Best Thunk.dev Podcasts (2025)

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79: The wire:live retro (empaneling Caleb Porzio) 1:15:08

Play Pause

8h ago1:15:08

1:15:08

Our dear friend Caleb Porzio drops by for some laughs, and a retrospective on Wire:live. We discuss what went well, what could improve, and what we'll do differently next time.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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78: Empaneling Matt Stauffer 53:34

6d ago53:34

53:34

Matt runs Tighten, and is a kind of big brother to us. We ask him about running agencies, building teams, hiring senior developers, and a lot more. Watch his new Laracast series "How to Build a Dev Team" now.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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77: Silly season takes no prisoners 42:13

17d ago42:13

42:13

Our biggest client had a problem. We tried to get out in front of it, with mixed success. Here's what we learned. Join the new social game here. Listen to John's clickbait episode about it here.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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76: Pitching our next conference talks 1:01:18

1M ago1:01:18

1:01:18

We are busy as heck, with more work coming in. Forge launches this week. Wire:live is filling up fast. Listen to John's new game podcast. We brainstorm the next conference talks we want to give.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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75: The good kind of scary 38:57

2M ago38:57

38:57

We're at an exciting but scary inflection point as a company. Wire:live is filling up fast! John is sad about the internet, but excited about real life. Daniel likes Billy Joel.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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74: Radical truth telling 41:24

2M ago41:24

41:24

We landed a big client, and things are heating up. We learned once again that telling the truth and being candid is the best path.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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73: Be a sustainable business 53:02

2M ago53:02

53:02

We finally talk about our OKRs for the remainder of the year.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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72: wire:live 1:04:31

3M ago1:04:31

1:04:31

Wire:live in Buffalo October 28. Get your tickets today! We had some technical difficulties, and weren't even sure if it was recording, so this one is all over the place. Spicy takes, jack booted thugs, A24, Weapons, video games, and restaurants.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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71: No dogs, no ponies 1:03:01

3M ago1:03:01

1:03:01

We are streamers now. Kapow now has a client portal. John has a new podcast. We had another accounting / tax crisis that has driven us to the edge of sanity.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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70: A deeply unserious Laracon recap 47:54

3M ago47:54

47:54

If you're looking for that incisive, smart business insight, go ahead and skip this one. We talk dogs, Laracon, John's talk, Laravel Forge, the upcoming Livewire conference, game design, The Social Game, a video John's obsessed with, and Rust (the video game).By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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69: We'd be richer if we lied more 43:42

4M ago43:42

43:42

We discuss the Beatles. Daniel reviewed John's code on the Social Game. Finally, we lost a proposal for a big contract. We wonder if the entire RFP process is antithetical to what we do.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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68: The pitch to the "lower middle market" 56:37

4M ago56:37

56:37

Daniel and Chris are nearly done with Verbs 1.0. We settle into our new roles. John prepares another talk directed at non-tech companies. Finally, we think through what we want the business to look like at the end of the year. And we recap where we are with Kapow.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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67: We fire Daniel (from project management) 1:00:12

4M ago1:00:12

1:00:12

We played the Social Game a lot, and it's so cool. Daniel is not going to do project management at Thunk anymore, and we brainstorm how we backfill for him. Finally, we review our OKRs for the first half of the year.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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66: Empaneling Erin Antcliffe 1:12:28

5M ago1:12:28

1:12:28

Erin is an outstanding product manager who is fairly new to the agency world. She shares her feedback on our process. We brainstorm how to position and sell our product management services.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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65: Being uncomfortably explicit 36:16

5M ago36:16

36:16

Daniel got a 3D printer. John got a new iPhone that he feels meh about. We are feeling out how to consult when there are issues way outside of our control. Getting uncomfortably explicit is awkward in the moment, but makes everyone happy later. John has a wild story about Emily Belz's article.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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64: Kapow! 59:36

6M ago59:36

59:36

We hung out in Philly and had a little role reversal. Chill clients abound. The sales funnel is decent. We talk about who Kapow is really for, and brainstorm what features are next.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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63: We sent invoices from the client app 28:03

6M ago28:03

28:03

Spring is here, and the boys are out frolicking. We sent our first invoices from the client app. The Laracon game is going to be its own company. Clothing sizes are a lie.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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62: Useful anxiety 42:49

