Podcast Awesome

🎙️ The Beautiful Catastrophe: Lessons from Failing Forward with Dave Gandy

What if failure wasn’t the end — but the beginning of something awesome?

In this introspective and surprisingly funny episode of Podcast Awesome, host Matt Johnson sits down with Font Awesome founder Dave Gandy to get real about the stumbles, scrapes, and hard-earned wisdom that came from flunking out of MIT — twice. Yep, twice.

From crashing through academia to launching one of the most successful tech Kickstarters of all time, Dave opens up about the not-so-straight path to building something meaningful, and the strange truth that sometimes... believing the lie is part of what makes it real.

This one’s a goldmine for startup dreamers, believers in second (and third) chances, and anyone who’s failed their way into something better.

🔹 What We Cover in This Episode

• 🎓 Dave’s two-time flunk from MIT and what it taught him
• 🔄 How failure can be rebranded as feedback
• 🚀 Behind-the-scenes chaos (and hope!) of the Font Awesome 5 Kickstarter
• 🔮 The psychology of self-fulfilling prophecies
• 🤝 Finding the right co-founders and learning to trust again
• 🧠 Why doing hard things is the ultimate learning machine

⏱️ Timestamps

• 00:04:54 Failure is not final.
• 00:07:30 Embrace reality and grow.
• 00:10:06 Failure is an opportunity for growth.
• 00:18:56 Nothing is ever truly failure.
• 00:23:25 Find trustworthy partners for success.
• 00:27:05 Trust your teammates.
• 00:29:09 Try hard things and learn.

🎙️ Noteworthy Quotes from Dave Gandy on Failure, Reality, and Resilience

• "A startup is nothing more than believing a lie long enough that it becomes the truth."
• "Failure is really nothing more than reality attempting to introduce itself to us."
• "Most companies don’t ever recognize that this will almost certainly not be the last place you ever work. Climbing somebody else’s ladder is always a form of failure."
• "The only real failure is giving up, giving in… not making a conscious choice."
• "Nothing is ever failure if you’ve done it the right way — the way you think is right and healthy."
• "If we're only ever succeeding in life, that means we're never trying anything hard enough that truly challenges us."
• "Humility is one of the things we look for most in people we hire."
• "I can always come up with a reason why something is somebody else's fault. That’s why humility is such a key component."
• "Try hard things and find the right person to do them alongside."
• "There are two kinds of successful failures: choosing to stop because it’s wise, and choosing to go on because it’s wise. The only truly awful one is stopping without making the choice."

📎 Links & Resources

• Y Combinator
• MIT
• Make Some People Want: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Font Awesome's 2017 Kickstarter
• The Font Awesome theme song was composed by Ronnie Martin
• Audio mastering by Chris Enns at Lemon Productions

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🎙️ Why We Hire for Humility (Over Skill) — Building a People-First Culture at Font Awesome

In this episode of Podcast Awesome, Matt, Dave Gandy, and Travis Chase get real about what makes a company culture thrive — and it starts with hiring the right humans. Not “rock stars.” Not “ninjas.” Not “10x devs.” Just humble, collaborative people who love to learn and do great work.

Dave and Travis share how they took inspiration from 37signals’ books and blog, decided to ditch the ego-heavy hiring tropes, and chose instead to build a people-first culture at Font Awesome. That meant rethinking how they assess new team members — with a focus on character over clout.

This episode unpacks lessons they've learned, mistakes they avoided, and what it means to work with folks you'd actually want to build things (and grab tacos) with.

⏱️ Timestamps

• 00:13 – Creating a Unique Work Culture
• 02:26 – Exploring the Possibilities of Entrepreneurship
• 04:07 – How Basecamp Found Success Through Dignity
• 05:32 – Hiring Practices That Actually Work
• 07:06 – The Rock Star Myth and Its Fallout
• 08:26 – Work Product vs. Character Fit
• 12:05 – Hiring for Humility and Growth
• 14:19 – Trust-Building and Healthy Disagreements
• 15:53 – Humility: The Culture Code

🔗 Links & Resources

• 37signals
• Company Culture: Why We Hire for Humility (Over Skill)
• Theme song composed by Ronnie Martin
• Audio mastering by Chris Enns at Lemon Productions

