IndieRails

John Nunemaker - The Conductor

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 14:08:36 -0400

John Nunemaker is a Rails developer, entrepreneur, and indie hacker behind Flipper Cloud, Boxout, and Fireside. He joins us for a wide-ranging conversation about managing a portfolio of products at different stages of growth, how AI has transformed his development workflow, and the unique opportunity (and anxiety) that this moment in tech represents.

Related Links

Flipper Cloud
Boxout
Fireside
Momentum (South Bend entrepreneurship hub)
John on X / Twitter

Articles mentioned:

Rémi Mercier - The Stained-Glass Master

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 09:08:52 -0500

Rémi is a former stained-glass master turned freelance Ruby on Rails developer. He writes extensively on software topics on his blog, and he recently wrote a reflection on his return to freelancing this past year. Rémi joins us to share his journey into software development, and the recent transition back to freelancing.

Reflecting on 2025

Jared Norman - Building Super Good Software|Teams|OS|companies|.*

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 09:21:23 -0500

In this episode, Jared Norman joins us to talk about his journey from aspiring game developer to founder of Super Good Software, an agency specializing in e-commerce and Solidus. Jared shares the story of how Spree evolved into Solidus, the role his team played in that transition, and what it's like to build a specialized consultancy around open source e-commerce. We also get into branding, business development, the complexities of e-commerce beyond product management, and his podcast Dead Code.

Related Links

Jared's Website
LinkedIn
Dribbble

Super Good Software
Solidus
Dead Code Podcast

John Athayde - Guiding Design in Software

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 10:07:32 -0500

In this episode, John Athayde joins us to chat about how a student of architecture ends up in software, finding the Ruby and Rails community, working at the intersection of design and development, consulting in user experience, and his work on the Rails Guides refresh project.

Related Links

Website
Twitter
Bluesky
LinkedIn

Meticulous (John's consultancy)
Sfumato Farm (John's farm)
Ocufii
Knightsbridge Research

Rails Guides get a facelift
How They Work Better Together: Lean UX, Agile Development and User-Centered Design

Turning the Corner (Unedited)

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 06 Jan 2026 08:58:35 -0500

Jeremy and Jess turn the corner on a new year with an unedited one-on-one discussion, reflecting on 2025 and looking ahead at 2026.

Jared Brown - From Indie to 33 million in ARR

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 16:38:28 -0500

In this episode of IndieRails, Jess and Jeremy interviewed Jared Brown, co-founder and CEO of Hubstaff.

The conversation began with a serendipitous meeting at XO Ruby, where an early-morning parking deck encounter turned into a deeper discussion about SaaS, engineering, and long-term company building. What started as a casual conference conversation ultimately led to this episode.

Jared shared the story of Hubstaff’s journey from a two-founder startup in 2012 to a globally distributed company with more than 130 employees and roughly $33 million in ARR. He reflected on the importance of strong co-founder relationships, early technical decisions, and finding product-market fit in a competitive space.

The discussion covered long-term thinking, data-driven decision-making, and the realities of scaling a SaaS business over more than a decade. Jared also spoke candidly about the sacrifices required in the early years, the role of mentorship, leadership transitions, and the self-awareness needed to grow alongside the company.

This episode offered practical insights into networking, virality, engineering-led leadership, and what it really takes to build and sustain a successful independent software business over the long haul.

Links:
Jared's LinkedIn
Hubstaff.com

Ernesto Tagwerker - OmbuLabs on AI

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 08:29:37 -0500

After more than two years, Ernesto Tagwerker returns to IndieRails to chat about the changing industry landscape and running an agency in the age of AI. Ernesto is the founder of OmbuLabs, makers of FastRuby.io, and maintainers of many open source projects in Ruby and Rails. We talk about upgrading Rails apps with the help of LLMs, their fixed-cost maintenance service Bonsai, new AI-related offerings (from assessments to greenfield buildouts), and championing DX (developer experience).

Mentioned in the Episode
Stanford research on dev productivity w/ AI tooling (video)
The Automated Roadmap
Bonsai Service
A Tech Debt Fighting Champion For Developers
Get DX
Philly.rb
Canopy

Brian Casel - Teaching Devs to Build with AI

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 15:29:10 -0500

In this episode, Brian Casel joins IndieRails to talk about how AI is reshaping the day-to-day reality of software development and why full-stack Rails developers might be uniquely positioned to thrive in this new landscape.

The conversation digs into the blurring lines between developer and product manager. When you can build the whole thing yourself, you're not just writing code you're making product decisions, understanding customer needs, and wearing multiple hats by default. We explore how that generalist mindset, the one Rails devs have been cultivating for years, is becoming more valuable, not less, as AI tools change what it means to "build."

They also get into the practical side: how AI is actually showing up in their coding workflows, what's working, what's overhyped, and what skills matter most when the tools keep shifting under your feet. Plus we detour into YouTube as a channel for building an audience and the dynamics of showing up consistently, sharing your work, and connecting with people who care about the same stuff you do.

It's a wide-ranging conversation about adapting, staying curious, and leaning into the advantages that come with being a builder who thinks like an owner.

Links:
https://buildermethods.com/
https://www.youtube.com/@briancasel
panelpodcast.com
https://briancasel.com/
https://x.com/CasJam
https://www.linkedin.com/in/briancasel/

Wale Olaleye - Helping Founders with Tech

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 08:57:51 -0500

Wale Olaleye of Rails Fever joins IndieRails to talk about what it really takes to build a consulting business. The conversation spans everything from refining your message and brand, “I help founders with tech so they can focus on operations", to embracing marketing, sales, and networking as essential skills, not dirty words.

Wale, Jess, and Jeremy swap stories about outreach experiments, co-working spaces, local events, and the power of being visible in your own community. They explore how generosity, trust, and consistency can replace aggressive sales tactics, and why treating your freelance work like a business, not just a job, is the path to longevity.

It’s an honest and encouraging look at how independent Rails developers can build meaningful, profitable work by combining technical excellence with human connection.

Rails Fever
LinkedIn
Bluesky

The Obligatory AI Episode

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 18:40:25 -0400

In this episode, Jess and Jeremy catch up on life and work, and have a chat about the everyone's favorite topic these days.

Anthony Eden - Making Business Look Simple

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 14 Oct 2025 08:56:25 -0400

In this episode we’re excited to be talking with Anthony Eden, founder & CEO of DNSimple.

For those who haven’t come across it yet, DNSimple is a service that makes managing domains and DNS simple and developer-friendly. Like DNS, DNSimple has been around many years. I first met Anthony years back at Less Conference in Atlanta, around the time DNSimple was just getting off the ground.

Jeremy and I also got to connect with Anthony recently at XO Ruby in Atlanta, where DNSimple was one of the sponsors.

