Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

On FormKeep, Ben implements custom redirects on form submissions and starts a test to remove up-front credit card collection, as well as discusses evaluation of feature requests. On Drip, Derrick walks through the app with new devs, considers on-boarding automation, and continues his refactoring project. Upcase FormKeep thoughtbot Laptop Setup Script Therapeutic Refactoring Rack::Attack Thank you to our sponsor this week, FreshBooks

Derrick welcomes new Javascript and Rails developers to Drip. Ben prepares a content deal and interviews a Content Manager for Upcase, discusses the benefits and methodology to Vim proficiency, works on an integration with Wistia, and ponders growing / selling apps. Upcase FormKeep How to Find Your Genius Zone- Laura Garnett Surviving Your First Week in Vim Wistia Startups For the Rest of Us What It's Like Buying a $128k Side Project Thank you to our sponsor this week, FreshBooks

As Ben and Derrick prepare their talks for MicroConf, Ben shares his tips and habits for talk preparation and public speaking. Upcase FormKeep Ben's Pre-Talk Checklist How to Talk to Developers Thank you to our sponsor this week, FreshBooks

Ben & Derrick reflect on the S3 outage and how it affected their services, and muse on managing user perceptions. Derrick submits a talk to MicroConf on what it means to be "customer driven", and begins a refactoring effort to rework Drip's integration system. On Upcase, Ben integrates a referral widget, and enables subscription pausing, while on FormKeep he fixes a trial plan selection bug. Upcase FormKeep AWS S3 Disruption Postmortem The Netflix Simian Army Chaos Monkey Octopus Gem MicroConf Referral SaaSquatch Thank you to our sponsor this week, FreshBooks

Ben & Derrick welcome Anna Jacobsen, Education Director at Drip, to discuss customer demos / onboarding, sales and retention strategies, customer success, and best practices within Drip. Upcase FormKeep Drip Drip Certification Course Lessons Learned From a Year of Product Demos at Drip- Anna Jacobsen @ MicroConf Rob Walling on Giant Robots Calendly 59 Days of Code Hashtag Fresno Anna on Twitter Thank you to our sponsor this week, FreshBooks

On FormKeep, Ben runs an A/B test on trial length and adds a short onboarding survey, meanwhile wrapping up team signups and working on a content licensing deal for Upcase. Derrick reports back from his machine learning class, and discusses an issue in quality assurance testing. Upcase FormKeep Account Details MicroConf: Starter Edition Jason Cohen - Designing the Ideal Bootstrapped Business: MicroConf Talk Stripe Radar

Derrick travels to Portland to visit fellow bootstrapper friends, Ben recounts his recent conference travel, and a discussion of their most pivotal hires as well as account rescue techniques. Upcase FormKeep Big Snow Tiny Conf The Startup Echo Chamber is Making You Deaf Lessons Learned From a Year of Product Demos at Drip- Anna Jacobsen @ MicroConf

Derrick celebrates a great shipping week, completing both 'live segments' and a Drip certification course. Ben recounts the rollout & results of the Upcase + Tapas promotion, and reflects on its successes and possible pitfalls. Upcase FormKeep Efficiency Starts With a Haircut Shipping Hat Fire Cider Drip Certification Course Upcase + Ruby Tapas

Ben presses to meet the Upcase & Tapas launch deadline, and shares some lessons learned from its preparation, promotion, and launch. On Drip, Derrick rolls out more UI updates, is looking to hire JavaScript and Rails engineers, and details his hiring & interview process. Upcase FormKeep Upcase & Tapas ConversionCast

Ben halts the search for a marketer to instead hire a sales consultant and focus on growth himself, and announces a collaboration with Ruby Tapas. Derrick enrolls in a machine learning class, and contemplates Drip team & work structure. Upcase FormKeep What My Calendar Looks Like- Jason Fried Upcase + Tapas Promo Ruby Tapas Mastering Product Launches How We Structure Our Work and Teams at Basecamp Wistia Machine Learning Class Thank you to our sponsor this week Mobile Dev + Test Conference from Techwell

