Episodes
#85 - Building A Business From Python Expertise - Michael Kennedy (Founder, Talk Python Training)
November 14, 2024
If you are listening to this show, you have likely heard of a programming language called Python. And if you are a Python developer, you've likely heard of a podcast dedicated to this programming language - Talk Python To Me. It was started by none other than Michael Kennedy, a Python Software Foundation fellow who managed to turn his expertise into a viable bootstrapped business. In this show, we talk about ways to plan a training business from scratch, what tactics worked best to grow a podcast audience, and how to make sure that you have a viable idea before you quit your day job.
#84 - Tools Do Not Matter - Jason Lengstorf (Founder, Learn With Jason)
October 31, 2024
If you've been immersed in the tech world for some time, you probably have heard one specific YouTube channel mentioned more than once - Learn With Jason. It's a project started by Jason Lengstorf, a former VP of developer experience at a web tooling startup (he was a head of developer relations prior to that too), that is aimed at helping everyone navigate the always changing landscape of developer tools and frameworks. Which, by the way, according to Jason do not matter.
#83 - Don't Take The Easy Path - Jennifer Wong (Engineering Leader)
August 8, 2024
Jennifer Wong is a seasoned engineering manager who started her journey in civil engineering. The fast pace of the tech industry drew her in, and she stuck with it for years since making that call. In this episode, I chat with Jennifer about her transition from a non-traditional career path into software, reasons to take on management instead of being an individual contributor, and why taking the road less traveled in terms of career progression might just be the recipe for long-term growth and success.
#82 - Stop Building SaaS Landing Pages - Craig Hewitt (Founder, Castos)
July 12, 2024
Craig Hewitt, the founder of the podcasting platform Castos, comes from generations of entrepreneurs, and his own journey builds on the experience and stamina of those that came before him. In this show, we chat about best practices for hiring developers for your bootstrapped startup, finding the right approach to deliver hard news, and how to ensure that your relationships aren't hurt as you embark on the entrepreneurship treadmill.
#81 - Making A Career Out Of A Hobby - Kirupa Chinnathambi (Product Manager - Google)
July 2, 2024
In episode 81, Den Delimarsky chats with Kirupa Chinnathambi, a product manager at Google who has built his own personal brand in what is now known as kirupa.com. Kirupa is a talented web developer, designer, writer, and packs so much knowledge in his blog that you can learn how to create great web-based experiences on that content alone.
#80 - Web Development Is Theatre - Miriam Suzanne (CSS Working Group, OddBird)
June 12, 2024
One of the things that Miriam Suzanne realized early in her developer journey is that web development is a tool - she wanted to build a website for her theater company and ended up building a career and a company around it. And not just that, but she also joined the CSS Working Group - the official standards body that determines how the CSS stack evolves. In this show, we talk about her early discovery of the power of the web, how she joins creativity with technical prowess, and how CSS is really like poetry written in the browser.
#79 - How To Get Promoted To Tech Executive - Lena Reinhard (VP Engineering, CircleCI, Travis CI)
May 28, 2024
We often talk about promotions and growth, but the moment the conversation shifts towards paths to staff or executive positions, the advice goes blank. There is very little actionable information out there that can tell you how you can get to the highest echelons of leadership. To get a clearer picture on this topic, I sat down with Lena Reinhard, a seasoned executive with an extensive track record at CircleCI, Travis CI, and more.
#78 - I Left Hawai'i To Work In Startups, With Katie Fujihara
May 14, 2024
One's journey from their early career to working at startups in Silicon Valley can take many forms. Some folks take the more traditional route of joining a company right after college. Others get tired of their corporate life and decide to try something different. Katie Fujihara, an engineer and a technical program manager amalgam, decided that her journey to the heart of "startup land," San Francisco, would be an impromptu one - she just packed up her bags and set out on an adventure.
#77 - Write About The Things You Learned, With Rachel Andrew (Google)
May 6, 2024
For today’s episode, I had the privilege of sitting down with Rachel Andrew, arguably one of the more influential folks in the world of web development. With a career spanning over two decades, Rachel has left an indelible mark on the web developer community. From her groundbreaking work on CSS to her role as co-founder of Perch CMS (she spent 20 years as a freelancer and a business owner), Rachel’s contributions have shaped the way we build and interact with the web.
#76 - Be OK Talking About Money, With Saron Yitbarek
April 8, 2024
One of the things that is a bit taboo to talk about, both in the tech industry and outside of it is money. People just aren't comfortable discussing openly the hard decisions that go into things like seeking funding, investing money into things that save you time, and scaling your own abilities with the help of, you guessed it, cold, hard, cash. Saron Yitbarek, entrepreneur extraordinaire behind CodeNewbie and podcasts such as Command Line Heroes, generously accepted my invitation to chat and talk about all these things, and more. And of course, we talk about Saron's latest project - Big Cash Money 2024, something for folks that want to max out their income beyond just their salary.