There’s a lot of fun topics we covered, so hit play and get it started!

Links:
dnsimple.com
anthonyeden.com
X
Ruby Social

One Person Wishlist - Rails World Roundtable

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 30 Sep 2025 09:31:21 -0400

This special episode was recorded from the Buzzsprout podcast booth on Day 2 of Rails World 2025 in Amsterdam. Our guests (and fellow Rails World attendees) are Jesper Christiansen, Olly Headey, and Andreas Wagner. Together we have a roundtable discussion about our wishlist items as independent Rails devs toward the one-person end of the spectrum.

Thank you to Buzzsprout for sponsoring the Rails World Podcast program, and for providing us the opportunity to attend and record! 🙏

Jesper Christiansen
Twitter
Bluesky
Website
FormBackend
many.link

Olly Headey
Bluesky
Blog
Pagecord
Feedgrab

Andreas Wagner
Twitter
Bluesky
Website
Blog

Mariusz Kozieł - Wizards and Kings

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 12:07:45 -0400

This special episode was recorded from the Buzzsprout podcast booth on Day 1 of Rails World 2025 in Amsterdam. Our guest, Mariusz Kozieł, is the CEO of Visuality, a Ruby on Rails agency based in Poland. We chat about Mariusz' career progression from developer, to engineering manager, to CTO, and now CEO. We also talk about his and Visuality's efforts to foster technical community with the Ruby Community Conference and Ruby Europe.

Thank you to Buzzsprout for sponsoring the Rails World Podcast program, and for providing us the opportunity to attend and record! 🙏

Related Links

Mariusz on Twitter
Mariusz on LinkedIn

Visuality website
Visuality on Twitter
Visuality on LinkedIn

Ruby Europe website
Ruby Europe on Twitter

Ruby Community Conference

Jason Bosco of Typesense - From Shaving Faces to Shaving Milliseconds

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Fri, 05 Sep 2025 07:21:05 -0400

docs.search("indie, founder, rails, successful") => Jason Bosco / Typesense

In this episode, Jeremy and Jess sit down with Jason Bosco, co-founder of Typesense, an open source, typo-tolerant search engine. Jason shares how he and his co-founder committed to simply showing up every day, putting in consistent effort, no matter how small, and how that patience eventually compounded into success.

We dive into Jason’s journey from VP of Engineering at Dollar Shave Club to building his own company, why Typesense has chosen to stay customer-funded instead of VC-funded, and how open source has been central to their mission of democratizing search. Along the way, Jason offers insights on perseverance, product focus, and the long game of building an indie software company and how it can all good and difficult can take a toll on health.

Jason Bosco

CEO & Co-Founder at Typesense

Previously VP of Engineering at Dollar Shave Club Previously VP of Technology at Verishop

A good way to describe Typesense is that it's an open source alternative to Algolia and an easier-to-use alternative to ElasticSearch. https://github.com/jasonbosco

Featured Videos

Featured Links

Matt Swanson - The Product Engineer

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 11:26:49 -0400

In this episode, Jess and Jeremy chat with Matt Swanson, CTO of Arrows, author of Boring Rails, and host of the YAGNI podcast. In addition to his blog, Matt shares a lot of his knowledge about product development on Twitter. We talk with Matt about how Arrows builds software, what it means to be a product engineer, the easiest way for devs to get to $10K MRR, working with generative AI tools, and how and why he publishes technical content online.

Related Links
Matt's Twitter
Boring Rails
YAGNI podcast
Arrows

Rhiannon Payne & Justin Bowen - Agents of Change

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 11:49:03 -0400

Rhiannon Payne and Justin Bowen are one of the very few couples working together in the Ruby and Rails ecosystem. Justin is a long-time Rails developer, consultant, and AI and computer vision specialist. Rhiannon runs Sea Foam Media and is the Marketing Director for Ruby Central. Together they are building Active Agents, an AI framework for Rails. We chat about their professional backgrounds (Justin's in software development, Rhiannon's in marketing), how they collaborate as a couple, the birth of Active Agents, and AI in the Ruby/Rails landscape. Oh, and we may have a cameo from a few cats!

Rhiannon
Twitter
Bluesky
The Remote Work Era Book

Justin
Twitter
Bluesky

Active Agents
Website
activeagent gem on GitHub (latest release: v0.4.0)
Documentation (new)
Discord Invite

Sea Foam Media
Website
Twitter

Zeke Gabrielse - Build for Your Users Without Obeying Them

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 09:11:21 -0400

In this episode we talk to Zeke Gabrielse, solo founder and owner of Keygen, a licensing and distribution API. We get deep in the weeds of running a solo business (much can be applied to any solo-type career working on the same project), how he handled the worst day(s) of his professional life, and much more!

Zeke's Links
Zeke on X

Keygen on X

Keygen website: https://keygen.sh/

Jeremy's Notable Blog Posts

How to Build a Webhook System in Rails Using Sidekiq

That one time Keygen went down for 5 hours (twice)

Keygen is now Fair Source

No calls

In defense of linear

Self-promotion
Steering the ship

Regional Ruby Conferences - A Crossover Episode

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 27 May 2025 10:20:47 -0400

In this special crossover episode, we make a slight departure from our typical format to chat with Adrian and Yaro from the Friendly Show and Jason from the Code with Jason podcast about a topic near and dear to our hearts: organizing regional Ruby conferences. Adrian is the organizer of Friendly.rb in Bucharest. Jason is the organizer of Sin City Ruby in Las Vegas. And as long-time listeners may know, Jeremy co-organized Blue Ridge Ruby in Asheville, NC back in 2023.

JD Graffam - See If They Hug You Back

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 13 May 2025 11:01:34 -0400

A few episodes ago, Garrett Dimon shared the story of how he sold his SaaS product Sifter. In this episode, we complete the story arc by catching up with JD Graffam, the buyer and current owner of Sifter. JD is an agency owner who started buying SaaS product companies in 2012. We talk about how his background, how he got started buying businesses, and his approach to making deals and finding the right people to work with.

Relevant Links

JD's website
JD's Twitter
Simple Focus
Audience Ops
Sifter
Ballpark
Metalab
Garrett's Episode

Radan Skorić - Mastering Hotwire

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 10:47:49 -0400

In this episode, Jess and Jeremy chat with Radan Skorić, a long-time Ruby and Rails developer and team lead, co-organizer Ruby Zagreb, and author of the forthcoming book: Master Hotwire. We talk about Radan’s background in software, his discovery of Rails in the mid-2000s, technical blogging, writing a book, and technical aspects of Hotwire.

