FounderQuest - podcast cover

FounderQuest

The Honeybadger Crewwww.founderquestpodcast.com
Developers building a software business on our own terms.

Episodes

Will AI replace developers?

Ben and Josh discuss the benefits and perils of using AI assistants for programming. Cursor Codeium Windsurf GitHub Copilot announcement Perplexity

Jan 03, 202549 minSeason 5Ep. 21

How to Sponsor a Conference

Ben, Josh, and John Nunemaker are back from RubyConf and take the opportunity to discuss how to sponsor a conference as a small software company. Protip: bring your furniture from home. https://wiki.c2.com/?ResultObjectPattern= https://www.chairigami.com https://twenty.com https://rubycentral.org/news/make-railsconf-happen/ Adam’s Judo Scale infomercial https://boxoutsports.com/graphics/multi-format/multi-format-gameday-90-s-series https://boxoutsports.com/graphics/tags/saved-by-the-bell...

Dec 06, 202449 minSeason 5Ep. 20

Why does Bluesky love Alf so much?

Ben and Josh go off-script for a fun and hopefully-not-too-long chat about their favorite Twitter-like social network, Bluesky. https://faineg.substack.com/p/how-i-accidentally-ruined-bluesky The hosts of WSUA9 call it skeeting on air AOC endorses “team skeets” Jake Tapper says “skeeted” live on CNN Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech by Mike Masnick Composable moderation How to set your domain as your handle Bluesky reaches 20M users https://go.bsky.app/HD2Ty2o htt...

Nov 22, 202443 minSeason 5Ep. 19

Selling Metrics Watch with JP Boily

Josh and Ben reconnect with their friend JP Boily to discuss building his startup Metrics Watch for just over 9 years before finding a new owner on Acquire.com. Bluesky startups & bootstrappers starter pack Join the Honeybadger/FounderQuest Discord server! https://metricswatch.com/ https://github.com/topfunky/gruff https://simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/The_Homer https://jumpstartrails.com https://microconf.com https://businessofsoftware.org https://rubyconferences.org...

Oct 25, 202448 minSeason 5Ep. 18

Acquiring Fireside with John Nunemaker

In this episode, John Nunemaker discusses his recent acquisition of Fireside.fm, a podcasting platform, sharing insights into the acquisition process, financing strategies, and team assembly. He details his preference for Rails apps, the importance of aligning incentives, and future plans for Very Good Software, including merging Flipper and potential future acquisitions. The conversation also covers experiences at Rails World, managing on-call responsibilities, and the shift towards platform-as-a-service solutions.

Oct 11, 202455 minSeason 5Ep. 17

Pricing

The FounderQuest crew dives into pricing strategies, sharing insights on Flipper's pricing overhaul, the benefits of fixed pricing, and the SaaS pricing fatigue. They discuss usage-based models, the importance of limits, and how to create pricing that benefits both the company and the customer. The episode also explores marketing through personal blogs and naming strategies.

Aug 30, 202449 minSeason 5Ep. 16

Shipping in Layers with Will and John

While Josh is on vacation, Ben chats with guests Will King and John Nunemaker about the process and perils of trying to ship reliably. https://www.wking.dev/logs/shipping-in-layers https://longform.asmartbear.com/slc/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_viable_product https://archive.ph/20130719182750/http://www.businessballs.com/treeswing.htm https://www.amazon.com/How-Fight-Hydra-Ambitions-Destined-ebook/dp/B07J57YF47...

Jul 19, 202436 minSeason 5Ep. 15

Dogfooding, Developers, and Discord!

Ben and Josh catch up after a few weeks of heads-down product work, and they have lots to talk about—including a new Discord server for FounderQuest listeners! Plus, hear Josh’s thesis on why it’s a huge problem if you’re not using your product to the max. Shape Up Seth Godin Blue Ridge Ruby Monitorama Join the Honeybadger Discord! https://discord.gg/aQaDVBedRf...

