About ladybugDEV
What We Do
ladybugDEV is a web and app development company based in Fort Wayne, IN that makes it more affordable for you to be able to compete digitally in today’s tech world. Our web and app packages offer a fast and effective solution for small business owners like you to establish your digital presence and start generating leads for your business as quickly as possible.
Our Mission
Our mission is to help the small business owners of our community thrive by setting up virtual nets for capturing and converting leads into customers by employing more than 20 years of experience to implement features that are proven to get your phone ringing.
Meaning Behind the Brand
ladybugDEV originally launched under the name Untouchable Web Design in 2010, but was rebranded to ladybugDEV in 2021 after the company began offering apps as part of its service offering. The company name came about after founder, Michelle Brown-Green, encountered a lady bug that she believed was a spiritual sign of things to come.
Spiritually-driven to look for meaning of unusual sightings and events, Michelle’s research about ladybugs revealed that they are welcomed by farmers because they fend off crop destroying insects. She considers this as an analogy of her role to prevent crappy web development and amateurish marketing from eating into your profits.
Women-Lead, Black-Owned, and Humanity-Driven
I believe it’s important to see one’s self represented in the community, and I’m proud to say ladybugDEV is female-lead and black-owned by, Michelle Brown-Green, who is also a member of the LGBT community. I am very much humanity-driven, and in that sense consider everyone a member of my community, so you can expect to be equally respected and served regardless of your demographic background.
About the Owner
Entrepreneurial Background
Although, my parents were born and raised in the Fort Wayne, Indiana, my father was a soldier in the army which resulted in my being born in Fort Campbell, KY in the mid 70’s. I would live in Tennessee, Hawaii, and Texas all before the age of 7. When my dad exited the military, my family returned to Fort Wayne in 1983.
My dad got a job at GE, but after being laid off, he supported his family by fixing up thrown out washers and dryers and reselling them from the families detached 2-car garage; using skills he had learned while an employee at GE in my adolescent years,
I enjoyed venturing out to the garage and watching my father repair these units. I would witness strangers coming to the house and hand my father money for items he picked up on the street only days earlier. This sparked my interest in entrepreneurship.
I started my first business at the age of 14, a house cleaning service I launched with my younger sister and cousin. By the time I graduated from college, I had pursued a number of businesses; none of which were wildly successful, but all earning enough to give me inspiration to continue pursuing my dream of business ownership.
Early Web Development Experience
After high school, I attended IPFW (a combined regional campus of Indiana University and Indiana Purdue) with a bachelors in business and concentration of study in Accounting. While a senior in college, I took up an interest in eCommerce. I taught myself how to build websites in order to sell the products I was promoting at the time.
Selling online was still new, but surprisingly sales trickled in. One of which was over $500, which I unfortunately ended up having to return because the item I was to drop ship was out of stock. However, this validated my theory that it could be done during a time when eCommerce wasn’t even a thing, and so I pushed on.
I began building turnkey websites and selling them on eBay. It was during this time I began to see a more consistent flow of income from my business dealings, but that was short-lived as more competitors entered the space and started driving prices down. Yet, still it was evidence that it could be done, and so I marched on.
Digital Marketing Experience
Marketing Foundation
Earning sales here and there was great for keeping me motivated, but I wanted to make this a career. I had been working for the US Postal Service at their remote encoding center since my senior year in college, but was eager to become self-employed, and I needed to learn how to get more sales than I was getting to do that.
After attending a free eCommerce workshop that would be the foundation I needed to take my career to the next level. It was there I learned that it wasn’t enough to build a website. I had to actually do things to get people to go to it. There I learned the basics of website promotion,
After that workshop, I became obsessed with learning about marketing. I spent thousands of dollars over the years expanding my marketing intelligence over the next 10 years, and become proficient enough to get a job in the digital marketing industry, which wasn’t my original plan, but more lucrative than what I had accomplished at that point.
Early Work Experience
After applying for a remote social media job on the Internet, I was hired as a contractor to do social media posts for a start-up company that was based out of the Dallas/Fort Worth area; where I was planning a move to be with my then girlfriend (now wife).
I was laid off not long after, but quickly got a job at a small pest control business where I accepted a clerical position just to get work, but when the owner learned I had a marketing background, he moved me into a new role as the search engine optimization specialist for their failing eCommerce site.
The site had only done $1000 in sales the previous year, and I would implement an SEO strategy that would explode their sales to $10,000 per month within two months. By the time I left the company, sales had risen to $50,000 per month.
Shocked myself, by what I had achieved, I, came to a realization that my gift wasn’t in building businesses for myself, but in helping other businesses navigate the digital landscape of the current times. So, I set her focus on serving in a B2B capacity as both an employee and part-time freelancer; with full-time entrepreneurship being her ultimate long-term goal.
After 2 years, I would go part-time at the small pest control company to join a digital marketing start-up company that would not survive. I had launched Untouchable Web Design as a side-business before going part-time at the pest control company and I was able to fall back on that and continue working part-time remotely for the pest control company until I found full-time employment.
Corporate Experience
Multi-Location Corporate Experience
In 2012, I landed my first corporate job as a local search specialist for a hotel chain with more than 800 franchise locations. Not long after accepting the position, I would give notice to the pest control company to focus on my new full-time gig.
After two years, I made a cross-lateral move into the web development side of the company, and would remain working in the web development field for the hotel chain for another couple years before leaving to pursue a side-business that had grown to a point that would allow me to replace my job.
I decided to sell that company after a year due to product quality issues, and I began searching for work again until I could figure out my next business move. It just so happens, the hotel chain I worked at, was now in the process of being acquired by a major hotel brand,
They had been contacted by the temp agency I was working with, and after learning that I was in the job market, my old boss asked me to come back to resume my old role during the transition period. I would remain there for nearly a year before the acquisition was complete.
After leaving my corporate job in the hotel industry for a second time, I would remain unemployed for more than a year; using my web development skills to build websites for freelance clients under my web design company, Untouchable Web Design.
Multi-Brand Corporate Experience
After a year of freelancing, I was hired as the local listings manager for a billion dollar multi-brand company where i was placed in charge of setting up the digital onboarding experience for 16 brands under the parent company where I remains employed today working remotely for the Irving, TX based company from my home-town in Fort Wayne, IN, where I moved back to in August of 2021.
There I continue providing digital support to the marketing teams of each brand. While I am proud of my corporate achievements, web development keeps calling me back because it allows me to marry my strong desire for self-employment with my passion for helping other business owners thrive.
I started developing apps in 2021, which was a big part of my decision to rebrand from Untouchable Web Design to ladybugDev. My career journey has been long, with many bumps and lessons along the way, but I don’t regret a single decision. I have and continue to learn a great deal in the corporate world, and in my own personal endeavors, that I am eager to take back to the small business owners I work with in the community.
Why Work With ladybugDEV?
Holding down a full-time job in the digital marketing space, and a part-time web development company; allows me to keep my web development and digital marketing skills sharp. These two things go hand in hand and working with a company lead by a Jill of both trades ensures your project will uphold both web design and digital marketing best practices for best results.
Although ladybugDEV is still small enough that still leading most development projects; even when I am not, you can be sure, I am behind the scenes monitoring for quality control. That’s more than 20 years of experience backing every project.
