Sadly, we're closing. We’ll soon be hanging up our lab coats for the last time and putting our knuckle dusters in storage for a rainy day.

When Steven and I started Rumble back in 2009, we set out to build great websites. We moved on quickly, and over the years, focused more on web and mobile apps, and working more with startups, both locally and internationally. We grew to 14 people. We had an amazing team, and a strong reputation.

With the focus more on apps, we worked with a few clients with the view to sweating some equity, but that mostly didn't work. One we did move forward with however, was Rotor. We saw great potential in the product, and team. Unfortunately, raising money here in the UK and Ireland has proved to be very tough though, but we're still hopeful and still trying!

We began to see a slowdown in startups over the last couple of years, at least in Belfast, which affected our pipeline. As such, we began to lose staff, mostly due to financial instability in the company. We downsized "organically" or unintentionally, as we tried to climb back out of a hole, but it was too deep.

We learned that software services are hard, and building great software products are expensive. Eamon Leonard's post, "Silly Billing & Dysfunctional Cashflow", was like looking in the mirror when I first read it. I’d thought it was just us, or just me. I've been round the block a few times now, but compared to previous service industries I've worked in, the work required to deliver a quality software product is massively underestimated and undervalued.

All that said, working in Rumble has brought me some of the best days of my life, and introduced me to many, many great people, not least, fellow Rumblers. We were lucky to be part of some key initiatives in Belfast, like Digital Circle, StartVI, and Belfast Ruby, and the craic we had as a team in Rumble was rarely less than 90. It'll be hard to replicate, but I'll try again someday!

We'll be closing our doors at the end of the month, and Steven, David and myself will part ways and begin a new chapter of who knows what. Hook us up on the usual channels for a chat if you’d like to discuss a potential project.

I hope that we brought something positive to the creative and tech landscape in Belfast and NI, during our tenure. It’s certainly come a long way, but still has a bit to go yet.