FounderQuest

Special guest John Nunemaker is in the house...err...Zoom! He chats with The Founders about Flipper Cloud and strategies around its launch as well as tales from companies' past. They also discuss decisions around pricing a SaaS product and killer cardinality.

This week The Founders give an update on their new contractor system and how to nurture an "I don't care" work culture. Plus don't miss Beavis and Butthead memories, Heroku integration speed bumps, and chopping chonky trees!

This week The Founders talk about maintaining simple websites from the stone age, hiring contractors with Upwork, and Heya being 100% opensource. They also put Netlify on notice; if things don't improve, Badgerfy is becoming a reality!

This week The Founders talk GameStop stock, Elasticsearch clusters, Honeybadger's hedge position on the internet, and creating their own contractor pool to outsource small projects. Can you handle it? Listen and find out!

This week The Founders explain the difference between a ninja launch for bootstrappers vs. the more traditional stealth launch. They also reveal what programming languages they would learn if Honeybadger went away and they had to get real developer jobs! Plus, AWS vs. Elastic, who's right?

This week Josh, Ben, and Starr break tradition and go public with Honeybadger's product roadmap. They also reveal a foolproof plan to monetize locked Bitcoin wallets and predict the future of crypto, Bytecoin!

It's a new year and a new season of FounderQuest! Season 3 starts things off with the founders recapping Honeybadger's 2020 growth numbers and where they are hoping to go in 2021. They also review the performance of the blog after a year of commissioning articles from outside authors and its impact on sales.

This week the Founders talk about dealing with fears their company could disappear at any moment and what makes them confident that it will be around tomorrow and beyond. They also talk rollerblade chairs, Kung Fu Panda, wrapping up 2020, and the upcoming FounderQuest hiatus! Also, please vote!

This week The Founders talk about the latest redesign of Honeybadger's user account setup and lessons they've learned along the way (tenant ID FTW!) They also talk about the Hook Relay launch, celebrity endorsements, moving to Canada, and how building software relates to constructing buildings.

This week The Founders talk about new hiring paradigms, virtual conferences, and the stock market. Plus, does Roam dress your notes in the world's finest UX, only appreciated by the best and brightest, or is it really just a wiki strutting around with no clothes on?

This week The Founders reveal some of their favorite books they've read this summer and what they learned about utopias, U.S. history, and Murderbots! They also talk about living their lives up in smoke as the forest fires continue to rage along the West Coast.

It’s all in your mind! This week The Founders share apps and strategies they use to stay mindful and breathing while banging out code. Also, do they actually miss anything about working for "the man" before setting of on their own? Plus, what will the future of office snacks look like in a world without offices? Tune in and satisfy your hunger for FounderQuest!

This week The Founders talk SOC 2 and why you may not even need it in the first place. They also detail their quest for the perfect task management tool (spoiler alert, they're still looking) and share bonus tips on how to tell if your kayak has a leak!

This week The Founders talk about product positioning for Hook Relay and how launching new products has changed since releasing Honeybadger. They also discuss why Google would make a terrible airline, Microsoft Flight Simulator glitches, and flavors of bottled excellence.

This week the founders talk about their content marketing efforts. Starr explains her process for keeping the Honeybadger blog content flowing from writer recruitment, management tools, and the editing process. Josh talks about Exceptional Creatures and also risks getting sued into oblivion by reminiscing about freelancing for "The Mouse."

This week the founders talk about security, and what the process was like to have penetration testing done for Honeybadger. They also talk about why they don't offer bug bounties and Josh explains what a Whirly Board is.

This week the founders talk about their origin stories and what sparked their collective interests in computers. By the end of the episode you will also be able to match each founder to their corresponding early-childhood career dreams consisting of architect, journalist and pool hustler!

This week the founders talk about their experiences dealing with the wild world of EU privacy laws when operating in the US. Learn about the potential impact on the Schrems II ruling on their business moving forward. Plus, learn some proposed names for future Schrems rulings!

This week the founders talk about the pros and cons of having your app and website share the same domain. Can they coexist or can there be only ONE? Plus, find out who has that new product glow and don't miss grilling tips for veggies and garlic scapes! Other podcasts may go more in depth, but none match FounderQuest's breadth!

This week the founders recap their second quarterly meeting under Covid. They reveal how pricing changes have impacted business, share updates on Hook Relay, trademark renewals, and using ProfitWell Retain. Plus, don't call it a chargeback!

This week Josh and Ben talk webhooks and announce a new product from Honeybadger. Testers wanted! They also touch on managing contractors, fallout from the Hey vs. Apple saga, and decide that there's really no right or wrong way to pick up dog poop.

The Badgers break down DHH's spat with Apple and Ben correctly predicts how it ends (this episode was recorded June 19th). It's freaky! They also discuss Hey and if it's worth the hype and how Honeybadger's new pricing has impacted business.

