and inclusive image library. Accessibility focused.

🏆 I put my voting coin in for this team. I liked their design and approach to security education.

whenIneedU

Helping people break out of episodes of anxiety or depression. Used JavaScript, Java, Android, Twilio. Sends personalized affirmations, relaxing activities, and helps you connect with friends and family. Watches your location and detect if you haven’t gone anywhere for a long time. Uses text messages to reach out and request connections on your behalf.

Ready Play

Help navigate family daycare, activities and camps for kids, focused on summer activities. Complexity around logistics, themes, and costs. Built using React.js and Elastic Search backend. Framework provided fast mocking, and allowed easy acquisition of real data.

Hack the Bra

Six women stand on a stage presenting to a seated audience, one holding a microphone, with projected slides and a Lunar Startups banner visible behind them.

Help with sizing and determining best fit for bras. Focusing on measurement for fit. Built with React.js. The “BRA-culator” with video walk-through to guide you through measurement. Discovery, rapid prototyping and co-creation were the focus for the team. Not focusing on e-commerce, but instead education.

Make Friends Minnesota

Connect the 5.6 million people in Minnesota. Meet people, make friends, and have fun. Recommends friends. Focused on starting connections safe and easy. Uses Facebook for login. Builds a profile using an interest survey. Built using Node and Express with EJS templating engine.

Seshat Swap

Making access to books written by people of color more accessible, focusing on very long hold times at the library. Try to get more access without having to purchase the book. Allow users to exchange, or indicate wish lists of books, in marginalized communities. Built with React with Firebase. Non-profit effort to pay for shipping costs. Sort of a virtual, crowd funded library.

Cat Flat

Small, connected DIY cat shelter that detects health of the cat and provides shelter, warmth and a place for stray cats to stay safe. React app with Express server and SQL database. Particle Photon and Particle Cloud in cat shelter to run sensors. Node server to send data to the server. Revenue by selling the flats pre-made.

A bit to my surprise, I almost voted for this team. I really liked how they used the IoT stuff to make this a smart device.

Little Free Library

Leveraging the existing library of micro-libraries. Largest predictor of kids reading levels is the quantity of books in the home. Goal is to make it possible to get 100 books in every home. Card catalog of free libraries close to you, with inventory capabilities to check out or indicate that you are going to keep it. Allow steward to manage their inventory.

Sweat Connect

Need a workout friend? Increase frequency and help friends with anxiety about going to the gym. Create profile and facilitate connecting with others to workout. Built with Angular 7, to allow for desktop and mobile. Gather specific data around your gym, time preferences and goals.

I think this team could have put a go-to-market strategy of partnering with gyms and offering a white-label version of their service.

Planet

Group of six women standing at the front of a conference room presenting to a seated audience, with a Lunar Startups sign and a screen displaying a mobile app behind them.

Planning tools for coordinating gatherings. Event planning templates, collaborate on tasks, and good for discovery. Built React and Node. Google Maps for location.