The idea of having a software as a service product sound great, doesn't it?  Solve a problem with software. Have a nice looking landing page and website. Get paying customers.  Eventually have it make enough revenue so you can turn it into your primary source of income.  There's a lot of software talent out there. We could solve lots of problems. 
 But going from idea to product to first customer is non-trivial. 
 Especially as a side hustle. 
 This episode discusses some of the hurdles from idea to first customer.  Brandon Braner is building Released.sh. It's a cool idea, but it's not done yet.  Brandon and I talk about building side projects:finding a target audiencelimiting scope to something doable by one personbuilding a great looking landing pagefinding time to work on thingsprioritizing and planninglearning while buildingeven utilizing third party services to allow you to launch fasterand last, but not least, having funFull Transcript Special Guest: Brandon Braner. 
 Links:ReleasedTailwind CSS Tailwind UIFigmaHerokuGoogle App Engine

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I'm starting a SaaS project using Django, and there are tons of decisions right out of the gate. 
To help me navigate these decisions, I've brought on Cory Zue.   
Cory is the creator of SaaS Pegasus, and has tons of experience with Django. Some of the topics discussed:Building Django applicationsSaaS Pegasusplacecard.meWhat boilerplate projects areDjango cookiecutterCookiecutterWhich database to use, probably PostgreSQLAuthentication choises, probably AllauthDocker, Docker for development, Docker for deploymentDeployment targets / hosting services. Render, Heroku, Fly.io, for PaaS options.Front end frameworks. Bootstrap, Tailwind, DaisyUI, TailwindUIHTMX vs React vs straight Django templatesRocketsFont Awesomeand of course, SaaS Pegasus

Sponsored by Mailtrap.ioAn Email Delivery Platform that developers love. An email-sending solution with industry-best analytics, SMTP, and email API, SDKs for major programming languages, and 24/7 human support. Try for Free at MAILTRAP.IOSponsored by PyCharm ProUse code PYTEST for 20% off PyCharm Professional at jetbrains.com/pycharmNow with Full Line Code CompletionSee how easy it is to run pytest from PyCharm at pythontest.com/pycharmThe Complete pytest CourseFor the fastest way to learn pytest, go to courses.pythontest.comWhether your new to testing or pytest, or just want to maximize your efficiency and effectiveness when testing.

219: Building Django Apps & SaaS Pegasus - Cory Zue

Nicole is a software engineer and writer, and recently wrote about the trade-offs we make when deciding which tests to write and how much testing is enough. We talk about:Balancing schedule vs testingHow much testing is the right about of testingShould code coverage be measured and trackedGood refactoring can reduce code coverageIs it worth testing error conditions?Are rare error codes ok to just monitor?API drift and autospecMitigating riskDeciding what to test and what not to testFocus testing on key money-making features If there's a bug in this part of the code, how much business impact is there?Performance testing needs to approximately match real world workloadsCost of a service breaking vs the cost of creating, maintaining, and running testsKeeping test suites quick to minimize getting distracted
 Links:Too much of a good thing: the trade-off we make with tests Load testing is hard, and the tools are... not great. But why?Yet Another Rust Resource (YARR!)Goodhart's law - "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure"

Sponsored by Mailtrap.ioAn Email Delivery Platform that developers love. An email-sending solution with industry-best analytics, SMTP, and email API, SDKs for major programming languages, and 24/7 human support. Try for Free at MAILTRAP.IOSponsored by PyCharm ProUse code PYTEST for 20% off PyCharm Professional at jetbrains.com/pycharmNow with Full Line Code CompletionSee how easy it is to run pytest from PyCharm at pythontest.com/pycharmThe Complete pytest CourseFor the fastest way to learn pytest, go to courses.pythontest.comWhether your new to testing or pytest, or just want to maximize your efficiency and effectiveness when testing.

218: Balancing test coverage with test costs -  Nicole Tietz-Sokolskaya

If you've ever thought about starting a podcast or a SaaS project, you'll want to listen to this episode.
 
Justin is one of the people who motivated me to get started podcasting. 
He's also running a successful SaaS company, transistor.fm, which hosts this podcast. Topics:PodcastingBuilding new SaaS (software as a service) productsBalancing work, side hustle, and familyGreat places to snowboard in British ColumbiaBTW. This episode was recorded last summer before I switched to transistor.fm.
I'm now on Transistor for most of a year now, and I love it. Links from the show:Transistor.fm - excellent podcast hosting, Justin is a co-founderHow to start a podcast in 2024Podcasts from JustinBuild your SaaS - currentBuild & Launch - an older one, but greatMegaMaker - from 2021 / 2022

Sponsored by Mailtrap.ioAn Email Delivery Platform that developers love. An email-sending solution with industry-best analytics, SMTP, and email API, SDKs for major programming languages, and 24/7 human support. Try for Free at MAILTRAP.IOSponsored by PyCharm ProUse code PYTEST for 20% off PyCharm Professional at jetbrains.com/pycharmNow with Full Line Code CompletionSee how easy it is to run pytest from PyCharm at pythontest.com/pycharmThe Complete pytest CourseFor the fastest way to learn pytest, go to courses.pythontest.comWhether your new to testing or pytest, or just want to maximize your efficiency and effectiveness when testing.

217: Podcasting / SaaS / Work Life Balance - Justin Jackson

Charlie Marsh and team are using Rust to make Python tooling faster.Ruff can take the place of Flake8, isort, and Black, and so much more.uv can take the place of pip, pip-tools, and virtualenvAstral is Charlie's venture backed company, and what they have with `ruff` and `uv` is just the start.Since uv is the newest tool, there's quite a bit of the discussion diving into uv. Links:ruffAstraluv

Sponsored by PyCharm ProUse code PYTEST for 20% off PyCharm Professional at jetbrains.com/pycharmFirst 10 to sign up this month get a free month of AI AssistantSee how easy it is to run pytest from PyCharm at pythontest.com/pycharmThe Complete pytest CourseFor the fastest way to learn pytest, go to courses.pythontest.comWhether your new to testing or pytest, or just want to maximize your efficiency and effectiveness when testing.

216: ruff, uv, and Astral: Python tooling, much faster, with Rust

Software engineers that move into leadership roles have a struggle between learning leadership skills, maintaining technical skills, and learning new leadership and technical skills. 
Matt Makai went from individual contributor to developer relations to leadership in devrel. 
We discuss how to stay technical, as well as dive into some results of his studies in how companies use developer relationship channels.

Sponsored by PyCharm ProUse code PYTEST for 20% off PyCharm Professional at jetbrains.com/pycharmFirst 10 to sign up this month get a free month of AI AssistantSee how easy it is to run pytest from PyCharm at pythontest.com/pycharmThe Complete pytest CourseFor the fastest way to learn pytest, go to courses.pythontest.comWhether your new to testing or pytest, or just want to maximize your efficiency and effectiveness when testing.

SaaS Side Projects

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