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Highlights

🎯 Culture & Vision

💼 Hiring & Team Fit

🧠 Growth & Humility

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☕ From Junior High Principal to Pixels: Trevor “The Real Human Technical Support™ Guy” Chase Talks Career Pivots, Debugging Joy & Coffee Obsession

In this Podcast Awesome episode, host Matt Johnson chats with Trevor Chase, Font Awesome’s Real Human Technical Support™ Guy. Once a junior high assistant principal, Trevor made the leap from school hallways to tech tickets — and along the way, discovered a love for debugging... and roasting the perfect cup of Ethiopian coffee.

Trevor opens up about:

• How he transitioned from education into tech support
• The most common licensing and icon questions he fields daily
• Why learning new things is at the heart of his Font Awesome journey
• His grassroots coffee roasting business that started with a popcorn popper
• A once-in-a-lifetime Ethiopian coffee ceremony that sparked a lifelong obsession
• And what it means to reconnect with remote teammates at our beloved team Snuggles

This one’s got 🔧 troubleshooting tips, ☕ artisan-level coffee takes, and ❤️ all the warm fuzzies of working on a remote team that actually gets along.

⏱️ Timestamps

• 01:03 – Trevor's Career Shift from Education to Tech Support
• 03:39 – The Emotional Toll of Being an Assistant Principal
• 06:16 – Joining Font Awesome and Learning On-the-Go
• 06:19 – Most Common Tech Support and Licensing Questions
• 08:14 – Hands-On Learning and Font Awesome’s Education Culture
• 09:32 – Debugging and QA: The Joy of Finding Problems
• 10:53 – Trevor’s Coffee Roasting Journey (From Popcorn Popper to Pro Roaster)
• 13:33 – Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony: A Life-Changing Experience
• 17:10 – Remote Culture and the Importance of the Font Awesome “Snuggle”

🎙️ Highlights

🔗 Links & Credits

• 🔧 Font Awesome Support & Licensing
• 🎬 Mill City Roasters on YouTube
• 🎵 Theme song by Ronnie Martin
• 🎛️ Audio mastering by Chris Enns at Lemon Productions

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🧩 Shoelace & Web Components: Building Better UI with Cory LaViska

In this Nerd Show and Tell episode, we lace things up with Cory LaViska, creator of Shoelace — a modern component library that makes it stupid-easy to build snappy, accessible, mobile-first websites using CSS grids and Web Components.

Matt joins Travis Chase and Cory for a jam-packed convo on:

• How Shoelace + Font Awesome work together like peanut butter and SVGs 🍯
• Why Web Components are the future of design systems (and sanity)
• What it takes to stay sharp with modern web standards
• And, yes, why Travis still doesn’t have a Shoelace icon 😤

Cory also reveals his favorite culinary-themed icon, drops wisdom on open source generosity, and reminds us all why boring ol’ PHP was a gateway drug to building cool things on the web.

⏱️ Episode Timestamps

• 05:04 – Customizing CSS with Shoelace
• 08:10 – Reusable Components & Brand Consistency
• 11:50 – Why Web Components Make Dev Easier
• 17:06 – Tooling Made Better by Web Standards
• 25:46 – Embracing Modern Tech in UI/UX
• 30:17 – Building Free, High-Quality Software
• 31:25 – Power of Open Source Collaboration
• 36:04 – The Humble Beginnings: PHP and Web Dev

🧠 Highlights

🔗 Links & Credits

• Explore Shoelace
  🎵 Theme by Ronnie Martin
  🎛️ Audio mastering by Chris Enns at Lemon Productions

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🛸 Dungeons, Dragons, and the Oregon Trail… in Space?!

On this episode of Nerd Show and Tell, we beam up with Ed Emanuel, Senior Developer at Font Awesome, to chat about his lifelong nerdery, dev adventures, and a galactically nostalgic side project called Space Awesome — a text-based, icon-powered space game inspired by the Oregon Trail.

Ed shares how creating Space Awesome helped him learn Vue.js, how he mashed up 8-bit style game logic with Font Awesome’s space-themed icons, and why it’s a quick, secret-filled trip through the stars (no microtransactions, we promise).