Related Links
Radan’s Blog
Radan’s Twitter
Book: Master Hotwire

Time, Energy, Capital...LOL

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 01 Apr 2025 08:54:50 -0400

This week, Jess and Jeremy get into the nitty-gritty of resource allocation for indie makers: how to make the most of your limited time, energy, and capital. As solo and small-team entrepreneurs, we constantly have to make tough calls about where to invest. It's not just about money; it's about what will actually move the needle.

They talk through the realities of running lean: how to balance building, learning, and staying sane along the way. From daily reading habits and favorite podcasts to managing information overload and keeping personal playbooks, they share the unpolished, behind-the-scenes strategies they use to grow without burning out.

If you’re bootstrapping, juggling roles, or just trying to make smarter bets with your time, this one’s for you.

Ben Curtis & Josh Wood - Kids These Days

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 18 Mar 2025 14:13:52 -0400

In this episode of IndieRails, co-founders Ben Curtis and Joshua Wood share the origin story of Honeybadger, an application monitoring tool for Ruby on Rails applications (and many others).

They discuss their motivations for starting the company, the challenges they faced in the early days. The conversation also covers their approach to product development, marketing, pricing strategies, expanding into new markets and the lessons learned from their journey.

Honeybadger

Ben Curtis
Mastodon
Bluesky
LinkedIn

Josh Wood
Mastodon
Bluesky
LinkedIn

Garrett Dimon - A Long Winding Journey

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 08:33:03 -0500

Our guest for this episode is Garrett Dimon. Garrett is a developer, author, conference speaker and multi time business owner. With some partners, he’s recently formed a company called “Very Good Software” where they own and operate several SaaS apps.

Garrett Dimon is a seasoned software developer and entrepreneur with a passion for front-end development and Ruby on Rails. His journey began in 1998, experimenting with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript before earning a Computer Science degree from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2000. Over the next eight years, he honed his skills in front-end development and information architecture through consulting roles with organizations of all sizes. During this time, he also shared his expertise through a column on front-end design and development for Digital Web Magazine.

In 2008, Garrett started his entrepreneurial journey and launched Sifter, a bug and issue tracking application built with Rails, which he ran until its successful sale in 2016. His experience building and selling Sifter inspired him to write and self-publish Starting and Sustaining, a book about building and running SaaS applications. After Sifter, Garrett took some time off from entrepreneurship and joined Wildbit and then egghead.

Eventually he went back on his own independent consulting where he helped clients Fireside.fm and Flipper. Little did he know that later on, he'd become part owner of these companies. In the fall of 2024 the one time business seller became the buyer. He, John Nunemaker, and Kris Priemer are operating Very Good Software, where fireside.rm and Flipper are core products.

Links:
GarrettDimon.com
BlueSky

Fireside.fm
Flipper
Very Good Software

Books

Recent podcast appearances:
Taking Over Fireside with John Nunemaker & Garrett Dimon
Master of Generators (with Garrett Dimon) | Dead Code

Joe Masilotti - Return of the Hotwire Native Guy

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 15:48:52 -0500

Our first-ever IndieRails guest returns to the podcast just shy of two years later. Joe Masilotti shares about niching down on Hotwire Native, changes in the related open source libraries, the direction of his consulting work, his parental leave last year, and the process of writing his forthcoming book, Hotwire Native for Rails Developers. (Special discount for listeners in the episode!)

Jim Remsik - Genuinely Desiring Success In Those Around Him

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 15:05:48 -0500

In this episode, Jeremy & I are excited to share a mic with Jim Remsik. Jim is the Founder and CEO of a digital agency called Flagrant. He is also a conference organizer…he created and hosts the popular Madison + Ruby conference. Jim has held many roles: MC, speaker, developer, CEO, conference organizer, writer and many more, but I imagine most people know him as someone who is an all around awesome human.

Jim Remsik shares his journey through the tech industry, from his early days in software development to his transition from government work to agency life. He discusses building companies like Bendyworks and Flagrant, emphasizing how design and professional connections shaped his career path. The conversation follows his path from running Adorable to launching Flagrant, including the personal challenges he faced—health issues and navigating business during the pandemic. Jim reflects on the vital role of personal growth, team empowerment, and maintaining human connections in a remote-first world. Drawing from his agency experience, he shares how taking initiative and self-authorization were crucial to his entrepreneurial success. Throughout the discussion, Jim offers valuable perspectives on consulting and collaboration, emphasizing his core belief in actively supporting others' success. He explores the varied landscape of consulting work, industry uncertainties, and the power of personal mission statements. The conversation highlights how meaningful connections, purposeful work, and courageous leadership intertwine. Jim's guiding motto reveals how generosity and community-building shape his professional approach.

Show Links:

Socials

https://bsky.app/profile/jremsikjr.bsky.social

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jremsikjr/

Flagrant

https://www.beflagrant.com/team/

https://www.beflagrant.com/blog/author/jim-remsik/

Conferences

https://www.madisonruby.com/

https://rubyconf.org/about/

Posts

https://medium.com/authority-magazine/jim-remsik-of-flagrant-five-things-i-wish-someone-told-me-when-i-first-launched-my-business-or-14699acfbda2

https://www.beflagrant.com/blog/2024-predictions-2024-01-30

https://devops.com/the-ruby-on-rails-resurgence/

https://devops.com/the-ruby-on-rails-resurgence-2/

Other Podcasts

https://shows.acast.com/dead-code/episodes/all-those-letters-that-you-do-with-jim-remsik

https://www.codewithjason.com/podcast/14444689-211-jim-remsik-ceo-of-flagrant/

XO Ruby
https://bsky.app/profile/xoruby.com

Readalong - Practical Object-Oriented Design: An Agile Primer Using Ruby
https://app.thestorygraph.com/readalongs/5983b152-bf48-4ff3-aeb0-976ea67d0d08

New Year Sentiment

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 21 Jan 2025 08:10:07 -0500

Jess and Jeremy kick off the first recording of 2025 with a recap of 2024, and a look at their plans and goals for the new year. We chat about the importance of celebrating milestones, time management, financial planning, scaling development with business growth, and the cycles of sowing and reaping in our work.

Paul Campbell - Look at What You've Done

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 13:26:57 -0500

Paul Campbell is a Rails developer (since v0.13), conference organizer, and the CEO and co-founder of Team Tito. Paul joins us to talk about his career building software, companies, and events. We chat about Paul's journey into programming, the risks and rewards of running conferences, finding his co-founder, and the opportunities that led to building Tito, Vito, and most recently, IO.