Jun 21, 202437 minSeason 5Ep. 14

Scaling Judoscale with Adam McCrea

Longtime friend of the pod Adam McCrea joins Josh and Ben to catch up and chat about his journey building Judoscale—an autoscaling service for Heroku, Render, and AWS! Blue Ridge Ruby Josh’s Blue Ridge Ruby recap Kyle Shold Printfection JudoScale SignWell Heroku Add-ons Router blog post: https://judoscale.com/blog/heroku-router-post-mortem...

Jun 07, 202437 minSeason 5Ep. 13

Writing and Content Marketing for Developers

John Nunemaker returns to FounderQuest to discuss his writing process—after the guys debate code linters and formatters, of course. It's important to start with the essentials. Links: Standardrb Josh’s 2013 Ruby Style Guide GitHub Copilot Copilot Chat for Neovim Seth Godin Amy Hoy My Life in Advertising by Claude Hopkins This book will teach you how to write better by Neville Medhora Carbon...

May 24, 202449 minSeason 5Ep. 12

RailsConf recap with John Nunemaker

Josh and Ben are joined by John Nunemaker to discuss their recent trip to Detroit for RailsConf, as well as the announcement from RubyCentral that 2025 will mark the final RailsConf (though not the last Rails conference!). Later in the episode, Josh and Ben reveal the outcome of their Honeybadger Insights launch goal and discuss the team's last dev cycle. John also shares an update on his work with Flipper! Links: Chartkick Frictionless Generators Flipper todo_or_die gem heya gem Userlist John N...

May 17, 202447 minSeason 5Ep. 11

Insights Into Our Marketing Playbook

This week, Josh and Ben dive deep into the marketing strategy for their new product, Insights, in response to a listener question. They talk about what groups they are targeting first, some of the planned marketing tactics for reaching each group, and how they are building awareness within the Honeybadger app without annoying existing users. Links: pg_cron Judoscale Traction Insights tour page Insights announcement blog post Meet the badgers FounderQuest Mastodon - @FounderQuest@honeybadger.soci...

Mar 15, 202436 minSeason 5Ep. 10

Holy Ship! Insights is Live!

This week Josh and Ben discuss shipping Insights, what's next for the product, and their strategies to get people to actually use it. Plus Ben shares the results from his latest performance science projects. Grab your safety glasses and headphones! Links: Lab Tech Yabeda Yabeda for Insights Vector Fluentd Evil Martians blog Scientist Meet the badgers FounderQuest Mastodon - @FounderQuest@honeybadger.social Twitter - @honeybadgerapp Honeybadger ClickHouse - hosted by DoubleCloud...

Mar 08, 202438 minSeason 5Ep. 9

An Exceptional Week At Honeybadger

This week Josh and Ben discuss shipping a Clickhouse migration and Honeybadger's new look. They also talk about Exceptional Creatures hitting number one on Hacker News and being featured at the top of Ruby Weekly. Plus, did Ben get interviewed by a rubber duck? Links: Exceptional Creatures Kamal Daily Lex Clickhouse Activerecord Scientist RealGeeks Meet the badgers FounderQuest Mastodon - @FounderQuest@honeybadger.social Twitter - @honeybadgerapp Honeybadger...

Feb 02, 202437 minSeason 5Ep. 8

Making UI Changes While Avoiding Pitchforks

Today Josh and Ben are talking about UI changes in order to lay the foundation to launch and integrate Insights into Honeybadger as well as steps they are taking to avoid some rollout mistakes they've made in the past. They also reveal how testers are liking Insights so far! Links: Derek Sivers Flipper Meet the badgers FounderQuest Mastodon - @FounderQuest@honeybadger.social Twitter - @honeybadgerapp Honeybadger...