We also talk 3D printing, Dungeons & Dragons, and the magic behind Icon Wizard, the tool Ed and fellow FA-er Mike Wilkerson built to help customize icons on the fly.

If you love dev rabbit holes, retro gaming, or rolling D20s, this ep's got your name on it.

⏱️ Episode Timestamps

• 02:27 – Working with Dave and Travis at Font Awesome
• 04:07 – Creating Custom Icons with Font Awesome Pro
• 06:34 – 3D Printing and D&D Miniatures
• 10:31 – Exploring Icon Themes and Ed’s Faves
• 12:11 – Launching the Space Awesome Game
• 14:02 – Text-Based Games and Blockbuster Nostalgia
• 16:20 – Ed’s Dungeons & Dragons Origin Story
• 19:21 – The Rise of D&D and Role-Playing Games
• 21:51 – What Makes a Great Dungeon Master?

🧠 Highlights

🔗 Links & Credits

• Play Space Awesome
• Check out Icon Wizard
  🎵 Theme by Ronnie Martin
  🎛️ Audio mastering by Chris Enns at Lemon Productions

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Highlights

Well, I think I can thank my brother in law for that one as well. When he started dating my sister, my older sister, they played DND and kind of introduced me and my other siblings to it. So I played Advanced Dungeons and Dragons back in the late eighty s a little bit. And then we didn't have any of the books. So we kind of homebrewed our own game for a while, just like everyone else. We kind of stepped away from it for a while and then, let's see, it's been five or six years ago actually.

It went well. We had lots of traffic the first couple of weeks. Not as much since then, but when I designed the game, I wanted to kind of respect people's time. It does not require a huge investment in your time. You can sit down and play it for five to ten minutes, and while there are a lot of secrets to discover and things that you probably won't encounter your first time through. There's no timers. There's no anything that requires that you come back and play it every day.

We have a 20 sided dice that belongs in there. We have some swords, axe, the wizards hats. We have a bunch of icons, the cloak, the skull, stuff like that. I think there's definitely a few icons we could add. Some more DnD themed things. Oh, we have a dragon icon already, but I think there's some other monsters that would be cool to add some kind of slime or gelatinous cube or a beholder, but I suppose we couldn't call it a beholder.
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💥 How Font Awesome’s Kickstarter Became a Record-Breaking Success

What happens when a tiny team with an awesome idea turns to crowdfunding? You get the most-backed tech Kickstarter of all time. In this episode of Podcast Awesome, Matt and the Font Awesome team take you behind the scenes of their  2017 Kickstarter campaign for Font Awesome 5.

Hear how a failed campaign turned into a historic win, how a bakery became the perfect metaphor for icon design, and how humor (plus a 12-hour filming session) helped their story resonate with backers worldwide. Oh, and how it caught the attention of Y Combinator, too.

🚀 In this episode, we explore:

• How humor and storytelling powered a viral Kickstarter video
• Lessons learned from a past campaign misfire (RIP Font Awesome Black Tie)
• Why we set a modest goal — and obliterated it
• Behind-the-scenes of choosing a video partner (Knox Avenue FTW)
• The unexpected doors Y Combinator opened up for Font Awesome

If you're a designer, founder, or just love a good origin story, this episode is packed with laughs, lessons, and bakery metaphors you won’t forget.

⏱️ Episode Timestamps

• 00:09 – Reflecting on the Success of Font Awesome's 2017 Kickstarter
• 02:14 – Was Y Combinator Worth It?
• 05:32 – Lessons Learned from the Crowdfunding Campaign
• 07:30 – Finding the Right Video Production Partner
• 09:03 – Why the Kickstarter Video Was a Huge Risk
• 13:10 – The 12-Hour Shoot That Made It Work
• 14:58 – The Campaign That Changed Everything

🔗 Links & Credits

 🎵 Theme by Ronnie Martin
🎛️ Audio mastering by Chris Enns at Lemon Productions

• Font Awesome 5 Kickstarter Video 
• How Font Awesome became the most funded software project on Kickstarter  — and what we can learn from it 

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HIGHLIGHTS 

We have no idea how this is going to hit. But we think this is hysterical. We thought it was funny, so we launched the video. We did a few things right with it. We did a lot of things right. And we still got an article out there somewhere about all of the we think are good ways to run a Kickstarter. And it's a few years old, but most of it's going to be evergreen with that. And we set a goal for ourselves for $30,000.