Relevant Links
Paul on BlueSky
Team Tito
Tito: event registration
Vito: online communities
IO: bespoke RSVPs

Good Enough and the Cosmic Maelstrom

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 26 Nov 2024 13:47:39 -0500

In this episode, we are joined by Barry Hess, James Adam, and Matthew Lettini from the Good Enough team to discuss their journey in creating a self-sustaining business built around meaningful, user-focused software. We explore the inception of their company and their latest product, Jelly—a shared inbox for teams. We dive into their experimental approach to business, their year of experimentation known internally as "Cosmic Maelstrom," the rollout of other products like their blogging software, Pika, and the decision to offer free tools. The team shares their insights into maintaining a human touch in customer support, navigating marketing challenges, and the value of brainstorming unconventional ideas. Through it all, they emphasize the importance of community, sustainability, and creating software that should exist in the world to make a meaningful impact.

Links:
Good Enough
Jelly
Pika
All Products

Good Enough Socials:
Newsletter
Mastodon
Bluesky
Threads
X

James
Matthew
Barry

Always Something, Never Nothing - Becky Searls

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 15:27:13 -0500

In this episode, we're excited to introduce our guest, Becky Searls. We recently met Becky at Rails World and learned about her business, Better with Becky—a fitness training program focused on people with a growth mindset. Over the past year, she worked with her husband Justin to build her first product, Build with Becky, a personalized workout program and fitness app built in Rails, which launched publicly during the conference! We chat with Becky about her professional journey starting as a K-12 educator, becoming a fitness instructor, building her own business, and now moving into the product owner role to develop a custom app.

More About Becky

Becky Searls is definitely not another influencer, and she’s more than a personal trainer. Her experience in education, embrace of evidence-based research, and personable judgment-free approach sets her apart in an industry famous for baseless hype and scammy practices.

Spending over a decade as an accomplished foreign language teacher, Becky truly has the heart of an educator. When she learns something important, her first thought is always how to best share it with others. She also knows life's greatest lessons are found outside of the classroom. So as she dives deeper into research papers spanning health, fitness, nutrition, and psychology, she can’t imagine keeping all the useful things she discovers to herself.

That's what Better with Becky is: the place she translates cutting-edge science into practical tools and everyday advice for the rest of us.

That may explain why, as her debut product, Build with Becky doesn't look like other exercise programs. Yes, it will give you a great workout. But you won't believe how much you'll learn along the way, without even realizing it. And yes, you'll probably see progress toward your fitness goals. But don't be surprised if you also gain deeper insights that connect with other parts of your life. That's just part of what you get with Becky!

Training and certifications include:

• Master of Arts, Education (The Ohio State University)
• National Strength and Conditioning Association Certified Personal Trainer (NSCA-CPT)
• Mindfulness-Based Behavior Change Facilitator
• Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certified Coach (PN-L1)
• USA Weightlifting Level 1 Certified Coach (USAW-L1)
• Pain-free performance specialist (National Academy of Sports Medicine)

Relevant Links

Better with Becky

Beckygram (which syndicates her Instagram)
Becky's YouTube
The Empowered Programmer (Justin's Rails World talk, featuring Build with Becky)

"Just a bunch of guys"

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 11:14:12 -0400

In this episode, Jess and Jeremy chat about leveling up professionally, the importance of community and personal growth, and the challenges of starting new things. Jess shares several things that have inspired him recently, and Jeremy gives an update on Liminal and shares some ideas he has around discoverability challenges in the Rails ecosystem.

Referenced

Bunch of Guys video clip
Raise your standards video clip
“Start from wherever you are and with whatever you’ve got.” - Jim Rohn
Liminal forum app

One Person Framework with Justin Searls

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 15 Oct 2024 10:52:23 -0400

In this episode, Justin Searls (open source author, speaker, and co-founder of Test Double) joins us in-person at Rails World to talk about his career, speaking, consulting, the One Person Framework, and building a web application for his wife's fitness business, Better with Becky.

Follow Justin
Website
Twitter
Mastodon
LinkedIn

Relevant Links
The Empowered Programmer talk
Test Double
Breaking Change podcast
Fred Brooks
RubyKaigi
The One Person Framework

Rails World 2024 Crossover

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 15:46:19 -0400

On Day 2 of Rails World, Jess and Jeremy join with Drew Bragg of Code and the Coding Coders Who Code It and Adrian Marin and Yaro Shmarov of the Friendly Show to chat about the conference. Enjoy!

Hanging with Remote Ruby

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Fri, 04 Oct 2024 11:52:13 -0400

In this crossover episode, Jeremy and Jess join up with Chris & Jason from Remote Ruby podcast to discuss Ruby programming, indie development, and the challenges of building and maintaining software as solo developers. We dive into the origins of Indie Rails, share our individual career journeys, and explore Jeremy's project, Liminal, which aims to replace traditional forums and Slack with a more modern solution. The group reflects on the frustrations with current platforms, their experiences with indie development, and the importance of marketing alongside coding. They also compare Rails and Laravel, talk about the "one-person framework" concept, and the challenges in maintaining open-source libraries. Throughout the conversation, they emphasize the value of transparency in product development and the need for community support. They wrap up with thoughts on the importance of events like Rails Hackathons and the continued evolution of Rails for solo developers. Hit download now to hear more!

Justin Duke - Building the Product You Want

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 12:43:46 -0400

Justin Duke is the founder of Buttondown, an email platform with first-class Markdown support. Justin is also a partner at Third South Capital, where he and his partners buy and grow existing software products. We chat about his background in marketing and software development, bootstrapping Buttondown while working at Stripe, the Buttondown tech stack (Django, a cousin of Rails and Vue), and his latest endeavors with Third South.

Justin
Website
Twitter

Buttondown
Website
Twitter
Changelog
Stack
Open Source

Third South Capital
Website
Twitter

Relevant Links
Markdoc
babelmark
Curtailing the free plan
Work on what matters

Landon Gray - AI Consulting with Ruby

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 15:25:02 -0400

Landon Gray is a Rubyist, speaker, strategic advisor, and AI engineer. In May, he left Test Double to found Identus Consulting, where he helps companies with generative AI and machine learning. We chat about his love for consulting, how he got into AI, and how he's working with clients these days, using a blend of technical and project management skills.

Follow Landon
Twitter
LinkedIn
Ruby AI Twitter
Identus Consulting
Curious Centroid
Forecasting the future: Intro to Machine Learning for weather prediction in Native Ruby

Relevant Links
Test Double
Great Learning
Claude
Jeremy Howard
Torch.rb
Transformers.rb
Pandas
Jupyter

Job Boarding with Jason Charnes

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 11:15:25 -0400

Our guest will be no stranger to most of our listeners. He’s been around the Ruby community for many years. He’s spoken at conferences, hosted conferences, hosts a "pretty good" podcast, author of courses, a staff engineer at Podia and more recently the co-founder of a successful SaaS: Job Boardly. Enjoy the show with Jason Charnes!

