Our Focus

Small Society, based in Portland, Oregon, helps organizations create, develop, and launch iOS™ products and services for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. We work with dynamic, creative, market-driven organizations around the globe on iOS strategy and product development. We believe that the iOS platform represents a major shift in mobility and provides a compelling opportunity for businesses to deliver products and services, whether native or web-based, in new and exciting ways to a global audience. We have solid experience advising businesses on the iOS platform.

Our Team

We are a company of twelve full-time employees, which includes development, user experience, project management, and the Leadership Team listed below. In addition to employees of Small Society, a project team may include additional team members from our qualified professional network, such as designers and developers, managed directly by Small Society. The company works with some of the leading members of the iOS community to make your App effort succeed.

Raven Zachary
Technology Strategy & Business Development

Raven Zachary is President of Small Society, working with big brands, established companies, investors, and startups on iOS strategy and product development for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Raven directed the Obama '08 for iPhone application for the Obama Campaign prior to forming Small Society, and has since worked with companies such as Whole Foods Market®, Zipcar℠, CLIF BAR®, and Air New Zealand℠ on iPhone application initiatives. He is the founder of iPhoneDevCamp, a not-for-profit iPhone developer conference. He is regularly quoted by the press about the iOS market and is a frequent conference speaker on the topic.

Watch a video interview with Small Society President Raven Zachary. Produced by Yahoo!® Developer Network during iPhoneDevCamp 3 in August 2009.

James Keller
User Experience & Strategy

James Keller is a digital communications strategist and user experience evangelist. Before joining the Small Society team, James Keller was at Wieden+Kennedy helping the Portland office align client business goals and brand experiences with emerging technologies. Leveraging her extensive knowledge of interaction design, business analysis, campaign analytics and integrated marketing communications, she has led multiple teams in creating efficient and effective online strategies for top brands such as Coca-Cola®, NIKE®, Procter & Gamble®, Levi's®, LAIKA Studio, Zipcar, and the MTV® Networks. She can also frequently be seen at conferences speaking on topics such as information architecture, social media, and convergent culture.

Heather Penner
Client Services

With over a decade in technology, Heather Penner has led several teams to develop large, complex, but beautiful software applications and web experiences for companies such as Intel®, Siemens® Enterprise Communications, and U.S. Bank®. She is a PMI Certified project manager and an agency veteran, but comes at her work with a passion for business analysis and rigor of process.

Our Story

Small Society, based in Portland, Oregon, is a small agency with a passion for the iOS™ platform, dedicated to helping organizations bring great ideas to life.

While members of our team have been developing iPhone applications since the release of the SDK in March 2008, the company has its origins in August 2008 with the Obama ’08 for iPhone initiative.

Raven Zachary, a technology industry analyst and iPhone evangelist, was asked by the Obama Campaign to assemble and lead a team to quickly define, develop and launch the iPhone application to support Obama’s run for the White House. Prior to this project, Raven had founded iPhoneDevCamp, the world's largest iPhone developers conference outside of Apple's own - WWDC. Raven chose Jonathan Wight, a trusted friend and developer with over a decade of Cocoa experience, to lead the development effort.

Both Raven and Jonathan continued to work both together and independently on iPhone projects after the campaign, and remained close. The team found yet another like-minded individual at the second iPhoneDevCamp. Andrew Pouliot and the Portland crew won the “best satellite app” contest, and Raven had found new talent in his home town. Additionally, Jonathan also won an award for his Open Source contribution to the community as founder of TouchCode, an iPhone open source repository of modules, such as TouchJSON and TouchXML, now used by thousands of iPhone applications.

It suddenly became clear that it was time to harness this momentum, and create an agency. Raven reached out to user experience guru, marketing maven and Portland agency veteran James Keller to round out the team. Soon thereafter, the company as we now know it was born.

The first “official” day of work brought them all together to meet for the first time in the train station in downtown Portland. With the train out of service, all four piled onto a bus (yes, a bus) to begin a week-long tour of the West Coast to meet with new and prospective clients. Most spare moments in that first week were spent trying to come up with the perfect company name. Having spent a week debating name options, the team settled on Small Society - and the rest is history.

Small Society is now a company of twelve united by its love of Indian food and our belief that if an iPhone application is well made, it can change a business, change a life, or even help to change the world.