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Hi, I'm Urs Riggenbach,
welcome to my site!

I'm an ecologist by training, a software engineer by profession, and an entrepreneur by practice. I'm passionate about the intersection of tech, sustainability, and social change.

As entrepreneur I co-founded Lytefire, an impact company unlocking the humanitarian potential of solar energy.

As a freelance software developer, I deliver stable, scalable, and secure sites & apps.

My clients range from small associations and businesses to Swiss Radio and Television (SRF) and the 18 job and career information centers of five Swiss cantons. I'm an open source software contributor.

Portrait Urs Riggenbach
Urs Riggenbach

Crowdfunding now: Prepare for the Future: Solar Bread, Pasta & Pizza with Lytefire

Be ready for autonomy and get inspired by amazing solar artisans. Join the movement!

Energy prices are rising, the climate is changing, and this package of experience & construction plans is our response to help people get ready for the future. Read more →

100% goal
+52%

152% raised!

Visit Campaign Page →

As Entrepreneur I support and enjoy building and growing businesses
from the ground up.

I get involved in things that make sense to me, have impact or bring learning and creation with it.

Lytefire
Head of Operations, Board Director & Co-Founder

June 2012 - now
Solar thermal technology solutions in the humanitarian and industrial sector.
– Technological development, project management, IT consulting, web and communication.

Autodesk Inc, San Francisco
Pier 9 Impact Residency

February 2017 - May 2017
– Industrial CNC machine training (Waterjet, Lasercuting, 5 axis CNC)
– Rapid prototyping using state of the art CNC machinery

Riggenbach Technolgies
Owner

2014 - now
Creation of web-development agency of impact and sustainability projects and beyond.

Mischwald
Senior Software Engineer

2019 - now
Creation of websites, apps and exhibitions for several Swiss cantons and corporate clients with the Mischwald web development collective.

vonsalis communications
CTO and Senior Software Developer

2014 - now
Development of custom web-platforms for the Zurich-based environmental communications agency.

WWF Switzerland
Swiss Civil Service

February 2013 - July 2013
– Development of exhibition on renewable energies.

Oekozentrum Langenbruck, Switzerland
Swiss Civil Service

August 2013 - February 2014
– Support in research and development.

Sustainable Design/Build, Yestermorrow, USA
Semester course in sustainable design and building practices

– Instructors from the fields of architecture, construction and joinery/Carpentry
– Application of principles of sustainability and sustainable design in the architecture of a "tiny house" of 227 square feet.
– Project planning and management with different build milestones.
– Construction of entire tiny house, see it in New York Post "Tiny House 227".
– Study and implementation of HVAC systems.

College of the Atlantic, USA
Bachelor of Arts in Human Ecology

September 2008 - June 2012
– Relevant Coursework: Agroecology, Economic Development, International Water Resource Management, Physics II, Collaborative Leadership, Fieldwork: Seminar in Community-based Research, Documentary Film Making, Webdesign, Fixing Food Systems, Sustainability, Local Production - Global Collaboration.
– Senior project in Nepal installing renewable energy framework at rural school
– Spanish proficiency during project-stay in Yucatán, Mexico
– Davis UWC Scholar: full scholarship awarded

United World College, India
International Baccalaureate, IB

September 2006 - May 2008
– International Baccelaurate (IB) with major biology and economics.
– Course language English.
– Extended essay: Sugarcane Cultivation in the Mulshi Valley, India.
– Full Scholarship from the Swiss Association for UWC

Born

1990

Urs Riggenbach

I like creating content and sharing ideas.

My blog contains notes across a variety of topics I'm passionate about and that may be helpful to others.

From the Blog:

SPIP WAF: A web application firewall for SPIP
On DIY building in wood
A baker worth noting
International Women’s Day: An obvious cause...
Yesterday I was at the UN in Geneva, speaking at the round table for energy sovereignty
Supporting a 100% Women Powered Solar Bakery Community in Kenya
Urs Riggenbach

I build stable, secure and scalable solutions on the Web,
as Apps and in the Cloud.