Related Links
Personal Website

Job Boardly
Podia
Remote Ruby

Getting Performant with Nate Berkopec

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 12:38:45 -0400

In this episode, we are thrilled to host Nate Berkopec, a renowned author, speaker, trainer, and consultant. Nate runs Speedshop, his Rails performance consultancy, and is the author of "The Complete Guide to Rails Performance." He also maintains Puma, the most popular Ruby web server, and somehow finds time to be an avid cyclist. Nate's journey from a junior Rails developer to a leading performance expert is nothing short of inspiring. Join us as we dive into his story, insights, and expertise.

Links:

X
Personal Website
SpeedShop
The Rails Performance Workshop. A four-week program that makes your Rails app faster and more scalable. Attended by over 500 developers so far. Team and solo editions.
The Complete Guide to Rails Performance, an in-depth 370 page reference manual on making Rails apps faster.
Sidekiq in Practice, a workshop for teaching you how to scale Sidekiq from 0 to 10,000 jobs per second.
The Ruby on Rails Performance Apocrypha, a short book about the ins and outs of scaling Rails
Speedshop Blog, the number one Ruby on Rails performance blog on the 'net.
The Speedshop Newsletter, a weekly email newsletter that talks about issues surrounding optimizing and scaling Ruby web applications.

A Fresh Take on Old-School Forums

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 14:45:38 -0400

In this episode, Jeremy shares his latest product idea (Liminal, a fresh take on old-school forums) with Jess and gets his raw, unfiltered feedback. At the end, Jeremy makes a commitment to Jess to launch an MVP by November 1.

Back in the Saddle

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 14:50:58 -0400

Jess and Jeremy catch up in this one-on-one episode after a short summer break. We cover a number of topics, including our latest seasons of work, reading the book Million Dollar Consulting, our mastermind group, and some realizations looking back over the last year.

Natalie Kaminski & Igor Alexandrov - JetRockets Origins

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 11 Jun 2024 10:16:02 -0400

In this episode, Jeremy and Jess are joined by two of the cofounders of JetRockets, a custom software development agency with a specialty in Rails. Natalie Kaminski (CEO) and Igor Alexandrov (CTO) share how the company started and how it's grown over the past 12 years. We discuss how and why they use Rails, how they hire developers, their approach to management, and the importance of strong organizational values.

Natalie Kaminski

CEO / Co-Founder

Igor Alexandrov

CTO / Co-Founder

JetRockets

Relevant Links
Reinventing Organizations
Teal organisation

Andrew Atkinson - The Postgres Specialist

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 28 May 2024 16:14:59 -0400

Andrew Atkinson is a Rails developer, turned Postgres specialist, turned author and consultant. He joins us to talk about his developer journey, how he found his niche with Postgres, writing his new book, High Performance PostgreSQL for Rails, and the launch of his consulting practice.

Relevant Links

Twitter
Website (Consulting page)
High Performance PostgreSQL for Rails
Newsletter
How we made PG Fitter, Happier, More Productive at PGConf NYC 2021 (slides, blog post)
More videos

Other Shoutouts

RailsConf 2022 blog post
Michael Hartl's RailsSpace book
Wendy's spicy chicken, GOATed
David Rowley, PG committer and past mentor, recently writing about PostgreSQL 16 query planner enhancements.
PG Conf NYC: great conf, CFP open now! I've gone twice! Same dates as Rails World though or around there.
Aaron Francis: Do Stuff, Tell People
Tobias Petry SQL For Devs
Charity Majors "Accidental DBA"

Tom Rossi - Building Products with a Buzz

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 14 May 2024 08:12:36 -0400

In this episode, Jeremy and Jess get a chance to connect with Tom Rossi, the cofounder of Higher Pixels. Tom's story is an inspiring one for developers wanting to build products. He and his team have been successful creating a handful of SaaS products. Tom has been instrumental in creating Buzzsprout, their flagship podcast hosting platform that's helping thousands of podcasters share their stories with the world. Not only are Tom & Co pioneers in digital products, but they are also a committed sponsor of Ruby & Rails conferences, actively supporting and nurturing the community. Join us as we dive into the journey of building impactful products and the stories behind the scenes at Higher Pixels.

Twitter
LinkedIn

Higher Pixels
Buzzsprout
Tick
StreamCare
Donor Tools

The Surprising Benefits of Collaboration for Indie Devs

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 10:14:28 -0400

In this episode, Jeremy & Jess dive into the world of partnerships and collaboration, a terrain that's become familiar to indie developers seeking growth and innovation. We explore the ins and outs of partnering with others, sharing insights from our experiences over the past year. From initiating low-stakes collaborations to finding the right projects with potential partners, we unpack strategies and ideas to build successful alliances in the indie development space.

Ben Wood & Nate Vick - Adapt and Evolve: Navigating Entrepreneurial Transitions

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 16 Apr 2024 16:03:19 -0400

Today, we're joined by two remarkable individuals, Ben Wood and Nate Vick, seasoned entrepreneurs with over a decade of experience running a Rails consulting business with many successes: Hint

In this episode, Ben and Nate share their unique journey, from the highs of entrepreneurship to the tough decision of winding down their business. Despite this challenging transition, their passion for innovation hasn't waned. They're now embarking on new careers while also nurturing a budding software product, Selective, in their spare time.

Join us as we explore the realities of business, the resilience required to adapt, and the continuous pursuit of new horizons. Ben and Nate's story is a testament to the fact that while not every venture lasts forever, the spirit of entrepreneurship endures, paving the way for new opportunities and lessons.

Tune in as we uncover the insights and experiences of these two smart, adaptive professionals who remind us that change is not just an inevitable part of life but also a profound opportunity for growth.

Links:
Ben Wood
Nate Vick

Cody Norman - Lucky Me

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 02 Apr 2024 11:56:17 -0400

Cody Norman is a Rails consultant, fly fisherman, BBQ connoisseur, and big fan of the state of Colorado. He joins us to share about getting into software development, his journey to consulting, and his mentorship work. We also chat about his product Spot Squid, his plans for Rawhide Ruby, and his upcoming RailsConf talk on Action Mailbox: Attraction Mailbox - Why I love Action Mailbox. Cody also shared post-show that he's developing a course on Action Mailbox!

Website
Twitter
Spot Squid
Rawhide Ruby
Action Mailbox Pro course

Crafting Service Offerings

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 13:00:21 -0400

In this episode of IndieRails, we delve into the world of productized services in software development. Moving beyond the traditional model of bespoke or custom solutions, productized services offer a blend of consistency, scalability, and efficiency, reshaping how businesses approach service offerings.

We were prompted to look into this topic by a question from Pascal, who coincidentally just launched his React To Hotwire Migration Service offering.

In episode, we aim to explore the journey from concept to market, the strategic advantages of adopting a productized model, and the challenges developers face in this transition. Join us as we uncover the keys to successfully crafting service offerings that combine the best of both products and services, making a compelling case for innovation in the way we deliver value to clients.

