IndieRails

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

• Planet Argon's Ruby on Rails consulting services
• Maintainable Software Podcast
• Robby on Rails (old Rails blog)
• @[email protected]
• @robbyrussell

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

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

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)

Website

Twitter
Mastodon

Instagram

TikTok

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

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

PivotalTracker

The Mom Test

YNAB

FIRE movement

Saron Yitbarek

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

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

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

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.

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

• Twitter
• Mastodon

More about OmbuLabs

• OmbuLabs
• FastRuby.io
• Upgrade JS
• Tune Report

Mentioned in the Pod

• Brennan Dunn Roadmapping
• Bureau of Digital
• Donut
• Know Your Team
• Nate Berkopec
• Kent Beck tweet
• ChatGPT
• GitHub Copilot

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