The Road to Laracon

Michael speaks with Stephen Rees-Carter, Friendly Hacker at Valorin Security

OneRepublic - I Lived
Ed Sheeran - I See Fire

The Road to Laracon

• Apple Music
• Spotify

Michael speaks with Austin Carpenter, Founder at mk1 Studio

Austin Carpenter is the founder of mk1 Studio, a Gold Coast-based development agency that builds Laravel applications for clients across Australia.

He has worked with Laravel for more than eight years and is currently leading the development of a fraud detection platform built on Laravel Cloud.

Austin has a particular interest in system architecture, multi-tenancy, the relationship between business logic and framework concerns, and the practical application of AI in production software.

Michael Bublé - Feeling Good
Frank Sinatra - My Way

The Road to Laracon

• Apple Music
• Spotify

Michael speaks with Rebecca Cole, Software Engineer at Westpac

Rebecca Cole is a Software Engineer at Westpac who came to technology from a background in teaching, learning design, and media.

Before moving into software engineering, she co-created Virtual Village at UQ, an online onboarding and mentoring platform that supported more than 50,000 students during COVID, and spent a decade leading CHYFM, where she trained hundreds of young broadcasters and led programs recognised at local, regional, and national levels.

Her experience in education continues to shape the way she approaches software engineering, with a focus on making complex ideas accessible, fostering curiosity, and creating experiences that help people learn with confidence.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Mercy Seat
Kings of Leon - Sex on Fire

The Road to Laracon

• Apple Music
• Spotify

Michael speaks with Mathias Hansen, CTO & Co-Founder at Geocodio

Mathias Hansen is a Danish-American developer with 25 years of experience across full-stack development, DevOps, and systems administration.

In 2014, he and his wife Michele bootstrapped Geocodio as a side project. Today, it processes more than 2 billion geocoding lookups each month, while still being run by a team small enough to fit around a kitchen table.

Mathias has spoken at php[world] and Laracon US, serves on the board of Laravel Denmark, and co-organises Laravel Live Denmark.

He lives in rural Denmark, building software for the US market from a shed in his backyard, where business hours have always been a flexible concept.

AC/DC - Highway to Hell
Gloryhammer - The Legend of the Astral Hammer

The Road to Laracon

• Apple Music
• Spotify

Michael speaks with Anaya Dodge, Junior Software Developer at Rio Tinto

Anaya Dodge is a Software Developer at Rio Tinto, where she currently builds automated testing solutions for a data engineering platform.

A late career changer who moved from working alongside developers to becoming one, Anaya is passionate about making technology more accessible and supporting others navigating their own path in to tech. She mentors aspiring developers, teaches Django to She Codes students, and speaks on community panels.

Anaya is currently learning PHP and Laravel while sharing her journey live with the developer community.

Doja Cat - Boss Bitch
UPSAHL - I LIKE IT!

The Road to Laracon

• Apple Music
• Spotify

Michael speaks with Sam Greenwood, Head of Engineering at LMG Asset Finance

Sam Greenwood is a technology leader with more than 15 years of experience across software engineering, architecture, and executive leadership, built on a foundation of PHP, TypeScript, and AWS.

For the past 12 years, he has led engineering teams in the telecommunications and fintech sectors, delivering scalable products in start-up, scale-up, and high-growth environments.

He is passionate about the people side of engineering, building teams where developers can grow, do great work, and enjoy the journey along the way.

Guru Josh Project - Infinity 2008
Metallica - Fuel

The Road to Laracon

• Apple Music
• Spotify

Michael speaks with Matt Stauffer, CEO at Tighten Co.

Matt Stauffer is the founder and CEO of Tighten, a web development consultancy specialising in Laravel.

He is the author of Laravel: Up & Running (O'Reilly), hosts podcasts covering Laravel, business, and pragmatic AI, and writes regularly at mattstauffer.com.

Matt speaks at conferences around the world on software development, leadership, and the Laravel ecosystem.

Rage Against the Machine - Bulls on Parade
Usher feat. Lil Jon & Ludacris - Yeah!

The Road to Laracon

• Apple Music
• Spotify

Michael speaks with Sam Levy, Software Gadabout at Determined Development

Sam Levy writes instructions directly to the CPU with a hammer and chisel.

His work is painstakingly handcrafted and currently limited to HLT and NOP.

Wesley Willis - Alanis Morissette
Violent Soho - Covered in Chrome

The Road to Laracon

• Apple Music
• Spotify

Michael speaks with Jai Kora, CTO at Syncio

Jai Kora is a Melbourne-based engineer and technology leader with more than a decade of experience building with Laravel and AWS.

He is currently CTO at Syncio, a multi-tenant Shopify inventory synchronisation platform serving more than 1,400 merchants. There, he works at a scale where queue design, webhook reliability, and infrastructure decisions have real-world consequences.

Jai is passionate about building systems that scale cleanly, helping teams deliver with clarity, and creating tools that reduce friction for developers. Outside of work, he enjoys riding motorcycles, tinkering with smart home technology, and exploring agentic AI workflows.

Eminem - Lose Yourself
Usher feat. Lil Jon & Ludacris - Yeah!

The Road to Laracon

• Apple Music
• Spotify

Michael speaks with Joel Clermont, Owner at No Compromises

Joel Clermont has been building software since discovering a love of computers as a kid and has worked professionally with PHP since the mid-1990s.

Along the way, he has shipped production applications across multiple languages and ecosystems, including Elixir, Erlang, .NET, and Elm. Those experiences have given him a perspective that occasionally challenges conventional Laravel wisdom, grounded in years of hands-on experience across multiple ecosystems.

Joel is known for his thoughtful, approachable style and enjoys engaging in spirited discussions about software development and engineering practices.

Melvins - Queen
The Offspring - Bad Habit

The Road to Laracon

• Apple Music
• Spotify