Steve Jobs, Apple and BlazePortfolio


As the world mourns the loss of Steve Jobs, his influence continues to define the future of technology. I wanted to share how his aesthetic and passion influenced BlazePortfolio and the design of Atom Align, our rebalancing and order management system.

Apple didn’t invent the first graphical user interface (GUI), portable MP3 player, or tablet. Instead, Apple was revolutionary by re-inventing these tools, designing them from the ground-up to look, feel and work with elegance.

At BlazePortfolio we didn’t want to take an existing rebalancing system or OMS and just add 20 new features. Instead, we set out find the perfect balance between automation and customization to simplify the complex challenge of rebalancing.

Steve Jobs has a strong commitment to usability. When Apple engineers design a product, the user should be able to pick it up and start using it without having to read a user manual. You can set an iPad in front of a four-year old and within seconds they are browsing the web or looking up videos on YouTube.

We designed Atom Align using this same commitment to our users. Our product is intuitive and designed with the customer in mind. Not only is implementation quick and easy, but users can begin using the product with minimal training. It is so accessible that hours of relearning are not required each time they want to use the product.

There is something that just feels different about the design of Apple products. Steve Jobs successfully integrated his vision of art and science into each product. When we create new features for Atom Align, we seek to create the most elegant solution to each problem. This means we consider every detail from ease of use, presentation of the data, comprehensive logic and simplicity of the solution. The result is a tool that just works like it is supposed to.

In his 2005 Stanford commencement address Steve Jobs said, “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.”

I started BlazePortfolio because I love designing software that simplifies the complex challenges in our industry. Atom Align is the first step toward the end goal, a fully automated straight-through-process.

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