Episoder
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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 ProductsGood Enough Socials:
Newsletter
Mastodon
Bluesky
Threads
XJames
Matthew
Barry -
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) -
Manglende episoder?
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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 clipRaise your standards video clip“Start from wherever you are and with whatever you’ve got.” - Jim RohnLiminal forum app -
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
LinkedInRelevant Links
The Empowered Programmer talk
Test Double
Breaking Change podcast
Fred Brooks
RubyKaigi
The One Person Framework -
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!
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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!
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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
TwitterButtondown
Website
Twitter
Changelog
Stack
Open SourceThird South Capital
Website
TwitterRelevant Links
Markdoc
babelmark
Curtailing the free plan
Work on what matters -
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 RubyRelevant Links
Test Double
Great Learning
Claude
Jeremy Howard
Torch.rb
Transformers.rb
Pandas
Jupyter -
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 WebsiteX
Job Boardly
Podia
Remote Ruby -
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:
XPersonal WebsiteSpeedShopThe 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 RailsSpeedshop 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. -
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.
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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.
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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
LinkedIn
Igor Alexandrov
CTO / Co-Founder
Website
LinkedIn
HackerNoon
Twitter
JetRockets
Website
Twitter
Relevant Links
Reinventing Organizations
Teal organisation -
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
TwitterWebsite (Consulting page)High Performance PostgreSQL for RailsNewsletterHow we made PG Fitter, Happier, More Productive at PGConf NYC 2021 (slides, blog post)More videosOther Shoutouts
RailsConf 2022 blog postMichael Hartl's RailsSpace bookWendy's spicy chicken, GOATedDavid 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 PeopleTobias Petry SQL For DevsCharity Majors "Accidental DBA" -
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
LinkedInHigher Pixels
Buzzsprout
Tick
StreamCare
Donor Tools -
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.
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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 VickHint
SelectiveSimpleCov
Mint
Huntress
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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 courseRelated Links
Agency of Learning
The Startup of You
The Mom Test -
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/1724873520562237835This is timely because he just launched his React To Hotwire Migration Service offering: https://twitter.com/pascallaliberte/status/1765489247694332083
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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 - Vis mere