Derrick takes a solo retreat to reflect on new goals for Drip, and draws up preliminary plans for scaling team size / structure, as well as speeding up velocity through parallelism. Ben shares his experience with GrowthHackers Projects, hides the lowest plan and implements an automated annual upgrade reminder, pitches a content partnership for Upcase, considers a thoughtbot products bundle, and realizes a need for a mentor. Upcase FormKeep The Zen Founder Guide to Founder Retreats ZenFounder Podcast Appointed GrowthHackers OmniFocus Ruby Tapas Predictable Revenue- Aaron Ross & Marylou Tyler

Ben & Derrick discuss music in the workplace, optimizing Redis, reaching larger markets beyond early adopters, and standing out in job application e-mails. Upcase FormKeep Hostile Architecture on 99% Invisible twemproxy Crossing the Chasm: Geoffrey A. Moore

Derrick considers learning a new language to be prepared for scaling Drip's optimization, and gives new details on the tech used to streamline queries for large accounts. Ben breaks down his post to finding the best candidate for product Head of Marketing, and pointers on developing an entrepreneur's mindset. Podcast Swag Bundles Upcase FormKeep Drip You Should Take A Codecation You're an Elixir Developer Now on The Bike Shed Podcast Mutability Ruins the Whole Party- José Valim on The Bike Shed Podcast We're Hiring a Head of Marketing for our Products Start Small, Stay Small- Rob Walling Minimum Path to Awesome- Rob Walling on Giant Robots

Ben discusses the lessons of mimicked learning and tempering of judgmental thinking gleaned from a sports book, and muses on how to apply them to career advice. On Drip, faced with a mountain of catch-up work after the holiday, Derek confronts scalability. Podcast Swag Bundles Upcase FormKeep The Inner Game of Tennis How to Get Good at Making Money- Jason Fried thoughtbot Style Guide We're Hiring a Head of Marketing for Our Products Ben's Personal Site Edgar Laura Roeder on Giant Robots

Ben decides to hire a support firm, document support processes, completes the Hound pricing change, and prepares to make products their own division for next year. Meanwhile, on Drip, Derrick addresses a performance challenge. Podcast Swag Bundles Upcase FormKeep CoSupport Bootstrapped Web Podcast The Checklist Manifesto: Atul Gawande The Checklist I Use To Start My Day Hound

Ben is joined by Mike Perham, author of Sidekiq, to discuss running a business solo, taking a side project from hobby to full time job, and scaling support as an app grows. Upcase FormKeep Indie Hackers- Sidekiq Sidekiq Open Core Software Business Model MikePerham.com Kill Your Dependencies

On Drip, Derrick launches a free tier, and utilizes credit card anti-fraud measures. Ben publicly launches FormLinter, pauses exploring new product ideas in favor of giving attention to existing ones, and starts to rebuild the product team. They also discuss the merits of remote vs in-person collaboration, the pros and cons of open offices, and dealing with interruptions from notifications and meetings. Upcase FormKeep Drip Stripe: Radar Caffeine Effects on Sleep Study The Development Abstraction Layer- Joel Spolsky Announcing FormLinter

Ben and Nick get super nerdy this week and chat about Meetspace's architecture using Go, Postgres, and HMAC including custom cookie signing, rendering, error handling, tooling, and more! Upcase FormKeep Meetspace- use code GIANTROBOTS30 for 30% off your first month Go Postgres Driver Google's Websocket Driver WebRTC Uniform Interface Secure Signed Cookies- Nick Gauthier HMAC errcheck Go linter Think Like a Software Developer- Geoffrey Grosenbach Tubesock Jeff Casimir on Giant Robots Nick on Twitter

Sadly, Ben is stuck in hammock somewhere, and we are without a new episode this week. However, we would love you all to check out thoughtbot's newest podcast, interviewing inspirational designers, developers, and other makers in tech, The Laila & Brenda Show! Give their latest episode a listen here, and if you like it subscribe to their feed however you listen to podcasts! The Laila & Brenda Show

Ben and Nick chat about ways to pitch your product, working solo as well as sustainably, and the costs of doing business. Upcase FormKeep Meetspace- use code GIANTROBOTS30 for 30% off your first month Staying Motivated While Working Solo Nick on Twitter