Michael Slater

Michael Slater is an entrepreneur and software developer with 30 years of experience creating innovative products. He founded Topaz Web Solutions in December 2006.

Michael was previously Director of Technology Strategy at Adobe Systems. He joined Adobe when it acquired Fotiva, a venture-funded startup he cofounded to create a better user experience for consumers moving to digital photography. Fotiva created one of the first tagging-based products for organizing photos.

Prior to Fotiva, he was President of MicroDesign Resources, where he created the Microprocessor Report newsletter and the Microprocessor Forum conference. From 1987 through 2000, he was one of the computer industry’s leading independent analysts and published hundreds of articles on computer technology.

Michael began his career as an R&D engineer at Hewlett-Packard and was an independent engineering consultant from 1980 through 1987.

Michael is the author of several books, including Organize Your Photos with Photoshop Elements 3.0, The Photoshop Album 2.0 Book, RISC Microprocessors, and Microprocessor-Based Design. He also created and operates BoatingSF.com, a site about boating on San Francisco Bay.

Our Approach

Our goal is to deliver web-based solutions that enhance our customers’ businesses by streamlining their workflow and delivering a better experience for their customers.

Because we have created and run several businesses ourselves, we appreciate the needs of business owners and can work with you to envision a solution that works for you and your customers.

Services

We can provide complete web site design, implementation, and hosting. We focus on database-backed sites using the Ruby on Rails framework.

If you want a simple, functional design, we can do the entire project internally and keep costs to a minimum. If you want a more elaborate graphic design, we can work with a designer of your choice or introduce you to one that we have worked with in the past.

Pricing

We work on either a fixed-price or a daily rate basis. If your needs are well defined, a fixed-price project gives you the certainty of a known cost. For projects that are only loosely defined and are expected to undergo considerable evolution during their development, a daily rate approach provides the most flexibility.

Costs vary greatly depending on your needs. Our base fee is $1,500, for which we can set you up with a basic site and, if needed, a domain name and email. Building custom features to optimize the workflow for your business needs is an additional cost and varies greatly depending on your needs.