If Brian hasn't shared his nerd about baking, that would yeah, we should do that. The parallel we come up with [for the video] is a bakery. Because a bakery is we think of Font Awesome as this intersection of art and technology. We think of it as how do we make these Awesome assets. You get your icons. How do you make these real? How do you get these where they need to be in the way people want to use them so that everything can be better? 

As a company, we like humor. This is actually a core piece of who the company has become. Is that we value this so much, and so we're like, okay, so humor seems a clear way that we can try to make this more interesting. But also, what if we have nothing overtly digital in this? What if we tell this in the real world? What if we tell the story of Font Awesome 5, what we want to build? What if we tell this story in the real world? And so what's the biggest parallel, right?
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🛡️ Sword Fights, Security & Memes: Meet Alex “Yellow Dart” Poiry

In this wonderfully offbeat episode of Nerd Show and Tell,  Matt chats with Alex Poiry, Head of Security at Font Awesome. But don't let the job title fool you — this isn’t just firewalls and protocols.

Alex dives into how a background in history and German led him to a career in tech, how a classic Homestar Runner video gave him the nickname “Yellow Dart,” and how swinging a longsword in VR gave him tennis elbow.

Yep. It's that kind of episode.

🧠 In this episode, we explore:

• The role of a Head of Security at a globally used icon toolkit
• How analog circuit metaphors help explain digital concepts
• Why early 2000s memes still live rent-free in Alex’s brain
• Nerdy passions: from Klingon to Tolkien to longsword combat in virtual reality
• How storytelling shapes tech, marketing, and public trust

If you love cybersecurity, weird tech journeys, or just want to hear a security lead talk about Klingon, this one’s for you.

⏱️ Episode Timestamps

• 00:08 – Meet Alex Poiry: Font Awesome’s Head of Security
• 03:44 – From liberal arts to lock-downs: how Alex got into tech
• 07:56 – What “security” actually means at Font Awesome
• 12:30 – Data privacy, metaphors, and teaching tech
• 18:42 – Klingon, Lord of the Rings, and meme nostalgia
• 23:26 – Geek Squad war stories & unexpected repairs
• 27:25 – HEMA swordplay and VR: a nerdery crossover
• 33:22 – How storytelling influences PR, security, and connection

🔗 Links & Credits

• Font Awesome Security Info
• Homestar Runner – Yellow Dart
   🎵 Theme by Ronnie Martin
  🎶 Music segues by Zach Malm
  🎛️ Audio mastering by Chris Enns at Lemon Productions

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HIGHLIGHTS

"At what point in time when you get to a certain age, how do you tell if it's you getting old or if some things actually are worse? Because there's a definitive period in American cinema that's not as good as some of the other periods.  There's a fantastic storytelling section of American cinema that starts in the 1970s and kind of goes into the it goes into the then you start to hit that era of the blockbuster.

The MCU is great. It's fun, and it's nice to see all this expansive stuff. But I wonder, are we going to look down the line in, like, 30 or 40 years and we're going to be like, these movies were fantastic storytelling, or if it's just going to just kind of be, like, fluffy." 

"What is your form like when it comes to historic European martial arts? And then you could do like a super hot thing where you just put a character up in front of it and just like whack him with a sword and he breaks and falls down or he blocks and you can try that stuff. So then you can actually work on your form without getting sword elbow."
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NOTES

• Spintronics
• The Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger (original narration by Randall) 
• G.I. Joe PSAs 

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☕ Poo Storms, Pixels & Perfect Curves: Designing Font Awesome 6 with Jory Raphael

In this iconic episode of Podcast Awesome, Matt is joined by Font Awesome’s Senior Icon Designer Jory Raphael and Co-founder Travis Chase to explore what made Font Awesome 6 not just a major update — but a major upgrade.

