Wanted: Android developer to help with Gamified Recipe App for the Climate
Time: 5-8 hours a week (or more) | No pay until we earn enough or get funding
Fork Ranger's mission is to help millions of people switch to a healthy and sustainable diet with a gamified recipe app. We already have an iPhone version and now we're looking for an Android developer. You will work together with our three iOS developers.
The Mission
The food system makes up 33% of all greenhouse gases and most of it comes from eating too much meat. Alongside fossil fuels, it’s one of the most destructive forces on the planet.
The simplest solution is to change our diet. We don’t have to become vegan, only to make meat a luxury product for the weekend. A lot of people are interested to eat more sustainably but don’t know where to start. That’s where Fork Ranger is going to help.
It all started when Frank found out about the huge impact of meat but was frustrated with most vegetarian recipes. They had unknown ingredients or weren't filling enough. So he created a book that explains the problem and gives ‘user-friendly’ recipes. It has helped hundreds of people to eat less meat and now we're turning this into a digital experience.
Through recipes and food we want to inspire people to be part of the solution for a better world. We want people to feel like they can make a difference when it comes to climate change. It’s about offering a new version of 'the good life' that is not centred around consumerism but a purposeful life.
What is Fork Ranger?
We are working towards our mission in three ways:
- The Fork Ranger app
- Selling the Fork Ranger book and seasonal calendar
- Sharing the mission through speaking
The app
We're working on a habit changing app with recipes to solve climate change. This tackles two tricky questions that people struggle with:
- What can I do about climate change?
- What’s for dinner?
The iPhone version of the Fork Ranger app is already live. Right now it gives daily insight into a sustainable food topic and users discover a new recipe, which is connected to it.
The app is built in SwiftUI and loads the content through JSON.
Next step: Android
The current version of the app is already our fourth design. We've tested a lot and have finally found something that works. People use the app on a daily basis and we've got really good retention rates.
An important source of our current growth is word-of-mouth. But that's a lot less effective when half the population can't download the app.
That's why we want to start building the Android version.
In the meantime, we also want to connect the app to our other offline products, make it more fun to share with friends, and encourage cooking.
We prefer working with small weekly updates instead of dragging it out over months.
About Us
I hope that by now you’re excited about the idea. Time to tell you a little about ourselves so you know what you're getting into 😉
Frank and Mareike are the founders and get help from six awesome people who help us in their spare time.
Frank is a storyteller and dreamer who loves to translate complicated topics like climate change into inspiring designs and stories. He created the Fork Ranger book and then Mareike joined him to create the app.
Mareike makes sure everything stays on track. She has a keen eye for details and structuring messy ideas. She's also vegetarian since she's 14 because somebody told her 'you will never keep this up'.
Jordi, Joost and Kevin are our developer friends who built the current app. You will be working with them.
From left to right: Melissa - Mareike - Frank - Jordi - Susan - Casper - Kevin - Joost
About You
Besides the practical points that you either speak Dutch or English there are two main things we're looking for:
1) Passionate about the mission
You don’t need to be a vegetarian but you should join for the right reasons: working on a solution for climate change.
2) Android developer
We're looking for someone who has built an app before and is excited to build user-friendly apps.
Ideally you know Kotlin and Jetpack compose.
The Job
- Responsibility: Build the Android Fork Ranger app
- Time commitment: around 5-8 hours a week
- Salary: none (until we earn enough or get funding)
- Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands (remote is possible)
What’s in it for you?
We’ve been working on Fork Ranger for two years and made some good progress. If you’re looking for a thrilling side project to improve the world, this might be a good opportunity to step into something promising.
In short, this is what we can offer:
- A chance to make more impact than Elon Musk (changing diets can save a lot more CO2 than electric cars)
- The joy and friendship of working in an ambitious team
- Working in a startup that has the opportunity to inspire millions of people
What is a bad fit?
- Prefer to work alone
- Mainly looking for a technical challenge rather than excited about a great user experience
What is a good fit?
- Want to make the world a better place
- Taking initiative and bringing in own ideas
- Love for great UX
- Works fast and thinks in solutions
How to get in touch
Send an email to frank@forkranger.com and mareike@forkranger.com and tell us something about these three points. You can write in English or Dutch.
- Some personal things: where do you live? What are you currently working on?
- Mission: why would you like to join? What excites you most about this project?
- App experience: what is your experience? What have you been working on? (send us the name of an app 🙂
Disclaimer: Don’t expect a reply if you simply send in your CV or ask questions in the comments section.
Looking forward to your email!
May the forks be with you!
Frank & Mareike