6M ago42:49

42:49

We watched a lot of movies, and gambled a little. We are deep into silly season, and talk about our relationship with anxiety. Finally, we talk about politics and urbanism again.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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61: Empaneling Ian Landsman 1:18:55

7M ago1:18:55

1:18:55

We are now a professional podcast. Ian Landsman gives us some feedback on our goals, and our new client app. He is smart. And we don't talk about poker even once!By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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60: Our biggest client yet 47:52

7M ago47:52

47:52

John got star struck on Easter. Daniel got a new couch. We got a big new client. John is working nights and weekends on the Laracon game, and it's awesome. Daniel is working on the client app. We review OKRs.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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59: We lost a client for good reasons 59:36

7M ago59:36

59:36

John is locked in, and made a playlist so you can lock in too. We are in silly season, but we have an excellent new PM who will get us through. We lost a client, but for good reasons. We recap what we learned. John is grinding on the new game, and Daniel gives technical guidance. We try to diagnose what's wrong with tv writing. The Iranian film mak…

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58: Finding the real decision maker 38:20

7M ago38:20

38:20

John's Macbook air is having problems. We made a bonus episode. We have a new trick for finding the decision maker at a prospective client. Always negotiate. We LOVE Adolescence. Finally, we talk politics :(By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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Bonus Episode: PHP × NYC Chaos-Cast™ 1:11:21

7M ago1:11:21

1:11:21

At a PHP x NYC event, we realized we had a critical mass of Laravel podcasters. Apologies for the audio problems.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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57: Sunsetting Papercuts 36:47

8M ago36:47

36:47

Spring is here. John was on the Over Engineered podcast to discuss running product processes on small teams. We are sunsetting Papercuts. We do a quick retro about why, and what we learned. John did a heroic refactor on the new client app. Daniel is making home improvementsBy Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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56: Chunks of work 33:57

8M ago33:57

33:57

John got married. We got paid by a delinquent client. John spoke at PHP x Philly. The client management app is getting really good, which can now invoice clients. Finally, John thinks tv is maybe bad.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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55: Vertical Slices 56:59

9M ago56:59

56:59

You need to build vertically, not horizontally. Also: Point Break is a good movie (Broey Deschanel's analysis). We helped a client dismiss a scammy wordpress agency. Squarespace is good. Daniel bought a suit. John is making a DJ set, and thanks Daniel for being the reason he learned to do that.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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54: Building without a blueprint 45:01

9M ago45:01

45:01

Why do old special effects look good? Pennsylvania needs better websites. John wants to speak a lot more. We are building our PM business, but don't have an obvious blueprint to follow.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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53: Be a great place to work (empaneling Bossman Chris) 1:18:23

9M ago1:18:23

1:18:23

We empanel Bossman Chris. Daniel and Chris survived Philly's Super Bowl celebration. We recap Laracon EU, and give high praise to Amsterdam. Chris counsels us on how to be a great place to work.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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52: Coaching clients to have more urgency 57:39

10M ago57:39

57:39

We talk retro video games. Daniel is wiring up his whole home. John preps for his Laracon talk. We recap what we learned from an uncomfortable client moment. We finalize our OKRs. John was on Joe Tannenbaum's podcast talking about games. John talks about doing jiu jitsu against the Dutch.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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51: John built the client management app 🤫 42:55

10M ago42:55

42:55

John built the MVP client app! Daniel watched Survivor. We brainstorm what we want out of our 2025 OKRs.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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50: Growing our product team 50:43

10M ago50:43

50:43

We talk about how it will work to have another PM around, the paradox of project scoping, good interview questions, and the power of learning from retros. On a less businessly note, we also talk Survivor, Pecking Order, gas leaks, soothing YouTube videos, cable management, and trying to feed our notes into ChatGPT.…

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49: What does success look like in 2025? 43:49

10M ago43:49

43:49

We do a little vision casting for what a great year would look like. We have some disagreements about sales, plan to remove ourselves as individual contributors from many clients, and to get better at scheduling / planning.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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48: Holiday party 1:07:33

