about
The person behind the products.
I have been building things on the internet since before it was a sensible career: websites, then companies, then products, and lately a resurrected 2001 band archive. Graf Technology has been mine since 2004, founded between classes at Ripon College; these days I am also Chief Digital Officer (CDO) at GhostBed.
Mostly, I notice small broken things and cannot leave them alone: business hours wrong on every listing, honest feedback with no safe way to reach you, a box of recordings nobody ever digitized. Sooner or later each one becomes something I ship, because until it ships it is only a complaint.
operating values
What I run on
- Follow-through
- If I say something will happen, it happens. People have been able to count on that since 2004.
- Care for people
- Every piece of software ends up in front of a real person, and that person matters more than the code. Even my error messages are polite.
- Details
- The gap between done and almost done is always in the part people actually touch. That part gets finished.
- Keeping things
- Photo archives, old friendships, standing commitments: things last when someone maintains them, and I like being that someone.
where I work
The company and the day job
the record
A timeline, from the archive
Before 2004the prologue
Taking things apart
Computers disassembled, websites hand-built, first for fun and then for anyone who needed one done right. The habit of noticing how things work never switched off.
2001ripon, wis.
Ripon College
Jacob starts at Ripon College, studying business administration and leadership. The same year, in a dorm room on that campus, a band called Fading Maize records original songs. Keep that name in mind.
2004the old tagline
jacobgraf.com, version one
The first personal site goes up, with a tagline that explained everything and nothing: “Because I can...” Twenty-some years later, it still holds.
2004made official
Graf Technology, LLC
Still in college, Jacob makes it official: years of fixing computers and building websites become Graf Technology, LLC. It has been running ever since.
2005
Degree in hand
B.A. in Business Administration and Leadership Studies. The company came first, though; it was already a year old at graduation.
2000sappleton, wis.
Day jobs and night work
Technology research at Cellcom, then an IT director role, with Graf Technology serving businesses and nonprofits around Appleton the whole time.
2019product hunt
Zapmarks ships
The first standalone product launches on Product Hunt: custom keywords instead of bookmark folders. It would not be the last.
2026you are here
The archive opens
SideMirror is live, Hourfront is in the final stretch, and the Fading Maize archive returns after 25 years. The Graf Technology site gets rebuilt, and jacobgraf.com relaunches right behind it.