Hi, I’m Nathan, creator of SearchTempest and AutoTempest. (I can also lay claim to the idea behind MovieTempest, but most of the design there is thanks to Jason, who will introduce himself in a second.)
Back in late 2006, I was doing my Master’s degree in electrical engineering in Waterloo, Ontario. It was a hot summer, and being a broke student, I was scouring craigslist for a used portable air conditioner on the cheap. Several times a day I would check the 5 or so craigslist cities within driving distance. I quickly grew impatient with this, likely because it was about 90 degrees in my apartment. 
(32 for the other Canadians here.)
Now, the nice thing about a Master’s degree is that there’s only one deadline that really matters, and it’s not generally any time soon. So I decided to take a bit of time and come up with a solution to my craigslist problem. Not knowing a thing about web design, I got a few books out of the library, and after some hard work, I came up with…. this!
Sweet, huh? 
Fortunately I made a few improvements over the years, so today it’s a bit more presentable. Also fortunately I now have the help of Jason and Court, who are both far better designers than I’ll ever be!
So, these days I do this stuff full time. More recently we added AutoTempest.com, a more specialized site for finding used car listings. This blog will mostly be about the sites themselves – new features, plans, decisions, etc., – but if you’re interested, I’ll also try and give some insight into my life as a web entrepreneur.
Hey, I’m Jason, and I ♥ the Internets.
Ever since I first laid hands on HTML 3.2 and CSS 1.0 to make the website for my predictably-terrible high school metal band, I was hooked on the web. Arguably the best human technology to date, its staggering rate of development and adoption is nothing short of stunning. Over 30% of the world’s population used the internet this May, whether it was for catching up with friends, lol-ing at videos of kittens, or enabling oppressed people to enact political change in their countries.
Since completing my BSc, I’ve spent the better part of a decade making web sites and applications. I’ve always been driven by a passion to make the experiences of web users better, whether it be a simple static HTML site or a complex javascript-driven web app. My underlying passion for the web is to make the user experience the best that it can be. Whether that means tuning SQL queries and investigating new server technologies on the backend, or poring over complex wireframes and designs to ensure a consistent and harmonious UI, I always strive to make web a better place for everyone.
I can’t imagine being as satisfied in any other field.
When I’m not slaving away in front of a monitor, I enjoy spending my time playing music, taking photographs, and biking around my beautiful city of Victoria, BC.
Yo! I’m Court.
I’m relatively new to this web work game, though I’ve been making websites since I was 15 years of age. Shortly after highschool, I landed a gig designing for a marketing company that sold *ahem* male virility pills, and despite it being a pretty comical field, it gave me the foothold I needed to learn a lot about web design, user interaction, copy writing, and all those other exciting things we web folk hold dear. Even today, the more I delve into this field the more excited and ambitious I get about all there is out there to learn.
There’s a quote by Khalil Gibran that really sums up how I think of the work I do: “Work is love made visible.” For me, this translates into providing services that help people, and doing so in a way that is easy and enjoyable for everyone. Making the web work for you, instead of the other way around, is what I strive for. On top of that, writing valuable content that helps you get the information you need, and fast, is one of my greatest joys working in this field.
If I’m not click-clacking on my keyboard, then you’ll probably find me down at the local pool hall, hanging out, shooting stick, or playing cards.