From adopting Figma as a design tool to refining styles across the entire icon set, Jory shares how a more cohesive design system (and a few poop jokes) helped shape the boldest, nerdiest, most delightful version of Font Awesome yet.

🎨 In this episode, we cover:

• How Font Awesome 6 broke from v5 with smarter, more consistent icon design
• Jory’s favorite (and weirdest) icons from the new sets
• The journey from Freelance Icon Jealousy™️ to hiring Noah Jacobus
• Collaborating with the United Nations on meaningful icons for humanitarian work
• Why the “Poo Storm” icon exists… and what that says about Font Awesome’s design culture

If you're a designer, icon enthusiast, or curious nerd who loves the blend of polish and playfulness, this one’s a must-listen.

⏱️ Episode Timestamps

• 00:10 – Font Awesome 6: A new chapter in icon design
• 02:30 – Rebuilding icons with rules, rhythm, and range
• 04:01 – Designing with purpose across branding + UI
• 06:30 – How to keep icon design fun (and sharp)
• 13:39 – Meet Noah Jacobus: icon wizard, now full-time at FA
• 14:36 – Jory & Travis share their favorite weird and wonderful icons

🔗 Links & Credits

• Explore Font Awesome 6
• Why We Switched to Figma
• Font Awesome x UN OCHA: Humanitarian Icons
• Meet Noah Jacobus on Nerd Show and Tell
   🎵 Theme by Ronnie Martin
  🎶 Music by Zach Malm
  🎛️ Audio mastering by Chris Enns at Lemon Productions
• Font Awesome 6 Is Live! See the New Icons, Styles and Upgrade Without the Hassle
• 10 Reasons We Switched to Figma For Icon Design
• Font Awesome and OCHA Partner to Create Humanitarian Icons
• Nerd Show and Tell: Meet Noah Jacobus, Icon Designer Extraordinaire

Highlights
 
"..Noah Jacobus is one of those icon designers who his work just constantly has made me jealous. He posts things that I wish I had designed and his skill and detail and creativity I find amazing. We actually got him to work a little bit on some contract work for us a little while ago as kind of sneakily, get him excited working with us at Font. Awesome. He finally popped the question and he is here working with us. And I'm so excited because I'm excited because he's a better icon designer than I am. And so that means that our stuff is just going to get better, and it also means that I can focus on some other things as well at Font awesome."

"... Part of the core of Font Awesome is to have fun with things. It makes it so much more interesting to include an icon like the Poo storm icon. That was a joke. I was designing a set of weather icons and a cloud icon has some very similar curves to an icon of Poop. And I was designing a cloud icon and it had a little lightning bolt. And so I just took the Poop icon and added a lightning bolt and it's resonated with a lot more people than I thought it would."

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🧑‍💻 Reuniting Remote Teams with Heart, Humor, and Cookies: Inside Font Awesome’s Biannual Snuggle

In this wholesome (and slightly nerdy) episode of Podcast Awesome, host Matt Johnson is joined by Font Awesome co-founders and longtime team members — Dave Gandy, Travis Chase, Rob Madole, and Mike Wilkerson — to share the origin story and magic behind The Snuggle, Font Awesome’s biannual in-person team meetup.

Why does a fully remote company with async workflows and nerdy Slack threads still prioritize gathering face-to-face? Turns out, good software starts with great relationships — and a well-timed inside joke.

🧵 In this episode, we explore:

• How humor shaped the name “Snuggle” — and why the team leaned into it
• Real stories about what in-person time means for trust, collaboration, and morale
• How remote work challenges like isolation and “missing the water cooler” are countered with deliberate bonding
• What cookies, karaoke, and late-night debates reveal about team dynamics
• Why investing in remote-first culture isn’t just smart—it’s essential

If you’re building or working on a remote team, this one’s your cozy, cookie-filled blueprint for staying connected (no matter how async your GitHub repo is).