11M ago1:07:33

1:07:33

Daniel is moving, and we have some business logistics to figure out. We want to hire a junior PM. We do a roundup of our OKR results. We also talk game of the year, John is about to release a digital game, and get into the weeds testing a board game.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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47: Killing Harvest 59:26

12M ago59:26

59:26

John saw Hamilton. Daniel is moving. We are finally building the client management app that we've long resisted. We talk through the requirements and speak ill of Harvest.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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46: We want to buy your business (maybe) 51:05

1y ago51:05

51:05

We watched good movies this weekend. We re-learn that good management is mostly about un-blocking people. John's journey into React led him back to Livewire and Alpine. John is speaking at PHP x NYC. And finally, we discuss the (probably terrible) idea of buying a small business / product.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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45: The client onboarding checklist 35:25

1y ago35:25

35:25

Daniel played Colossi. We make a checklist of all the things that have to happen when we bring on a new client. Thunk wants to buy a small business??By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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44: Clarifying roles for Silly Season v2 1:07:08

1y ago1:07:08

1:07:08

John went jet skiing at the Statue of Liberty. We love Bluesky. Tech bros keep getting one-shot by psychedelics. Business is great right now. We clarify our roles, headed into silly season. Daniel dreams up where Verbs will go in the long run.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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43: Getting personal about working styles 1:00:57

1y ago1:00:57

1:00:57

John used to be a choir boy. We remember being terrible at college, and wish we could have a second try. We talk working styles, and where we could do better. John brings up some important feedback from recent retros about how we work. John is writing a game in React! Daniel still insists that John start playing Deadlock.…

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42: Celebrating $1M in revenue! 1:02:43

1y ago1:02:43

1:02:43

(sorry for the terrible quality. SOMEONE forgot to record. We'll let you guess who). How to write a good email. John went to the Texas State Fair. We hit $1M in revenue, and Daniel bought John a gift. We touch briefly on the Wordpress drama. Joker 2 looks awful but fun. Finally, we review OKRs.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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41: Un-profitable software that helps people 57:58

1y ago57:58

57:58

Daniel survived a terrifying storm. We are building software to support Asheville. John is speaking at Laracon EU! We're in sales mode for Papercuts. We are making slow progress getting better at client communication. John watched THREE good movies.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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40: Pricing saga (part 3) 42:21

1y ago42:21

42:21

We've changed our pricing model again to solve a couple important problems. So far it is going great. We also talk about movies and games. It's an un-serious podcast!By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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39: Aaron said to put it out no matter what 49:46

1y ago49:46

49:46

Daniel's talk is out! Go watch it. We plan out future talks and screencasts. John talks about game projects he has in the works, and pushing Verbs to new levels of complexity. We talk about the killer future feature of Verbs: analytics.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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38: Laracon recap 1:06:43

1y ago1:06:43

1:06:43

We share all the gory details about shipping (and almost failing to ship) our game and Laracon talk. Here is a video of the fun we had. And here's a full blog post about it. We also go deep on game design, jiu jitsu, and more. This is an unserious episode.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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37: International man of mischief 1:01:59

1+ y ago1:01:59

1:01:59

We plan the rest of our 2024 goals / OKRs. We're making t-shirts. We're shilling Verbs. John has intrusive thoughts and a therapy moment. There's a little something for everyone in here.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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36: Thunk Pyramid Scheme (the super secret Laracon project) 44:30

1+ y ago44:30

44:30

We built a game for Laracon, and it rules. Also, John released his board game Colossi! Finally, we get started on our OKRs for the second half of the year.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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35: The problems that Papercuts solves 53:01

1+ y ago53:01

53:01

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 the problems we won't solve with Papercuts. At least not yet.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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34: Go to papercuts.io 49:49

1+ y ago49:49

49:49

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 where this app might go. If you work at an agency or run an agency, please reach out to [email protected]. We want to talk.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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33: This too shall pass 1:05:28

1+ y ago1:05:28

1:05:28

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 our OKRs from the first half of the year. Spoiler: we made good money, and made ourselves unhappy doing it.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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32: Monday morning scrutiny 54:45

1+ y ago54:45

54:45

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 discovers we might owe the state of New York $11,000.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler

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31: Buying our time back 42:12

1+ y ago42:12

42:12

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 time to invest in the future.By Daniel Coulbourne & John Drexler