It’s not often I get to link to an article about something I helped build, but Daring Fireball recently mentioned the PECO mobile app—a project I had the privilege of overseeing as CTO of Mindgrub for Exelon. This app, along with others we developed for Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE) and ComEd, serves a huge user base across cities like Baltimore, Chicago, Philadelphia, and DC.

These apps were a labor of love, taking over a year to design and integrate with a patchwork of backend systems—many of them legacy platforms—across utility companies operating under different regulatory environments. From day one, our focus was on reliability and speed, ensuring these tools could handle the pressure during storms, outages, and other critical moments when customers need them most.

Hearing it recognized in an article like this is a proud moment, but it’s also a testament to the incredible teams at Mindgrub and Exelon that made it all happen. These apps are more than just utilities (pun intended); they’re lifelines during tough times, and I’m thrilled to see their impact acknowledged.

One Bit of Anecdata That the Web Is Languishing Vis-à-Vis Native Mobile Apps

The notion that mobile web apps are closing the gap with native apps is laughable. The gulf between them is widening, not narrowing.