⏱️ Episode Timestamps

• 00:09 – The Snuggle: what it is and why it matters
• 02:31 – Rob Madole on remote work trade-offs
• 05:23 – Humor + connection: the glue for team culture
• 08:00 – Why in-person bonding is worth it
• 11:50 – Reuniting post-COVID
• 13:36 – Chocolate chip cookies and late-night hangouts
• 15:15 – Replacing the water cooler
• 16:52 – Remote vs. in-office productivity at Font Awesome

🔗 Links & Credits

🎯 Learn about Font Awesome’s culture
 🎵 Theme by Ronnie Martin
🎶 Music segues by Zach Malm
🎛️ Audio mastering by Chris Enns at Lemon Productions

Remote Work: How We Snuggle Our Way to a Healthy Company Culture

Meet the Font Awesome Team Through Our Nerd Show and Tell 

Highlights

“So clearly, the Snuggle is about as serious as its name, and yet the effect is that it helps build goodwill and trust among the Font Awesome team so we can work together better. While the remote work versus in office work debate will likely continue, Font Awesome has found a way to make the best of both worlds. And once you start working remote, you may never want to go back to the office again.”

“ So people come in on Sunday. So Sunday is a travel day, and then they fly back out on Friday. That's a travel day. So we've got four days in the middle there for the actual Snuggle. Two of the nights we have where we expect everybody to be there hanging out two of the nights, and we've got two nights that are in some ways, kind of like recovery nights.”

“We make up for a lot of the water cooler stuff that we miss. We make up for those shared experiences on a daily basis. We try to make up for that a lot of that here and compare it. I'm so excited that we got together, that we got to get together right now.”

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🎧 Exploring Sharp Icons, Retro Gaming & Design Rhythms with Noah Jacobus

In the inaugural episode of Nerd Show and Tell, Matt Johnson chats with Font Awesome icon designer Noah Jacobus about the creative crossover between music, icon design, and visual rhythm.

Noah shares how his background in music education unexpectedly shaped his approach to visual design, leading to his work designing the Font Awesome Sharp icon family — a bold reimagining of one of the web’s most iconic tools.

They dive into:

• The design philosophy behind the Sharp icon aesthetic
• How musical hierarchy and rhythm translate to scalable iconography
• The behind-the-scenes grind of crafting over 20,000 icons
• Noah’s obsession with retro handheld games (looking at you, Playdate 👾)
• Why design and game nostalgia often go hand-in-hand

Whether you're into SVG design, retro game consoles, or just love seeing how seemingly unrelated disciplines collide — this one’s for you.

⏱️ Episode Timestamps

• 00:08 – Designing the Font Awesome Sharp family
• 02:59 – Music meets visual arts
• 04:30 – Rhythm, hierarchy & design language
• 10:07 – Joining the Font Awesome team
• 12:32 – Sharp icon design challenges
• 16:56 – Handheld retro gaming love
• 19:47 – Pixel art, nostalgia, and iconography

🔗 Links & Credits

🎯 Add a Touch of Class with Font Awesome Sharp Icons
🎙️ Meet Noah Jacobus, Icon Designer Extraordinaire
🕹️ Playdate – retro-style handheld game
🎵 Theme by Ronnie Martin
🎶 Music segues by Zach Malm
🎸 Outro track “Man is He Mega - GLBML” by Geoffrey Burch
🎛️ Audio mastering by Chris Enns at Lemon Productions

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Highlights

"It can only do some specific things very well. And so there's some very creative solutions for how to make interesting games for that. That's the same kind of thing that interests me a lot about iconography in that way is that emphasis on working within constraints. And I think that's kind of what drew me to retro gaming and kind of the resurrection of it as well and kind of the preservation of it, too, is like a kind of focus on that, working with what they had and really making cool stuff."

"... The Playdate by Panic has been really cool to see in development and I was finally able to get one earlier this year. And kind of the emphasis that goes into especially when you're creating a new handheld like this. It's kind of inspired by the Game Boy and a lot of old things and kind of choosing which design constraints you want to embrace to kind of set it apart because the playdate is kind of a weird form factor and it has a black and white screen that doesn't have a backlight and it's got some very unique inputs on it. It has some of the stuff you might expect with buttons and stuff, but it also has an accelerometer in it and it has a crank on the side of it and other things like that that are really interesting of like these are some new innovative things. But there's still cool ways to foster creativity because it's not a little wonder handheld that can do everything."

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