Original Question from Pascal
https://twitter.com/pascallaliberte/status/1724873520562237835

This is timely because he just launched his React To Hotwire Migration Service offering: https://twitter.com/pascallaliberte/status/1765489247694332083

Andy Croll - An Abundance of Work-Adjacent Hobbies

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 09:27:54 -0500

Andy Croll is a Rubyist, author, and speaker. He's the CTO of CoverageBook, creator of the First Ruby Friend mentoring program, organizer of Brighton Ruby, and this year is co-chair of RailsConf. In short, he's a bit busy. In our conversation, we dive into his work at CoverageBook, discuss the hiring, onboarding, and mentoring of early career devs, and talk Ruby conferences (and why you should go).

Relevant Links
Twitter
Website
Why go to a Ruby or Rails conference?
One Ruby Thing
First Ruby Friend
Brighton Ruby
RailsConf
CoverageBook

Ben Orenstein - The Developer-Turned-Founder

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 20 Feb 2024 14:58:01 -0500

In this episode we get the chance to interview Ben Orenstein: A person who probably doesn't need much of an introduction to our listeners. This episode should be special. Ben's journey from developer to entrepreneur exemplifies the path many in our audience aspire to tread. With a keen eye for opportunities and a deep understanding of the software industry's nuances, Ben's insights are invaluable for anyone looking to leverage their technical skills beyond the keyboard. Join us as we discuss strategies, challenges, and the mindset required to thrive in the competitive landscape of tech entrepreneurship.

Links:
Twitter
Tuple
Tuple Podcast
Personal site
Hackers Inc Podcast
"Predictable Mistakes of the Developer-Turned-Founder" - Laracon talk

Matt D. Smith - Sharing the Good News of the Lasso Tool

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 16:37:17 -0500

In this episode, we chat with Jess's friend and fellow Georgian, Matt D. Smith. While developers may not be too familiar, Matt is widely known and well respected in the interface design community. He ran an independent design studio for many years, eventually transitioning to building products and courses. Matt is currently focused on Shift Nudge, the premiere online learning experience for designing beautiful & functional interfaces.

Matt shares with us his story of moving from client work to products, and growing an online presence. The parallels to indie development are striking, with many takeaways for those trying to build an independent practice, or grow as content creators.

Relevant Links

Matt's Twitter
Matt's YouTube
Matt's Website
Shift Nudge
Use Contrast
Flowkit

Allan Branch - Captain of His Own Pirate Ship

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 23 Jan 2024 14:54:37 -0500

In this episode we catch up with an old friend, Allan Branch. Allan and his partner Steve were early adopters of rails and made a big splash in the tech community with their company LessEverything. They put on many conferences (LessConf), workshops, offered consulting services, created and sold a SaaS, displayed silly/witty marketing and shared a ton of what they've learned through social and open source projects, blogs and more.

Growing up in a family of entrepreneurs, Allan has taken concepts from his dad's car wash businesses (the "Jason Fried of car washes") applied them to software, and now is applying them to real estate, city development and breweries too.

You don't want to miss this one, there's so much to learn. There's lots of great stories and even better advice.

Links:
Allan on Twitter
Current tech company (they're looking to hire Elixir and Rails devs)
Allan's link tree

Jason Swett - Nothing About Service Objects

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 09 Jan 2024 09:52:24 -0500

Jason Swett is well-known in the Rails community for his podcast, Code with Jason, and his book, The Complete Guide to Rails Testing. Jason joins us to talk about his recent transition back into consulting after working for companies for the past few years. He shares about various projects he's been working on, building his personal brand, and his newest coaching service.

Jason is also hosting the 2nd iteration of Sin City Ruby at the Tropicana Las Vegas! Get your ticket and come meet Jason, Jeremy, Jess and a host of other Ruby friends!

Links:
Twitter
Website
Book
Sin City Ruby

Mentioned:
Friendly.rb talk
Million Dollar Consulting, Alan Weiss

Ayush Newatia Unplugged - Writing Code and Writing Prose

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 26 Dec 2023 10:42:22 -0500

In this episode, we dive into the multifaceted world of technology, creativity, and storytelling. We have the honor of hosting Ayush Newatia, a seasoned Ruby developer whose expertise extends beyond the intricacies of code. Ayush is not just a maestro in programming; he is an independent developer at radioactivetoy.tech, a creator of SaaS apps like Scattergun, on the Core Team of Bridgetown, podcaster at Just a Spec and he's also the accomplished author of the The Rails and Hotwire Codex.

Join us as we flip through the pages of his coding journey!

Relevant Links:
Website
Twitter
The Rails and Hotwire Codex (Book)

Scattergun (SaaS)
Bridgetown (Core member)

Just a Spec (Podcast)

Adrian Marin - Friendly Dev Building Avo

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 12 Dec 2023 13:43:35 -0500

Get ready for an insightful conversation as we sit down with the dynamic Adrian Marin, who has had an extraordinary year making waves in the Ruby world. From taking Avo, his custom Content Management System for Rails, to the next level, to the launching of Friendly.rb, a fresh and vibrant Ruby conference in the heart of Bucharest, Romania.

Adrian doesn't stop there; he's been on a whirlwind journey, embracing the global Ruby community by attending conferences far and wide. Join us as we delve into the intricacies of developing Avo, the inspiration behind launching Friendly.rb, and the invaluable experiences gained from being a prominent presence at ruby conferences around the globe. Oh, did we mention that he also started a podcast?

If you're curious about Avo, Friendly.rb, the Friendly Show or simply interested in the adventures of an entrepreneur who's had a monumental year, tune in and discover the vibrant world of Adrian Marin.

Relevant Links
Website
Twitter
Mastodon
Avo
Friendly.rb
Friendly Show

What to Look For in a New Client

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 11:34:13 -0500

Jess and Jeremy discuss an excellent question posed by Nate Vick: What are you looking for in a new client?

Whether you're looking for a new client, new target market for your product, or a new job, identifying the people you will be serving (or want to be serving) is a critical step to finding success and happiness in business.

Join us as we contemplate and examine Nate's question in our own businesses. Hopefully it will get you thinking about your own!

John Nunemaker - Rolling with Flipper

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 12:47:43 -0500

John Nunemaker is a long-time Rails developer known for his writing on the RailsTips blog, his open source gems like HTTParty and Flipper, and his work at Ordered List, GitHub, and now Box Out Sports and Fewer & Faster. He joins us to share about his developer journey, the origins of the Flipper gem, and the creation of Flipper Cloud.

