Ardan Labs Podcast

Piyush Verma is the Founder CTO of the company Last9. Last9 is a site reliability Engineering platform (SRE)  which constructs tools to promote the reliability of products and services deployed by platform engineering teams. In this episode, Piyush takes us through his journey from discovering computers through his interest in art to becoming an entrepreneur in technology. 

00:00 Introduction 

15:44  First Memory of a Computer

23:22 Choosing a Major 

27:40 Entering College 

34:04 Discovering Networking

43:28 Thoughts Graduating College

53:39 Achieving Life Balance

59:18 Solving Problems 

1:05:15 Education Technology 

1:13:53 After the First Business

1:19:00 Starting Last9

1:27:32 The Moment of Maybe

1:31:04 Contact Info

Connect with Piyush: 

Email:  [email protected] 

Mentioned in today’s episode:

Last9: https://last9.io/

Hashicorp: https://www.hashicorp.com/

Want more from Ardan Labs? You can learn Go, Kubernetes, Docker & more through our video training, live events, or through our blog!

Online Courses : https://ardanlabs.com/education/ 

Live Events : https://www.ardanlabs.com/live-training-events/ 

Blog : https://www.ardanlabs.com/blog 

Github : https://github.com/ardanlabs

Matthew Sanabria is a Software Engineer at Hashicorp who works on the Terraform Enterprise product. He also mentors others and writes Golang on a daily basis. In this episode, Matthew gives valuable information on “doing the work” to achieve success through his journey from being interested in being a mechanic to becoming an established Software Engineer.  

00:00 Introduction 

03:36 What is Matthew Doing Today?

12:05 Have you tried Cuelang?

15:45 First Memory of a computer

23:17 Graduating High school

32:55 Skillset Graduating College

46:30 Working in New York

1:00:00 Moving to Software Engineering

1:07:40 Current Endeavors

1:25:35 Contact Info

Connect with Matthew: 

Website: https://twitter.com/sudomateo

Mentioned in today’s episode:

Terraform: https://www.terraform.io

Cuelang: https://cuelang.org

Hashicorp: https://www.hashicorp.com/

Want more from Ardan Labs? You can learn Go, Kubernetes, Docker & more through our video training, live events, or through our blog!

Online Courses: https://ardanlabs.com/education/ 

Live Events: https://www.ardanlabs.com/live-training-events/ 

Blog: https://www.ardanlabs.com/blog 

Github: https://github.com/ardanlabs 

Thorsten Ball is a Staff Engineer at Sourcegraph and also the author of two self-published books. He currently focuses on assisting development teams within the company and correcting scaling issues for large clients. In this episode, he takes us through his journey from growing up in small town Germany to starting a band in Berlin and finally ending up as a Staff Engineer. 

00:00 Introduction 

05:30 Journey Begins 

07:30 First memory of a computer

13:00 Technology in the family 

19:00 Interests growing up 

21:30 Thoughts after high school 

25:40 Living in Australia

36:50 Getting into programming as a career

43:20 Leaving UPS

59:00 Moving closer to home 

1:07:25 Finding Sourcegraph

1:09:30 Discovering Golang

1:20:10 Current tasks at Sourcegraph

1:30:45 Contact Information 

Connect with Thorsten: 

Website: https://thorstenball.com

Mentioned in today’s episode:

Sourcegraph: https://sourcegraph.com/search

Golang: https://go.dev 

Want more from Ardan Labs? You can learn Go, Kubernetes, Docker & more through our video training, live events, or through our blog!

Online Courses: https://ardanlabs.com/education/ 

Live Events: https://www.ardanlabs.com/live-training-events/ 

Blog: https://www.ardanlabs.com/blog 

Github: https://github.com/ardanlabs 

Damian Gryski is a Principal Software Developer at Fastly who was highly advanced throughout his academic career and always had an interest in math. He works on TinyGo support for Fastly’s computed edge product and has been working with Golang for 10+ years. In this episode he takes us on a journey through his path to becoming an accomplished Software Engineer. 

00:00 Introduction 

09:30 Creating the timeline

14:25 What type of programs were you writing?

19:20 Did you struggle with math? 

23:00 Being advanced in high school

24:40 What were your parents like? 

26:15 Interest in juggling

30:40 Thoughts heading into university

34:00 Was university difficult?

37:44 Graduating university and internships

42:00 Post Graduate Jobs

48:50 What was exciting about writing Perl? 

