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...
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 m...
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 Bluesk...
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 Un...
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!) Related Links Twitter Bluesky Website Hotwire Native for Rails Developers Pragmatic Bookshelf page Hotwire...
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 softw...
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 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 R...
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,...
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 ...
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 foru...
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...
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!
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 experience...
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 ...
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 weath...
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 X 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 exper...
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.
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.
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 Websit...
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 Shou...
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 comm...
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.
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 pro...
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 Rawh...
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 fr...
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 ...
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 str...
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 wor...