Since I started my journey as freelance developer 12 years ago, I'm a true full-stack developer in web technologies, building solutions from the ground up and able to deliver solutions at each layer of the stack. Starting with the server setup, I implement the data structure and backend, the design and frontend, and because I have the expertise on the full stack, I am sure to deliver on the client's needs, and that I will always be able to adapt the project to evolving needs in the future.

For larger projects, I create a project-specific team relying on my network of curated developers, designers and content creators.

Web & App Development Services

SPIP

Secure, Stable and Scalabe: SPIP is the preferred content management and publishing platform for magazines and custom platforms with high traffic.

WordPress

Custom theme and plugin creation. Clients can autonomously manage their site's evolution. Security audits and plugin hygene.

Laravel

API and integration-heavy web applications. Single-page applications, event driven system architecture.

Cloud Exit new

Sick of G**gle, Micro*oft, and Co? Tired of being force-fed AI? Care about data privacy? Want to exit for cost reasons?

Let me help you organize your cloud exit. We find providers in 🇨🇭 or 🇪🇺, and host suitable services on independent servers.

Drupal

Custom module and theme development for sites with user-extendable forms and fields.

Next to building several custom modules and sites, I've led several large data migrations to and from Drupal.

Go & Zig and Elixir

Modern backend services with Go, Zig and Elixir to serve high availability APIs.

Often, what's needed is a caching layer between an existing service, and a growing number of clients. From there we remove more and more bottlenecks.

Custom CRM

Tailor-made CRM systems to optimize and manage your customer relationships. One click email templates, tagging, spam elimination and more.

CMS

Custom CMS solutions engineered to streamline content and workflow management, usually crafted with SPIP.

Android Apps

Native app development to bring your product to the Android platform. Expert in WebView and MDM published apps.

JS Libraries & APIs

Custom JavaScript libraries and API integrations for embedded website elements like maps, lists, stats and more.

Get in Touch

Featured Project: BIZ-Links for Swiss Cantons

Frontend Development Backend Development App Development Project Management

For the Swiss Cantons of Bern, Zug, Fribourg and Basel-Country I built the interactive Biz-Links Product that helps Swiss people make career choices.

Users pick a job-related postcard, scan it, and can access videos and job-related resources.

Since 2019 the system is operational and continuously expanded based on different client needs. The stable SPIP core and modular architecture makes this possible.

Available on the web, the product also streams to Android and iOS with a custom Android App and iOS Web App to over 15 locations and to over 200 devices at the job information offices in Switzerland.

  • Scan QR-Codes and load job-specific information
  • Play and interact with multimedia content
  • Print, share and like any document and website

As a result of the modularity, each client has their own, bespoke look & feel as well as custom feature set.

Clients

Projects

SRF MissionB

SRF MissionB

Project for SRF, the Swiss National News Service.

Custom design, custom map, custom CMS, and interactive custom dashboard for management of submissions of over 1 million square meters of biodiverse areas newly created as part of the campaign. Scalability to 150k hourly users. Built with SPIP and in collaboration with von salis communication AG.

Lytefire

Lytefire

Custom design and website creation.

Development of online-shop with customized offerings per geography, implementation of custom CRM to capture leads. Custom newsletter design. Creation of multi-lingual customer hub with forums, resources, and user interactivity. Many other missions with this Finnish company for the last decade. Built with SPIP.

Visit Site →

UWC.ch

UWC.ch

Implementation of the association’s website and custom membership CRM tool.

Custom design with interactive map feature, contact and membership forms.

Design by Appear.

Visit Site →

More Projects

Urs Riggenbach

Selection of speaking engagements on camera or in front of impact-motivated crowds.

Jump TV Switzerland (German)

Idea, comment, interested to collaborate?

Contact Urs Riggenbach:
info@ursrig.com, 079 918 0663

Idee, Kommentar, interesse an Zusammenarbeit?

Bitte kontaktieren Sie mich:
Urs Riggenbach, info@ursrig.com, 079 918 0663

On the Do Good - Do Business Podcast

Presenting Lytefire - Finland

2000 Watt Verein Solothurn (German)

Freestyle Improv Acapella - Impact Hub Zurich

 

Riggenbach Technologies

Urs Riggenbach
Weissensteinstrasse 76
4500 Solothurn
Switzerland

To get in touch:
Send me an email to mail@ursrig.com