Relevant Links
Website
Twitter
GitHub
Box Out Sports
Flipper Cloud
Fewer & Faster
Speaker Deck
RailsTips
Flipper
HTTParty

Bram Jetten - Building Spina & PlanGo

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 16:20:41 -0400

Bram Jetten joins us for a special episode, recorded on the second day of Rails World 2023. (BIG thanks to Buzz Sprout for sponsoring and making this happen!) Bram is a maker of many things, but his two main focuses are an open source project Spina CMS, and the SaaS business he helped found and build called PlanGo: software for driving schools.

Links:

https://bramjetten.dev/
Twitter

Projects:

Spina Pro (currently developing) A pro version of Spina CMS

Spina CMS An open source Rails CMS

Spina Shop An e-commerce plugin for Spina

PlanGo 🇳🇱 My SaaS-business targeted at driving schools

Mr. Hop 🇳🇱 Webshop selling specialty craft beers

Robodash A bg/cron-job monitoring tool

iPad app for my grandma with Alzheimer's I made a calendar app for my grandma

Greg Molnar - Security on Rails

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 14:16:26 -0400

Greg Molnar joins us for a special episode, recorded on the first day of Rails World 2023. Greg is an OSCP Certified Ethical Hacker and an independent Ruby developer. We talk about his consulting work, his Rails Tricks newsletter, his newsletter product Pombo Mailer, and his new book Secure code review for Rails Developers.

Relevant Links
Twitter
Website
Rails Tricks
Pombo Mailer
Secure code review for Rails Developers

Managing Yourself - Tips and advice for managing being indie longterm

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Wed, 04 Oct 2023 11:31:32 -0400

Jeremy just recently gave a talk at friendly.rb titled "Making it as an Indie Developer". Part of the talk was about managing yourself and we wanted to do a deeper dive into that topic. As an indie developer (or could be applied to other categories like business owners or founders) , how do you manage the business, your career, motivation, goals, health, pipeline, workflow, etc??

They don't have all the answers, but Jeremy and Jess bring their nearly 30 combined years of experience to share how they make it as indie developers.

Robby Russell - Maintaining Planet Argon

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 13:42:04 -0400

Robby Russell is founder and CEO of Planet Argon, one of the oldest Rails development agencies, now in it's 21st year. Robby shares how he got started in Rails and how he grew Planet Argon to the organization it is today.

Some listeners might remember him as "Robby on Rails" from the early Rails era; Robby is also the creator of the popular dev tool, Oh My Zsh. In addition to these, Robby hosts the Maintainable Software Podcast, where he speaks with seasoned practitioners and shares valuable insights into navigating legacy code and technical debt. His passion isn't limited to tech, though. He's also the guitarist for The Mighty Missoula, an instrumental art rock band from Portland, Oregon. From coding to music, Robby truly encompasses a diverse spectrum of interests.

Relevant Links

Adam McCrea - Scaling Up an Autoscaling SaaS

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 05 Sep 2023 16:00:48 -0400

In this episode, Adam McCrea joins us to talk about building and growing Judoscale (previously, Rails Autoscale) an autoscaler originally released in the Heroku Marketplace, and now available for Render, with other platforms to come. Adam shares about building a product on the side, launching on the Heroku platform, the process of a rebrand, and making the transition to full-time indie business owner.

Adam McCrea:
Twitter

Judoscale:
Website

Mentioned in the episode:

Heroku
Render
Fly.io
Nate Berkopec
TinySeed

Matt Gordon - Going from Consulting to Products

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 22 Aug 2023 10:06:46 -0400

In 2007, young aspiring software engineers Matt & Jason set out to build the perfect startup: a SaaS product. They did everything right. They had plenty of runway, moved in with Jason’s mom and eat, slept and breathed their startup. It had all the right features. It didn’t work. But they knew they could build good software and set out to start consulting. Fast forward several years later and they’re a growing team of friends building products. How’d they do it? Listen in to find out!

Matt Gordon:
Twitter
LinkedIn

Expected Behavior:
Website
Twitter

Products:
DocRaptor
Burndown

Mentioned in the episode:

First DocRaptor site on archive.org
Words with Friends

Nadia Odunayo - Building The StoryGraph

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 13:33:46 -0400

Get ready for an electrifying episode that will leave you in awe of the incredible Nadia Odunayo! 🎉 Join us as we unravel the remarkable journey behind The StoryGraph's meteoric rise to one million users as a one-woman dev. This conversation is full of inspiration, motivation, and pure fun and a goldmine for aspiring entrepreneurs and tech enthusiasts.

Nadia Odunayo

Website

Twitter
Mastodon

The StoryGraph

Rob Frelow (Co-founder)

Mentioned
Getting to One Million Users as a One-Woman Dev (RailsSaas)

The Case Of The Vanished Variable - A Ruby Mystery Story (RubyConf Mini)

Khash Sajadi - The Journey to the Cloud(66)

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 25 Jul 2023 13:03:19 -0400

Join us as we listen in to Khash as he shares his story of startup failures & successes, consulting and employment in between and navigating political, economic and geographical constraints.

Khash Sajadi - Founder & CEO
www.cloud66.com

** 3 Months Free Coupon for New Users **
Cloud66 has offered IndieRails listeners a special offering. The coupon is for new users only and includes 3 months for free on the developer plan.

Coupon name: IndieRails

Blue Ridge Ruby Recap - What It Takes To Start a Conference

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 11 Jul 2023 09:17:08 -0400

In this episode Jess walks Jeremy through a retro of Blue Ridge Ruby, a first ever ruby conference put on by a first time ever promotor. Jeremy gets personal as he breaks down the business of putting on a conference.

Listen in to see what it takes, how much it costs, was it worth it and will there be an 2nd edition???

https://twitter.com/blueridgeruby
https://ruby.social/@blueridgeruby

Michael Buckbee - Balancing Marketing & Development While Building Wafris

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 27 Jun 2023 09:30:00 -0400

In this episode, we dive deep into the world of web application security, marketing, building a company and the delicate art of balancing it all. Our special guest is the remarkable Michael Buckbee, co-founder of Wafris, a new open source web application firewall that helps developers secure their web applications. But Michael isn't just an expert in cybersecurity; he also brings a unique perspective to the table with his extensive background in marketing...something all indie developers and bootstrappers need to tap into. Join us as we explore the journey of Mike and Wafris!

Links:

https://wafris.org/

https://twitter.com/mbuckbee
https://expeditedsecurity.com/

https://elements.heroku.com/addons/expeditedssl

https://elements.heroku.com/addons/expeditedwaf

https://elements.heroku.com/addons/ipinvestigator

https://elements.heroku.com/addons/expeditedcdn

Mentioned:
https://justinjackson.ca/

https://github.com/sidekiq/sidekiq
https://www.foragoodstrftime.com/

https://app.harmonizely.com/expedited/wafris
https://businessofsoftware.org/talk/how-to-negotiate-the-long-slow-saas-ramp-of-death/
Deploy Empathy

Small Bets, Big Impact: An Adventure with Jeremy & Jess

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 13 Jun 2023 11:46:31 -0400

Jeremy & Jess were in cohort 23 of Daniel Vassallo's course, A Portfolio of Small Bets. After a few weeks of letting it all sink in, they share some of the things they learned, key take-aways, and more.