55:30 Getting into Golang

1:02:50 Moving on from Booking.com

1:09:50 Discussing Wasm

1:20:20 Contact info

Connect with Damian: 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/dgryski

Mentioned in today’s episode:

Fastly: https://www.fastly.com

Booking: https://www.booking.com/

Perl: https://www.perl.org/

Want more from Ardan Labs? You can learn Go, Kubernetes, Docker & more through our video training, live events, or through our blog!

Online Courses: https://ardanlabs.com/education/ 

Live Events: https://www.ardanlabs.com/live-training-events/ 

Blog: https://www.ardanlabs.com/blog 

Github: https://github.com/ardanlabs 

 Rich Burroughs is a Staff Developer Advocate at Loft Labs who interacts with the community and works with Kubernetes. In this episode he takes us through his journey from growing up with ADHD and being involved in improv comedy, to having a successful career in technology. 

00:00 Introduction

08:00  What is Rich doing today

17:25 First memory of a computer

22:10 Interests in high school 

29:40 Thoughts for after high school

33:20 First semester of college

37:32 Graduating college

41:28 Being involved in improv and theater

48:00 After improv

51:48 Getting into Tech 

55:25 Finding a job in Tech Support Networking

1:04:55 How technology evolved

1:18:00 Measuring success and daily roles

1:27:00 Planning daily tasks

 1:33:30 Contact info

Connect with Rich: 

Twitter: richburroughs

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richburroughs/

Mentioned in today’s episode:

Devspace: https://www.devspace.sh/

Loft Labs: https://loft.sh/

Want more from Ardan Labs? You can learn Go, Kubernetes, Docker & more through our video training, live events, or through our blog!

Online Courses: https://ardanlabs.com/education/ 

Live Events: https://www.ardanlabs.com/live-training-events/ 

Blog: https://www.ardanlabs.com/blog 

Github: https://github.com/ardanlabs 

 Lee Trout is a Full Stack Engineer who works with start-ups, small businesses, and large companies specializing in DevOps / front and backend development. In this episode he takes us through his journey from being obsessed with firefighting and 3d design in highschool, to finally finding his place in his present day job. 

00:00 Introduction

05:50 What are you doing today? 

08:22 What is your favorite tooling for routine and structure?

10:01 What is your first memory of a computer? 

18:40 Growing up with tech and mining

21:30 Interests going into high school

26:03 Being interested in Computer Animation/Graphics

30:49 Finding 3D Studio 

36:00 Obsession with the fire department

41:50 The plan after high school

46:20 Jobs after University

1:00:25 The first start-up 

1:07:20 Working at Mailchimp

1:12:38 Moving to North Carolina

1:19:00 Applying at HashiCorp

1:23:45 Getting to the present day

1:31:28 Contact Info

Connect with Lee: 

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: https://twitter.com/thecodewritesme

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leetrout/

Mentioned in today’s episode:

GitHub: https://github.com/features/issues

Linear.app:https://linear.app

Hookdeck: https://hookdeck.com

Want more from Ardan Labs? You can learn Go, Kubernetes, Docker & more through our video training, live events, or through our blog!

Online Courses: https://ardanlabs.com/education/ 

Live Events: https://www.ardanlabs.com/live-training-events/ 

Blog: https://www.ardanlabs.com/blog 

Github: https://github.com/ardanlabs 

Jeremy Saenz is a Senior Software Engineer at Synadia who works with maintaining an open source messaging platform called NATS. In this episode he takes us on his journey from music production and product management to becoming an accomplished engineer.

00:00  Introduction 

06:15  What is your first memory of a computer? 

08:50  High school interests

19:30  After High school decisions

23:00  Entering the workforce

27:10  Getting into game engine design

38:15  What was your first task at Kajabi?

42:00  How does Go end up on your radar?

47:00  Writing Martini

52:35  What is Product Management?

55:10  The velocity of change

1:03:58 Moving away from product

1:09:35 Deciding to work on NATS

1:17:30 Jeremy’s workshop topics

1:20:40 Contact Info

Connect with Jeremy: 

Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/thecodegangsta

Mentioned in today’s episode:

NATS: https://nats.io

Kajabi: https://kajabi.com

Synadia: https://synadia.com

Want more from Ardan Labs? You can learn Go, Kubernetes, Docker & more through our video training, live events, or through our blog!

