Shows
Code Story: Insights from Startup Tech LeadersS11 Bonus: Arnab Deka, MetacastArnab Deka lives in Vancouver and loves the Pacific Northwest. He was never formally educated in computer science or software engineering - in fact, while he was studying civil engineering, he fell in love with building things and eventually, building software. Outside of tech, he is a family man and loves to sup with them and his dog. He also enjoys astronomy, and is known to attend a star party or 2, with his telescope in hand.Arnab took a sabbatical from work, and on this journey, he realized that he liked deep work and interacting with customers...2025-05-2926 min
Builders Gonna BuildMoment: How we got first customers for our SaaS with Honeybadger co-founders (ep. 9)Ben Curtis and Joshua Wood discuss getting the very first customers and making first sales for their app and error monitoring SaaS Honeybadger.Full episode: 9. Bootstrapping a SaaS for 13 years | Honeybadger co-founders Ben Curtis and Joshua WoodDo you love audio podcasts?Metacast is our podcast app with transcripts for iOS and Android - get it at metacast.app.Join our Reddit community at r/metacastapp.Where to find the badgersHoneybadgerFounderQuest podcastBen: Bluesky, LinkedInJoshua: Bluesky, LinkedInGet in touch!Send us an email at hello@buildersgonnabuild.comSubscribe to newsletter...2025-03-2203 min
Coding ChatsMentoring, learning multiple programming languages, multiple databases and advent of code.Coding Chats episode 21 - John talks to Arnab Deka about: the benefits of mentoring in software engineering learning multiple programming languages learning multiple databases doing advent of code in a different programming language each yearArnab's Links:Metacast App - https://metacast.app/Arnab's Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/arnab.metacast.appJohn's Links:John's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncrickett/John’s YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@johncrickettJohn's Twitter: https://x.com/johncrickettJohn's Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/johncrickett.bsky.socialCheck out John's software engineering related newsletters: Coding Challenges: ht...2025-03-2059 min
Builders Gonna Build9. Bootstrapping a SaaS for 13 years | Honeybadger co-founders Ben Curtis and Joshua WoodHoneybadger co-founders Ben Curtis and Joshua Wood discuss the origins and growth of their app monitoring product, challenges of bootstrapping, calm work environment, evolution of co-founder relationships, and buying out a departing co-founder.Do you love audio podcasts?Metacast is our podcast app with transcripts for iOS and Android - get it at metacast.app.Join our Reddit community at r/metacastapp.Segments[01:27] Introduction of Honeybadger[03:50] The genesis of the company[10:40] The first customers[12:26] How much money do you need to feel like it's real?[14:37] Switching to the business full-time[16:42] Moving from unlimited to...2025-03-1943 min
Builders Gonna Build8. Growing your LinkedIn and newsletter audience | John CrickettJohn Crickett is the creator of Coding Challenges, a newsletter for engineers that has over 54k subscribers. John’s LinkedIn profile grew from 3k to 150k+ followers in a year. In this episode, we dive into the process and mindset that allowed John’s following to grow so quickly.Do you love audio podcasts?Try Metacast podcast app at metacast.app.Join our Reddit community at r/metacastapp.Segments[00:58] Introduction[03:18] Spending a million Euros and a year on an MVP[05:54] Coding Challenges[08:15] MVP for an info product vs. software[13:51] Growth on LinkedIn[17:32] Post stru...2024-05-0953 min
Builders Gonna Build7. Jason Fried on building products, calm companies and the Jeff Bezos investmentJason Fried is a co-founder and CEO of 37signals, the company behind Basecamp and HEY. Together with his business partner David Hannemeier Hanson, Jason co-authored seminal entrepreneurship books Rework, Remote, and It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work.This episode was originally published on the Metacast podcast, episode 28 in July 2023.Do you love audio podcasts?Try Metacast podcast app at metacast.app.Join our Reddit community at r/metacastapp.Segments[03:17] Introduction of Jason and 37signals [05:38] Founder role vs. CEO role [08:37] Working with the same co-founder for 20 years [11:10] Disagreements between founders [13:31] Disa...2024-04-241h 15
Builders Gonna Build6. Creating a niche of your own | Corey Quinn, The Duckbill GroupCorey Quinn is the Chief Cloud Economist at The Duckbill Group and a big celebrity at the AWS circles well known for his sense of humor and unrelenting focus on making some good fun of the cloud providers.In our interview, we are learning Corey’s background, how The Duckbill Group got started, and how he runs the media side of his business. As usual, we talked about bootstrapping and running consulting services while building a product.This episode was originally published on the Metacast podcast, episode 32.Do you love audio podcasts?Tr...2024-04-101h 14
Builders Gonna Build5. Don't do agile, be agile | Co-author of Agile Manifesto and Pragmatic Programmer | Dave ThomasDave Thomas, co-author of The Pragmatic Programmer and Agile Manifesto, on the true spirit of being agile (vs. "doing agile"), mistakes engineering teams make, and common practices of successful teams.Do you love audio podcasts?Try Metacast podcast app at metacast.app.Join our Reddit community at r/metacastapp.Segments[10:29] The genesis of The Pragmatic Programmer[11:41] People don't know what they want, importance of feedback loops[22:17] Doing Agile vs. being agile[26:36] Practices of successful engineering teams[36:35] Being pragmatic at an early stage startup[44:10] Things that are still true 24 years...2024-03-1359 min
Builders Gonna Build4. Henry T. Kirk, entrepreneur, ex-engineer at Google & AmazonFor 10 years, Henry built mobile apps at Google and Amazon. Now he is a partner at a software development agency studio.init(). Henry shares his thoughts on using cross-platform frameworks vs. native languages, argues that Apple’s 30% cut of the in-app purchases is acceptable, and tells us how Google layoffs became a blessing in disguise.