Ernesto Tagwerker - Building an agency & productized services

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Fri, 02 Jun 2023 09:41:30 -0400

In this episode, Ernesto shares his journey from freelancing to building an agency, managing a remote and international team, creating productized services, and technical sales and marketing.

Find Ernesto

More about OmbuLabs

Mentioned in the Pod

Pascal Laliberté - 6 things to avoid as a freelancer

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 16 May 2023 09:09:51 -0400

Pascal on Twitter | Mastodon | Website (https://pascallaliberte.me)

Some of Pascal's work...
https://modestjs.works <= online book about principles for a more modest JavaScript culture
https://sharpen.page/ten <= learn about buyer psychology over 10 weeks
https://pascal.works <= where to find links of my stuff online

Books mentioned:
The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield
Principle-Centered Leadership by Stephen Covey
What Color is Your Parachute by Dick Bolles

(On Jobs-To-Be-Done theory)
Competing Against Luck by Clayton Christensen
Demand-Side Sales 101 by Bob Moesta

Chris Oliver - The story of GoRails: pivots, near failures, and random surprises

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 02 May 2023 13:54:55 -0400

In this episode, Chris shares a wealth of knowledge about creating businesses. He talks about how GoRails got started, almost failed, and was then jolted back to life. From his early childhood of building and selling with his parents, to branching out and expanding his portfolio of products from a solo operation to one with multiple hires, Chris' journey provides plenty of opportunities to learn by example. Whether you're starting your own business or looking to expand an existing one, Chris' story offers valuable lessons that can help you achieve your entrepreneurial goals.

Chris on Twitter

Businesses/Products:
GoRails.com
JumpstartRails.com
Hatchbox.io
RailsBytes.com
More can be found on excid3.com and remoteruby.com

Mentioned Links:

How Derek Sivers Uses Ruby And His Programming Philosophy

Keryx

Paul Graham default dead or default alive

Moncef Belyamani of Ruby on Mac

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 18 Apr 2023 09:18:11 -0400

Moncef's story is sure to be an inspiration to anyone looking to start their own business. In this episode, he shares his journey from Morocco to UVA, AOL, and several other interesting experiences, ultimately leading to the creation of his own company: Ruby on Mac. Join us as we learn about the mistakes he made along the way and how he gained the training and confidence to leave the security of his full-time job and start a business!

Ruby on Mac

Moncef's Twitter
Moncef's Personal Site
30x500 Academy

Code for America

18F

The fastest and easiest way to install Ruby on a Mac in 2023
How to fix "command not found" after installing gems
Which Shell Am I Using? How Can I Switch?
How to customize Git preferences, macOS preferences, and GitHub repos in Ruby on Mac Ultimate

Dave Paola

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 04 Apr 2023 13:45:32 -0400

In this episode Dave Paola shares with us the behind-the-scenes of starting a software consultancy. We especially get into hiring and in onboarding junior developers. Dave talks about his new program The Agency of Learning, async vs sync, spikes, first drafts, PRs and so much more!

Dave's Twitter
Dave's Personal Site

Sierra Rails

Sierra Rails Junior Developer Program

Exposing your Ignorance (Sierra Rails podcast)
Hiring Junior Devs Bootcamp

Junior Developer Hiring Rubric

The Agency of Learning

EngineerKit

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Firing Well

Getting Started As An Indie Rails Dev, Diversifying Income & Outsourcing

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 21 Mar 2023 09:00:00 -0400

0:20 - Questions from Eli If you were to start over with no skills or experience... - https://twitter.com/mojojoflow/status/1625233132763881494
0:35 - If I'd known then what I know now - Jess' start
2:20 - 20 years ago Jeremy - Jeremy's start
3:10 - Ruby's sharing culture
3:45 - Working on teams
4:05 - Benefit of Working at an agency
5:00 - Building a network early on
5:45 - Indie and working with others
6:17 - Working on things on the site
8:30 - Cattle not pets, diversifying income
9:30 - Felix Dennis - Getting too focused on a single craft, idealism
13:15 - Small Bets - diversifying income streams
14:17 - Service vs Products
17:20 - Taking more risks with extra margin
23:00 - Outsourcing

Colin Keeley - How/Why to buy or sell a business

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Tue, 07 Mar 2023 07:51:44 -0500

In this episode we go full send on the business side of IndieRails and explore with Colin how buying/selling a small SAAS works (as small as a couple of hundred MRR to 5m ARR) and the differences in building a company and buying.

Colin shares his knowledge and experience in going from many startup attempts to now buying multiple established software companies through his holding company Verne.

Colin Keeley on Twitter

IndiePE.com (courses)

ColinKeeley.com (writing)

Verne (holding company)

Scout, Ottomatik and Blinksale

5:40 - Seller Financing

8:40 - Selling a business

9:02 - Why buy vs build?

11:15 - Are you a starter or a scaler?

12:30 - Getting experience running a saas as a developer

13:34 - Buying/Selling example breakdown

15:00 - ROI on buying a business (double your money slide)

15:50 - Brokers and Marketplaces acquire.com

16:05 - How to make your company attractive to PE

17:25 - How much cash would you need to buy a business?

18:23 - SBA Loans

18:45 - How to raise money?

19:40 - Constellation Software

20:55 - Partial / Minority Equity

21:30 - Due diligence

21:54 - How do you find a partner?

22:40 - Andrew Wilkinson & Chris Sparling

23:50 - Due diligence on the deal side (course & community)

24:30 - Working in an industry that you know. “All software tastes like chicken.”

25:30 - Game plan after acquisition

27:55 - Customer trust: in brand or person/founder?

30:10 - Marketing and Using Twitter

31:00 - https://typefully.com/ (writing threads)

31:45 - Promotional channels

32:45 - What should you be building right now?

Joe Masilotti

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Mon, 20 Feb 2023 14:28:45 -0500

Joe Masilotti shares his journey getting into coding, going independent, consulting in iOS and Rails, building in public, and starting RailsDevs.

Links

Why Indie? Why Rails?

Jess Brown & Jeremy Smith — Mon, 06 Feb 2023 15:45:10 -0500

Your hosts:
Jeremy Smith

Jess Brown

The One Person Framework
A toolkit so powerful that it allows a single individual to create modern applications upon which they might build a competitive business. The way it used to be.