For almost five months, Matt Makai has traveled across the U.S. sightseeing and meeting with startups.
When he hit the open road a little more than four months ago, Matt Makai had a simple goal: meet with startup founders and entrepreneurs from across the country to learn more about their unique communities.
“There is only so much you can learn about other locations by reading about them,” Makai (left) wrote on his blog. “Sometimes you have to experience things for yourself.”
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Makai’s project, which he named Coding Across America, will take him to 30 U.S. cities across more than 25 states. In the past month, he made stops in Des Moines, Kansas City and Omaha, visiting 1Week KC and giving a lecture at the Omaha offices of Python, a programming language and software foundation.
Makai works remotely as a developer for Excella Consulting, a technology consulting agency based in Arlington, Va., and has continued to provide services for clients while on the road. He’ll return home to Washington D.C. on August 9.
To give you a taste of life on the open road, Makai shared some of his favorite shots from the last four months with Silicon Prairie News:
While traveling, Makai gave a number of lectures to Python employees across the country, like the one in Memphis, pictured above. On July 1 he spoke at the Python offices in Omaha.
Zappos.com founder Tony Hsieh’s apartment was just one of Makai’s stops over the past five months. Makai snapped a picture of a wall (pictured above) covered in Post-it notes written by Zappos employees and members of the community with ideas about what would help make the Las Vegas Downtown Project a viable startup community.
Makai took time for recreational activities during his trip, like mountain biking in Moab, Utah, (top) or hiking Loveland Pass in Colorado (above).
While he was on the road Makai regularly made time to code and work on projects for clients. He snapped this shot while working outdoors earlier this week in Chicago.
For more photos from Makai’s trip, visit his blog.
Credits: Matt Makai photo from Twitter. Photos courtesy of Makai.