Do you love audio podcasts?
Try Metacast podcast app at https://metacast.app.
Join our Reddit community at r/metacastapp.
Segments
[01:31] Introduction
[04:03] Viral LinkedIn posts about layoffs
[08:13] Google layoffs
[17:36] Cross-platform app d...2024-02-2859 min
Builders Gonna Build3. Dennis E. Taylor, author of best-selling sci-fi series BobiverseDennis E. Taylor built software for 35 years before trying himself as a sci-fi author. His first novel Outland earned him some “Starbucks money” on Amazon, but his second book We Are Legion made him a best-selling author. Dennis retired as an engineer and became a full-time writer.
In this episode, we talked about the parallels between writing software and writing books, Dennis’s process of coming up with ideas and turning them into reality, working with agents, and writing audio-first books.
Segments
[02:30] Introduction
[04:42] Transition from software engineering to writing
[07:37] Primer...2024-02-1448 min
Wharton Launch PadKarl Ulrich | The Wharton SchoolI'm on the other side of the mic this time telling my own story on the Metacast Podcast, including the twisty path from a PhD at the MIT AI Lab to being a professor of innovation, entrepreneurship, and design at Wharton. I'm interviewed by Ilya Bezdelev and Arnab Deka, co-founders of the Metacast Podcast and the Metacast App.2024-02-061h 11
Builders Gonna Build2. Justin Frankel, creator of Winamp and ReaperJustin shares how he created Winamp and sold it to AOL at age 20 and tells us about his current project, digital audio workstation (DAW) Reaper.
Segments
[03:16] The genesis of Winamp
[11:07] Winamp whips the llama's ass
[14:06] Nullsoft
[16:27] Winamp as a platform
[23:16] The business side of Winamp
[24:11] What was it like to work at AOL?
[27:06] Why Justin doesn't use streaming services
[30:03] Justin's website
[32:06] Why Justin created Reaper
[35:48] Shipping v1 of Reaper
[37:02] Reaper is built by just a...2024-01-3154 min
Builders Gonna Build1. Christian Selig, creator of Apollo Reddit app and Pixel PalsChristian tells a story of how Apollo got started, grew and eventually had to shut down following Reddit's API pricing decision.Segments[00:46] Introduction of Christian[01:58] How Christian got into app development[03:36] Internship at Apple[06:38] The origin of the name for Apollo[07:49] Launching v1 of Apollo[13:12] Pricing the app[17:46] Apollo t-shirts and custom app icons[21:38] Adding notifications and being rejected by Apple[26:15] Initial reception of Apollo and building a community[31:32] Apollo's growth[39:39] Challenges...2024-01-3059 min
Software MisadventuresWhen enough was enough - practical and emotional drivers for leaving big tech to bootstrap Metacast | Arnab Deka & Ilya Bezdelev (AWS, Google)Should engineers and product managers “stay in their lanes”? What big company habits should you keep vs unlearn when transitioning to working at a start-up? Could an ayahuasca retreat give you more clarity on your career goals? Ilya and Arnab join the show to share their journey quitting big tech to bootstrap a podcasting startup. Arnab and Ilya are the co-founders of Metacast. Before starting the company, Arnab was a Principal Engineer at AWS while Ilya was a Sr. Product Manager at Google and Principal PM at Amazon before that. While at Amazon, Arnab and Ilya worked toge...2023-11-071h 17
Metacast: Behind the scenes1. Dirty Secrets of Clean Sound with Metacast Hosts Ilya Bezdelev and Arnab DekaIn this inaugural episode, Arnab interviews his Metacast co-host Ilya on his experience starting a podcast. We talk about inspiring stuff like how to get used to the sound of your voice, the boring stuff like gear, tools and software, and random stuff like how Ilya lost all of his gear when his car was broken into on a road trip in California.
Full show notes with links to gear and tools is here: https://newsletter.metacastpodcast.com/p/001-dirty-secrets-of-clean-sound (sorry folks, there’s so much stuff it doesn’t fit into the allotted space!)
Subs...2023-01-041h 28