Online Courses: https://ardanlabs.com/education/ 

Live Events: https://www.ardanlabs.com/live-training-events/ 

Blog: https://www.ardanlabs.com/blog 

Github: https://github.com/ardanlabs 

 John Doak is a Principal Engineer at Microsoft and also the author of the book “Go for DevOps”. In this episode he takes us through his journey from martial arts and cinematography in high school and college to becoming a published author and master at networking.

00:00 Introduction 

03:08 What is John Doing today 

05:37 Writing “Go for DevOps”

14:00 Graduating high school

16:15 First memory of a computer 

23:00 High school interests 

28:40 Post high school thoughts

32:50 Triple majoring in college 

36:00 Battling migraines through university / odd jobs 

46:13 Moving to San Francisco

51:08 What happens after 5 years

57:52 Looking into Google 

1:04:10 How long were you at Google?

1:06:40 Networking Skills 

1:13:04 What do you think about Tailscale?

1:14:21 Leaving Google

1:20:10 Would you write another book? 

1:23:29 Current interests in Tech? 

1:28:40 Contact Info

Connect with John: 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/johnsiilver?lang=en

Email: [email protected]

Github: https://github.com/johnsiilver

Mentioned in today’s episode:

Tailscale: https://github.com/tailscale/tailscale

Find Johns Book Here: https://www.amazon.com/Go-DevOps-language-Kubernetes-Terraform/dp/1801818894

Want more from Ardan Labs? You can learn Go, Kubernetes, Docker & more through our video training, live events, or through our blog!

Online Courses: https://ardanlabs.com/education/ 

Live Events: https://www.ardanlabs.com/live-training-events/ 

Blog: https://www.ardanlabs.com/blog 

Github: https://github.com/ardanlabs 

 Tracy Holmes is a Technical Community Advocate at Isovalent who takes us through her path to reaching her present position. In this episode we can watch her story develop from being involved in music and theater in high school to working for a prestigious technology company. 

00:00 Introduction 

05:40 What is Tracy doing today?

08:55 First memory of a computer 

14:00 Interests in high school

22:22 Growing up / raising kids

30:00 Struggles in college / anxiety

36:25 Switching Majors in college

42:25 Social responsibility with jobs

46:39 After college jobs

58:38 Working as a system admin

1:02:00 Anxiety and fixing things

1:16:00 Participating in meetups

1:22:20 Finding Isovalent

1:29:00 Future projects with technology

1:33:20 Thing happen for a reason

1:38:20 Contact info

Connect with Tracy: 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/tracypholmes

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracypholmes/

Github: https://github.com/tracypholmes

Mentioned in today’s episode:

Isovalent : https://isovalent.com

HashiCorp: https://www.hashicorp.com

Want more from Ardan Labs? You can learn Go, Kubernetes, Docker & more through our video training, live events, or through our blog!

Online Courses: https://ardanlabs.com/education/ 

Live Events: https://www.ardanlabs.com/live-training-events/ 

Blog: https://www.ardanlabs.com/blog 

Github: https://github.com/ardanlabs 

Colby Fayock is currently a Senior Developer Experience Engineer at Cloudinary who teaches the tools of the web and Cloudinary implementation. Colby takes us on a journey through creating websites in highschool to using cloud technologies and landing a job at Cloudinary.

Connect with Colby:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/colbyfayock
Twitter: https://twitter.com/colbyfayock
Github: https://github.com/colbyfayock
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/colbyfayock/

Mentioned in today’s episode:
Cloudinary : gr-sea-gg-brand-home-base
React: https://reactjs.org
Element84: https://www.element84.com
Inktober : https://inktober.com

00:00 Introduction

01:20 What are you currently doing today?

05:35 What were you focused on in high school? 

10:01 Building websites and hobbies in high school

14:52 Finding a major at Penn-State 

19:31 Thoughts on graduate school 

21:37 Finding jobs after university

28:40 Technology for web development / Moving jobs

37:17 Realizing you’re underpaid and moving forward

40:30 Working at ThinkGeek

47:24 Getting ”the boot” / Front-end and back-end relationships

58:10 Exploring for new opportunities

1:02:38 Working at Element84

1:07:45 Using serverless technology

1:15:38 Landing at Cloudinary

1:19:50 What is your current role at Cloudinary?

1:21:36 How is your company measuring success?

1:27:56 Contact info

Want more from Ardan Labs? You can learn Go, Kubernetes, Docker & more through our video training, live events, or through our blog!

Online Courses: https://ardanlabs.com/education/
Live Events: https://www.ardanlabs.com/live-training-events/
Blog: https://www.ardanlabs.com/blog
Github: https://github.com/ardanlabs