Note: we longer accept customers for any service.


About Us

Founded in 2011, NeedTagger builds software that makes it easy for people to reach out and help each other using public social networks like Twitter.

We are a privately-funded team based in Pensacola, Florida – home of the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, the world-famous Blue Angels, gaggles of dolphins and some of the cleanest natural seashore around.

We spend our time tinkering with natural language processing, ontologies, real time data processing, terabytes of data, node.js and a mysterious concoction of MySQL and NoSQL.

In our day jobs, Charles leads technical architecture for AppRiver; Andrew develops financial services apps in beautiful Portland Oregon; Vernon runs a performance marketing business in Gulf Breeze, FL; and Daryl leads the dev team for AccountingFly, based in Pensacola FL.

Our Mascot

Our team mascot is the 8-bit opportunity porpoise, which Amy Churchwell designed for us.  He delivers your emails every morning.  We ride him to safe harbor when the seas get rough.

The Team

Vernon Niven

Vitae: CEO / Chief Dolphin-Wrangler

Born and raised on the Gulf Coast, Vernon has over twenty years of experience building innovative software-driven businesses. Prior to NeedTagger, Vernon founded and served as President of Twinspires.com, Churchill Downs’s $1B (handle) online gaming business.  Prior to Twinspires, he helped launch Tumri, the first dynamic creative ad platform (acquired by Collective Media).  At Aspect Development, Vernon led new product marketing for the company’s eContent product line prior to the company’s $9B acquisition by i2 Technologies. As an Associate Partner at Accenture, Vernon led the firm’s $100 million global eProcurement practice. Vernon is currently an angel investor in Flipboard, the world’s first personal social magazine for mobile devices.  Locally, our chief wrangler served as Vice President of Pensacola Beach Elementary School’s board of directors, where he led the school’s reconstruction project after serious damage by Hurricane Ivan.

 

Charles Armour

Vitae: VP Software Engineering / Senior Blowhole Warmer

Charles is a serial entrepreneur in the Pensacola area with over a decade of experience in software development and systems operations.  Charles developed systems to protect music, movies, and software on peer-to-peer networks while working with P2P Engineering,  then turned that knowledge into a patented, peer-to-peer, live content distribution platform with Beyond Media.  After combining these firms with Atlanta-based Intent MediaWorks and Los Angeles-based DAVE Networks to form Brand Asset Digital, Charles continued to develop code and strategies while managing systems operations across what had become a wide variety of platforms and systems.  After leaving Brand Asset Digital, Charles started Wirehead Labs to provide venture technology services to companies in need of stellar development for their startup ideas.  Vernon found Charles at Wirehead Labs and convinced him to help with a Twitter-scale natural language processing platform – the rest is history.  Charles’ broad experience and familiarity with blowholes allowed him to create the platform that powers the NeedTagger service.

 

Andrew Wagner

Vitae: Sr. Web Application Engineer / Dorsal Fin Advocate

Andrew Wagner, a programmer since youth, started his career at 19 working for KickApps – an industry leader in SaaS Social Media Applications, as the head of customer support, and member of the client services team.  While working at KickApps, he supported the implementation of social media strategies for a broad array of major media clients. In May 2009 he founded Connection Applications, a startup specializing in community tools for local non-profit organizations.  As part of the Pensacola startup community, his work with Connection Apps caught the interest of Charles and Vernon who nabbed (wrangled?) him to help found NeedTagger, where he’s been tinkering ever since.  He enjoys that one Kate Bush song (oh, Heathcliff), playing ragtime piano, and building products that bring people together.

 

Daryl Tucker

Vitae: Sr. Ontologist / Pod Soothesayer

Daryl Tucker is a graduate from The Defense Language Institute while serving time as a Kurdish-speaking Airborne Cryptologic Linguist for the United States Air Force.  Since the age of 14, Daryl has been working with computers, fine-tuning his skills in programming, design, and engineering.  In his spare time, Daryl helps with open-source projects in an attempt to help others in the community.