This week the hosts debate how many hours per week it takes to bootstrap a company. Other topics include politics and podcasting, SOC 2 compliance, and whether to treat free accounts the same as paid accounts. Also, in light of current events, we are taking a brief hiatus after this episode.

This week the crew talks about decisions around Honeybadger's recent pricing changes as well as the new mild and spicy plans. The discussion gradually fades to black when the topic of dark patterns creeps in, sparking rants about purposely poor UX. Listen now, we're the gravy on your Friday!

Mike Perham of Sidekiq and Faktory fame joins us on FounderQuest this week. We talk about the origins of Sidekiq, COVID impacts, and having a plan for your business if you, the sole proprietor, kicks the bucket. Can you kick it? Yes you can!

Question everything this week!?!? Can you use proprietary drivers and truly be an opensource developer? Is Codespaces really just X Windows? Did Elon Musk secretly create DuckTails for propaganda purposes? Listen before Big Brother takes this down!

On this week's FounderQuest the hosts talk about upgrading API versions, using VS Code to edit markdown, and dead MacBooks. Plus, learn how to commit bank fraud by using spoofed phone numbers to perform literal man-in-the-middle attacks!

This week on FounderQuest the hosts talk about using a Prosperity Public License for Heya and how it allows a product to be both free and open-source while allowing the option to charge for certain users. Also, are you team Voltron, Thundercats, Gobots, or Transformers? It's time to choose a side!

This week Ben, Starr, and Josh break down Heya, their freshly shipped open source email campaign mailer for Rails developers. Learn how Heya works, how it can help with GDPR and Soc 2 compliance, and how it saves Honeybadger $$$ in Intercom and Segment costs. Plus, don't miss the hot thermometer takes!

In this episode, Josh, Starr and Ben talk candidly about some tough decisions they've had to make during Covid-19. They also talk about things Honeybadger is doing to help its customers, testing Zoom alternatives, the new world of dating, and why they're optimistic for the future.

This week on FounderQuest, it's a cutting room floor clips episode. Hear vintage, unreleased clips of episodes that you weren't supposed to hear. Discussions include: 90's software stores, Alan Turing, water heaters, buying top quality spyware dongles from China and even FounderQuest itself!

The world is burning, yet we find ourselves settling into our weird new daily routines. This week Josh, Starr, and Ben discuss the importance of company transparency during a crisis, Tiger King, and, political trigger warning, separating health coverage from employment. Bring your marshmallows, chocolate and crackers!

This week on PandemicQuest Josh, Starr and Ben share insider trading tips via the dark web, explain why aliens haven't attacked yet, and their thoughts around starting a SaaS company for hand sanitizer. The truth isn't out there, it's in here! Can you handle it?

Glove up, mask on, and tune in to this week’s FounderQuest! Starr, Ben and Josh talk hot investing tips now that our 401(k)s are gone, plans for the “Honey Bunker,” pivoting away from remote and back to co-located working, Animal Crossing, hoarding Mucinex, and the Corona vs. Pacifico beer debate is finally settled.

Ben, Josh and Starr are transmitting...err...broadcasting from deep within the COVID-19 epicenter on this week's FounderQuest. They talk about life in our brave new COVID-19 World, Tailwind CSS, and reminisce about the old freelancing days in the time of Big Mouth Billy Bass!

Join Ben, Starr, and Josh on this week's FounderQuest for a look at our dystopian future. Ben shares the most interesting questions he received while interviewing and the discussion results in the creation of an onboarding manual for time traveling job candidates. Also, Discover which host, like, bought a totally rad pager, like, this month. Beep Beep!

This week on FounderQuest, Josh, Starr, and Ben hypothesize how long Honeybadger could keep going if they went off the grid given the current pace of tech churn. They also discuss going all-in on COBOL and whether framework trends are actually any different than fashion trends. Get lost in this week's FounderQuest!

This week Josh, Ben, and Starr talk vintage console games and announce details about Honeybadger's upcoming RailsConf blow out. The episode then pinballs over to dismissing FU money, insights on hiring and more. Hold on to your headphones!

The honeybadgers have been busy this week! Ben, Josh and Starr each have work that shipped this week that they want to brag on. This episode strides over vast expanses, covering issues like compliance, open-source marketing and content marketing. It all builds up to a big reveal at the end, where we finally announce a new Honeybadger effort: the RailsConf Indie Lounge.

In this episode the Badgers talk about their predictions for the future of work. They also discuss some of the pros and cons to working remotely and how to prevent loneliness. Conveniently enough, Honeybadger is also hiring a JS developer. Learn the secrets of becoming a Honeybadger!

