All Episodes
35: The problems that Papercuts solves
John did a bunch of Papercuts interviews, and now has a way clearer sense of what problem we're solving. He talks about his process as a PM. And we talk through all th...
34: Go to papercuts.io
Our new Saas app Papercuts.io is up, and it is in Alpha testing. If it sounds useful to you, go sign up and we'll reach out shortly! We also talk about the future of w...
33: This too shall pass
We accidentally talk about movies for 15 minutes. Then we talk about calmly riding the waves when bad things happen (a bad thing happened). Finally, we review all of o...
32: Monday morning scrutiny
We took some time off. Papercuts is good now. Verbs is still good. We had an uncomfortable moment with a client, and learned some good things from it. Then Daniel disc...
31: Buying our time back
We're working fewer client days, but it costs us a lot of money to do that. So what are we getting for that money? We make a plan for what we can do with this extra ti...
30: Strategy brainstorm (empaneling Luke Roush)
Luke Roush is the Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Sovereign's Capital. John worked for Luke for 4 years. If John ever says anything smart, there's a 40% chance he's just quot...
29: Awkward money conversation
It's beef season. We have figured out how to not have Daniel on every client, and which roles we play with each client. Then we have a fun conversation about how we sp...
28: Short term profit vs. long term strategy
Business is great. But that means Daniel doesn't have time to do strategic stuff. John is pulling back on client hours to figure out how to do outbound sales. We plan ...
27: Silly Season (empaneling Steve Smallman)
Steve is the founder of a well established creative agency called fifteen4. Daniel used to work there! We asked Steve about how you do planning (especially with subcon...
26: The leads are weak? YOU'RE weak!
The sales strategy worked! Great leads are pouring in, and we're closing new business. We talk about our strategy on sales calls, and disqualifying ourselves quickly f...
25: ❤️ Devs seeking new obsession ❤️
We want to find a long term partner, and we want your help. Then things come completely off the rails and we stop talking about business. John rants about healthcare "...
24: Cohort 2™ (working title)
We are looking for 2 big, gnarly, interesting projects to sink our teeth into over the next 6 months. And we want your help finding them. We also recap all of the smar...
23: SaaS opportunity knocks again
We have an opportunity to do something big, difficult, and pretty different from our other clients. John went on the Over Engineered podcast to talk about whether spri...
22: Mentees keep becoming clients
Daniel and John are out on the speaker circuit. John wants to give more developer talks. We want to mentor more programmers, because that has been an amazing source of...
21: Our new pricing model (empaneling Joel Clermont)
Joel Clermont joins us for a discussion about our pricing model. Like us, he has tried a lot of models, and walked away from most of them. He gives us feedback on our ...
20: The FULL Stack Developer
Papercuts progress. Daniel spent some time with the dutch. Getting busy and landing business. John give talks, Daniel gives talks. Retro-driven company.
19: We're building a SaaS app
Thunk is building a SaaS app. We talk about the plan, where the idea came from, and how it'll work. We also brainstorm ideas for the future.
17: Empanelling Allison Lacker
Allison is a former colleague of John's, and we're thrilled to have her on the panel of mentors. She has been a developer, product manager, and executive. She has a lo...
16: Brainstorming our first SaaS product
Also: is programming art or science? John finds reading painful. Daniel finds small to-dos painful. Why are we paying so many Quickbooks fees? The 2024 budget.
15: What kind of clients we do (and don't) want
We reflect on a problem with a client. Then we discuss the importance of learning new patterns, adopting new tools, and sticking to conventions.
14: Monday morning baseball
After a scheduling snafu, we needed to use our recording slot to have our weekly check-in with Jacob. This is our regular roundup of clients, plus some pleasantries an...
13: Launching Verbs at Laracon AU
Daniel is jetlagged after returning from Sydney, where he launched Verbs at Laracon AU.We talk about the launch, talk about John's Kickstarter for Colossi, and do a qu...
12: Colossi + Verbs (it's shill day)
You can buy John's game on Kickstarter right now! Daniel's new event sourcing package Verbs is nearly complete, and John loves it. Join us as we spend 40 minutes gassi...
11: Trust issues
We do some bits. We talk about good practices while pair programming. Then we wonder if product development processes primarily exist to compensate for trust issues. H...
10: Daniel is Going to Laracon AU!
John is tanking a lot of bureaucracyDaniel is writing a LOT of codeDaniel is going to Laracon AustraliaWe discuss https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgV6M1LyfNY
9: The Dawn of The Pricing Saga
According to ChatGPT we discussed:Mentoring and meetingsAge discussionProduct managementSplitting time between two companiesHome inspector conference in Atlantic CityB...