About Me

My name is Robert Starsi, sometimes I use the nickname of klevo. I am a full stack software developer from Slovakia, currently living in South Africa with my wife. I love the web, Ruby, Rails, PHP, JavaScript, HTML & CSS, UI & graphic design. I’ve build a commercial desktop app and do DevOps. Check out my portfolio to see the stuff I’ve created.

How did I start with software development

I got interested in web development during my first year in college. I saw my friends making websites and earning some extra cash and the process fascinated me. I joined in and shortly I completed my first website design in Photoshop. I jumped into it with the intention to build a concrete thing that the client required and I quickly learned all the necessary skills to make that happen. That’s really my modus operandi to this day: First come the requirements of the project—to get something done that is useful to somebody. The choice of technologies, the development process and all that serves the actual (business) goal of the project. That of course does not mean one can not have fun with it. I enjoy myself immensely within this process, getting useful things done and then seeing others use it—is quite a rewarding (and somewhat addictive) experience.

Technologies I gravitate towards

  • node.js, DevOps (2012-present)
  • Ruby on Rails, CoffeeScript (2010-present)
  • PHP, JavaScript (2006-present)
  • ASP.net (2006-2007)
  • HTML & CSS (2005-present)
  • UI & graphic design (2005-present)

Experience

During the years I’ve worked with and for various small to medium sized companies, collaborated with designers, helped business owners transform their ideas into useful software and led small teams to successful project completion. In the past year I’ve been teaching and guiding a promising young developer to develop his skills and be able to practically contribute to projects.

This time, various work conditions, people and different approaches to getting things done allowed me succeed as well as to make mistakes, learn from them and gain a lot of understanding and experience which ultimately transforms to better software, relationships and results. I am as excited to learn new things and engage with new projects as when I started with my first line of code, just with more grace and certainty.

Have you seen my portfolio yet?