Ben and Starr have an informal fireside chat about recent tax changes and how to navigate them when running a SaaS company with nationwide sales. Learn about some of the surprising rules some states have around business classifications and why you might have to pay sales tax in one state but not another. Uncle Sam is crashing the internet party, listen and make sure you're prepared!

History is made this week as FounderQuest welcomes its first ever guest, Justin Jackson, co-founder of Transistor.fm! A debate ensues around whether it's better to build a product for a niche market or target the larger market as a whole. Also, the next time Jeff Bezos corners you with unsolicited advice for your bootstrapped startup, just ignore him. Listen to find out why.

This week Josh reveals his super secret project that he's been working on and it will...BLOW...YOU...AWAY!!! Just kidding, you and your surroundings are most likely safe but it's pretty darn cool! Want more? The Founders get contrarian and talk about why they sometimes go to the trouble of building tools instead of buying ones that are readily available. They also make a case for using separate apps rather than an all-in-one solution. Ancient viral video fans rejoice and get ready for some reminiscing about The Hamster Dance and The Badger Song.

In this episode Josh, Starr, and Ben talk about each of their results from taking the CliftonStrengths assessment and debate the validity of the results. They also discuss if having differing strengths and weaknesses has helped or hindered them working as a team.

The trio is morphing into a duo on this week's episode of FounderQuest, Fireside Chat edition. Ben and Josh talk about their 2020 resolutions, upping their serverless usage, side projects, and holiday plans. Ben also drops a major update from a previous episode.

This week Josh, Ben, and Starr look back at all of the things that Honeybadger shipped in the last 12 months. They also give Apple some free management advice and provide their thoughts on MicroConf's latest announcement. Lastly, will Honeybadger move away from error monitoring and bet its future on textbox applications? Tune in and find out!

This week on FounderQuest Josh, Starr, and Ben talk about the quandary of not knowing how to build something until after you’ve already built it. Therefore, once it's built it can be hard to fight the urge to tear it down and build it again taking into account all of lessons that were learned along the way. The Badgers also imagine a rewrite of Honeybadger using the latest in 90s technology. Trigger warning for Perl developers!

The guys throw the show notes out the window and kick it freestyle on this special Thanksgiving episode. All of today’s hard-hitting questions are answered: Dark meat or light meat? Turkey or duck? The warm glow of a fireplace or the warm glow of a database upgrade progress bar? Plus, the guys talk about when to start holiday feature freezes and what Honeybadger is working on/not working on this December.

This week on FounderQuest, the guys talk about their decision to offer a free plan alongside the paid plans for Honeybadger and how it impacted the overall business. Josh is also back shares the hottest of takes from his recent trip to Nashville to attend RubyConf. As usual, the show goes off the rails and talks about flying, Ben’s Eye of Sauron approach to fiscal management and an acquisition strategy based around companies named after honey badgers.

This week Ben and Starr talk about Honeybadger's efforts using marketplaces to get new business and whether it's worth the development time needed to set them up. They also discuss Honeybadger's participation in the GitHub Student Developer Pack, creating a code of conduct that still allows for free swag, and tease out a special announcement for RailsConf 2020!

On this week's episode of FounderQuest Josh, Ben, and Starr talk about their Soc 2 and GDPR compliance efforts. They go over the different strategies to handle compliance, the potential costs involved, and discuss if it's worth the time and money. When embarking on their compliance research, the guys also stumbled across some surprising claims companies are using to stretch the truth on actually being compliant. Learn a few of the 50 shades of compliance* that they found.

This week on FounderQuest the guys weigh in on a recent debate sparked by Jason Fried at Basecamp around the value of backlogs. In short, Fried proports that backlogs cause unnecessary stress and that if an idea will be forgotten about if it isn’t written down, then it probably isn’t important in the first place. Honeybadger does have a pretty significant backlog and some on the team find it more useful than others. Each of the guys discusses how they deal with the backlog, whether they ignore it, stress out about it, embrace it as a useful part of the business, or actively plot to burn it down and rebuild Honeybadger V2 from the ashes.

The guys talk about creating content for Honeybadger and the difficulties switching back and forth from writing prose to writing code. Starr channels his inner Anna Wintour and describes his latest initiative recruiting developers to write guest posts on the blog. Josh talks about his process for writing evergreen content for the newsletter.

The guys talk about how they are scaling up their awesome customer service without adding headcount and their journey from email customer support, to chat support, and back to email support. They also discuss how to deal with informational silos and if they should transition Honeybadger to an invite-only luxury brand.

Season Two of FounderQuest is upon you! The guys discuss what they did while on summer break, releasing breadcrumbs on Honeybadger and why they help when debugging, launching the new blog, Amazon RDS, and Airwolf!

The guys are taking a few weeks off from podcasting to enjoy the fleeting Pacific northwest summer. They'll be back in late August or early September, fully rested and ready with hot takes to warm you as summer turns to fall.