Jan 26, 202431 minSeason 5Ep. 7

Our Big Hairy Audacious Goal

GOOAAALLL!!! This week Ben and Josh discuss how to get Honeybadger's growth back on track by setting a company-wide goal. They also talk about how to promote new features in your product without annoying your users and what Santa brought them for Christmas! Links: BHAG Meet the badgers FounderQuest Mastodon - @FounderQuest@honeybadger.social Twitter - @honeybadgerapp Honeybadger...

Jan 09, 202430 minSeason 5Ep. 6

Cutting (Almost) to the Bone

This week Josh and Ben discuss Honeybadger's recent revenue struggles, how they got to this point, and the steps they're taking to weather the storm. They also explain why 2024 could be the company's best year ever! Links: Steve Jobs - "Saying No" Meet the badgers FounderQuest Mastodon - @FounderQuest@honeybadger.social Twitter - @honeybadgerapp Honeybadger...

Dec 15, 202336 minSeason 5Ep. 5

’Tis The Season For Tangents!

Kevin joins Josh and Ben again this week as the trio discusses Honeybadger's hack week, processes for making bold UI/UX changes, what to do/not do if your customers hate said UI/UX changes, plus the latest trends in Crocs fashion! Links Crocs Joel on Software - Things you should never do DHH Business of Software Everyday Information Architecture Meet the badgers Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby ClickHouse - hosted by DoubleCloud FounderQuest Mastodon - @FounderQuest@honeybadger.social Twitter - @h...

Dec 08, 202336 minSeason 5Ep. 4

Moar badgers! Kevin Webster has entered the chat.

It's a trifecta of badgers this week as Honeybadger's own Kevin Webster takes us on a deep dive into the genesis of his baby/our new product, Insights. There is also a discussion around the challenges of dealing with burnout plus the Holy Hand Grenade! Links Meet the badgers ClickHouse - hosted by DoubleCloud FounderQuest Mastodon - @FounderQuest@honeybadger.social Twitter - @honeybadgerapp Honeybadger...

Dec 01, 202336 minSeason 5Ep. 3

Insights Into Insights and Viva Las Vegas!

This week Josh and Ben give further insights into Insights and discuss challenges around shoehorning a new product into an existing one. They also talk about marketing strategies, a Las Vegas trip, and disaster recovery! All this and more in this week's episode! Links Ahoy Heya ClickHouse - hosted by DoubleCloud Michele Hansen - "When done well, marketing and teaching are nearly indistinguishable from one another." FounderQuest Mastodon - @FounderQuest@honeybadger.social Twitter - @honeybadgerap...

Nov 17, 202331 minSeason 5Ep. 2

FounderQuest Has Returned! Episode 100!

The FounderQuest podcast returns after a long break with a discussion about Star's departure from Honey Badger, new team members, and updates on their business strategies. They delve into RailsConf experiences, status page improvements, and a major new feature called Insights, plus what's next for the podcast.

Nov 10, 202346 minSeason 5Ep. 1

Talking SaaS With Garrett Dimon

Show notes: Links: Garrett Dimon Minitest Heat Heat Map Reporter for Minitest Review Starting & Sustaining Sifter App Automated transcript (only about 70% accurate) Ben Welcome to FounderQuest, this has been Today, I'm interviewing Garrett Diamond Star and josh are taking the day off and I get a chat with Garrett, who's a longtime friend of mine and fantastic entrepreneur and all around great person in the world, so I'm excited to have you here. Gary, Thanks, Garrett thanks for having me. Be...

Oct 29, 202147 minSeason 4Ep. 9

Tales From The Good/Bad Old Days Of Freelance Gigs

Show notes: Links: Sweaty Startup Hook Relay Spider season Write for Honeybadger Automated transcript (only about 75% accurate) Ben So I've been, I've been using Hook Relay over the past week and I got to say, there's nothing as useful as using your own product to make you see places where the product can be improved. So I've, I've opened a couple of issues. Yeah, yeah. And uh, I mean, they're not, they're not major things, but it's like, oh, it would be nice if this was different, would be nice...

