In this episode of Lessons from Production, I sit down with Mark Mishaev, Chief Architect at Checkmarx (shoutout for sponsoring this episode), to talk about what it really takes to make DevSecOps work. We dive into the ongoing challenge of balancing speed, security, and scale; and why getting that balance right is key to building software that can grow and evolve safely. 

From culture to tooling to team alignment, this conversation offers practical insights for anyone working to embed security without slowing down delivery. If you’re building modern software at any scale, this episode is packed with takeaways you’ll want to hear.

Want to be a guest on the show? I’m always looking to chat with builders, founders, and engineers working on interesting problems. Connect with me at [email protected], I’d love to hear your story.

Sanskar started his journey as an open source contributor in India, moved to London to work at Bloomberg, and recently quit his job to move to San Francisco and build his own AI startup, Amurex. In this episode, we talk about that journey; and what it takes to build an AI assistant that’s actually helpful, personal, and respectful of your space.

We also chat about how to make AI more transparent, how to deal with messy data, and how they keep up with the fast-changing AI world. If you're curious about where AI is headed and how thoughtful tools get built, give this one a listen.

Want to be a guest on the show? I’m always looking to chat with builders, founders, and engineers working on interesting problems. Connect with me at [email protected], I’d love to hear your story.

Google Sheets and Excel have been the default for decades. But why haven’t spreadsheets really evolved, even though millions rely on them every day? And what does it actually take to build a better one in 2025?

In this first episode of Lessons from Production, I speak to David Kircos, founder of Quadratic (shoutout for sponsoring this episode), a modern spreadsheet tool, about the real challenges behind rethinking such a deeply embedded product. From scaling real-time collaboration to choosing the right tech stack for accuracy and performance, we dig into the architecture, tradeoffs, and lessons learned along the way.

If you’re building web apps, thinking about performance, or just curious about what’s under the hood of tools we all take for granted, this episode is for you.

Want to be a guest on the show? I’m always looking to chat with builders, founders, and engineers working on interesting problems. Connect with me at [email protected], I’d love to hear your story.