The guys talk about their experiences with offers to acquire Honeybadger and go over some common structures of acquisition deals (hint - most don’t involve walking a wheelbarrow of money out of your office and never returning). They also chat about things that you should think about if you are presented with an offer to sell your company.

This week the guys talk about their office equipment and remote workspaces which range from working in a winery to building a standalone office in a backyard. They also go full old cranky developer mode on the new office paradigms and warn the youths of back issues stemming from working on couches and bean bags. Don't get them started on open floor plans or unassigned desks! Learn what has, and hasn't, worked for each of the guys on their quest for the perfect coding space.

The guys answer a listener question about how to ensure customers are happy with your product and how to be proactive in finding out if they aren't. This can be especially difficult if your customers tend to be a little bit introverted...*cough* developers *cough*. Plus Ben reveals the number one reason customers leave Honeybadger!

Do you know what the 3rd-party scripts on your website are up to? In this week’s episode of FounderQuest, the guys talk about CSP (Content Security Policy) and how it can enhance security in the browser. They also weigh adding it as a feature of Honeybadger vs. a standalone product. CSP - learn it, live it, love it, on this week's FounderQuest.

Running a lifestyle business is awesome, contrary to what the VC's say. Figure out your life goals and fit your business to achieve them rather than worrying about 10x-ing. The guys also talk about why developers seem to experience higher rates of burnout than other professions and share their own prevention and coping solutions. Let's FounderQuest!

The guys talk dissect the "If you're not growing you're dying" aphorism and debate if it has merits or if it should be discarded into the dustbin of history. Do entrepreneurs need to have a winner take all mindset or is it acceptable to be a minor player in a large market? Let's get philosophical on this episode of FounderQuest!

The guys chat about the early days of Ruby and Rails and discuss how the developer community has changed from a more individual hacking pursuit to more of a team sport. Ben also talks about his experiences at the very first RailsConf and teaches young whippersnappers about Why The Lucky Stiff, Shoes, Caboose, and Chunky Bacon. Lastly, is BadgerConf morphing from running joke to a reality? Tune in and find out!

The guys talk about strategies for creating systems, documentation, and automation to separate yourself from your business so you can hire employees, get it ready for sale, or even take some time off. Balancing good customer service while being efficient with your time is also discussed along with reasons Honeybadger doesn't use automation for customer service.

Two part special! In part one, the guys chat about decision making in a siloed company structure and the challenges of making sure everyone is on the same page. That's not all! More details about the secret Honeybadger conclaves are leaked, dirty laundry is aired about the logo scandal that shook the company to its core, and America's favorite Honeybadger is revealed!

Hey guys ladle out some secret sauce for successfully marketing and selling to software developers. Also discussed is their Facebook ad boycott, why you should never call a developer, Coke vs. Pepsi, and leveraging Princess Bride to weed out sales emails.

The guys discuss gorilla conference marketing and how they promoted Honeybadger back when they could barely afford to attend the conference, let alone a sponsorship. Also discussed is turning Honeybadger's unprofessionalism into a marketing strength, dealing with swag logistics, and why you should never wear a blazer to a dev conference.

The gents look back with some hindsight on the debates around private equity, VC vs. bootstrapping Honeybadger, and how funding decisions may have affected recent layoffs at NPM and Travis CI. Our recent Twitter ad performance for FounderQuest is also discussed as well as Nintendo graphics and food trucks. Join us!

The guys dish about their experiences at MicroConf. Ben talks about entrepreneurial ADD, Josh explains why the "good old days" at Honeybadger are now, and Starr challenges younger developers to a coding battle royale. There is also a preview of Badgercon (pending wildlife insurance procurement).

We originally sat down to discuss distractions and Yak Shaving. What emerged was more like group therapy for a team struggling to cope with a spate of JS dependency upgrades. We also discuss purchasing an ice cream truck. Buckle up!

Faced with a punishing week of distractions, the crew discusses their own techniques for remaining personally productive.

This week Josh, Ben and Starr talk technical debt and how to cope with it. They also discuss "suits" vs "hackers" is a trope as old as tech itself. Suits want to make money and cut costs. Hackers want to build cool things the right way. What if you're both the suit *and* the hacker? How do you balance business vs engineering needs and adopt a sane strategy towards technical debt in a small company? This is the subject of today's episode.

Looking at the major events in our lives, we can often trace them back to turning points -- decisions big and small that had outsized effects. In this episode the dudes reflect on some of their major decisions, good and bad.

How we attracted top quality software developer candidates without offering Facebook, Amazon, or Google salary levels. We talk about how to write the job description and reveal the feedback we received from candidates.

In their first episode, Starr, Josh and Ben talk about the company hack-week where they built a small proof-of-concept product with Elixir and Phoenix.