Oct 22, 202129 minSeason 4Ep. 8

Hook Relay Launched! Was it Fireworks or Crickets?

Show notes: Links: Hook Relay SSL Server Test Second brand marketing tips Twitter thread Xhtmlchop Hook Relay Twitter announcement Hook Relay blog announcement Derrick Reimer & Corey Haines Product Hunt launch Startup Director List Indie Hackers launch repeatedly Not very accurate auto-generated transcript: Ben - you know, last week I recorded a quick little message talking about why we weren't recording our podcast. That was in the middle of the let's encrypt ssl certificate fiasco that swe...

Oct 15, 202131 minSeason 4Ep. 7

The Internet Broke; Why There's No Episode This Week

Show notes: Links: Umm...here's a picture of a Honeybadger sleeping on our 404 page . He's definitely sleeping. Transcription: *Note, transcription is paraphrased with 1.3% accuracy Ben "Expired certificates, yada yada yada, internet broke...no episode. Bada-boom-bada-bing, have a good weekend."...

Oct 08, 202134 sec

Everyone Says It’s a Bad Idea; Should You Do It Anyway?

Show notes: Links: Felix Livni Schedulista Transcript: *This is an unedited, automated transcript, with only about 80% accuracy* Ben All right, so, uh welcome the founder quest today, you have me, Ben, because Star and josh are taking the day off and we have Felix of me who is with us or with me chatting about uh founder related stuff. It's just one of our uh, intermittent founder interview kind of episodes where we're just going to have a great chat, talk about some stuff, so welcome Felix. Tha...

Oct 01, 202138 minSeason 4Ep. 6

Our Outbound Sales Autopsy

Show notes: Links: Saasler Koombea Hook Relay Transcript: *note - this is an unedited, automatically generated, transcript with only about 80% accuracy* Ben So I say we we just had a new customer signed up just like minutes ago and said that the reason they signed up was our podcast. So awesome. Good stuff. Good stuff. So pro tip for you says operators out there, put a little box and your on boarding, asking people how they heard about you or whatever. It's very, very informative. Starr Yeah, it...

Sep 24, 202126 minSeason 4Ep. 5

There Ain't No Business Like No Business

Show notes: Links: Bold Badgers NFT Mantis scooter Ridwell Write for Honeybadger Transcript: *note - this is an unedited automatically generated transcript with about 80% accuracy* Josh: So we really are we doing this, uh, super quick. Do we need to like speed up our voices? Artificially Ben: The chipmonk episode. Starr: There you go. No, we should just, we should slow them down. So it'll um, we can just record a minute episode and then we'll take minutes to listen to it. Josh: Yeah, yeah. That'...

Sep 17, 202127 minSeason 4Ep. 4

Hook Relay Is Livin' That FULL Duplex Lyfe!

Show notes Links: Hey Dumpster Fire Goatse.cx Full transcript: *This is an unedited automated transcript which is only about 80% accurate* Starr Yeah, well, sad news. Um I did not see my printing press last weekend because I I came down with a cold, it wasn't it wasn't covid, so don't worry, it's okay. Um But we're waiting for the test to come back. So you know the difference between now and the before times is now when you get a cold life shuts down and you can't really do anything until your r...

Sep 10, 202120 minSeason 4Ep. 3

Our Ops Are Smooth Like A Jar Of Skippy

Show Notes: Links: Micromort Noblesse oblige Josh's dotfiles GitHub Code Spaces Full Transcript: Ben: Yeah. I've been holding out for the new MacBook Pros. The M1 is pretty tempting, but I want whatever comes next. I want the 16-inch new hotness that's apparently supposed to be launching in November, but I've been waiting for it so patiently for so long now. Josh: Will they have the M2? Ben: Yeah, either or that or M1X. People are kind of unsure what the odds are. Starr: Why do they do that? Why...

Sep 03, 202136 minSeason 4Ep. 2