Podcast appearances and mentions of nathan kontny

Raising kids could be daunting, or it could ba lot of fun. Nathan is a startups founder and a dad who is making the best of every opportunity. We talk about his family, his work, and how the two intertwine to create a happy and healthy lifestyle. You can find Nathan on Twitter and on YouTube.Full show notes are on SmashNotes.-----Make your podcast audio sound awesome with ClipGain.io

Kicking off our Creator Series, Nathan joins Jared to talk about his journey from software developer to YouTube content creator, the challenges and rewards of presenting your authentic self, ups and downs in entrepreneurship, what's the deal with privacy and the tech industry, centralized vs. decentralized social media, diversity in startup culture, and introducing children to an engineer's mindset. There's also something about tampons in there…it makes sense in context, I swear!

Panel: Charles Max Wood Guest: Nathan Kontny This week on My Ruby Story, the panel talks with Nathan Kontny who has been in the Ruby community since 2005. He once was a chemical engineer, and then got into programming after a broken ankle incident; after that...the rest is history! Today, Nathan and Chuck talk about Ruby, how to begin a startup company, Rockstar Coders, balancing life, and much more! In particular, we dive pretty deep on: 1:05 – Chuck: E365 is the past episode you’ve been featured on. 1:14 – Nathan comments. 1:20 – Chuck. 1:56 – Nathan: Been in the community since 2005. I am a developer and entrepreneur. I do a lot of YouTube and videos nowadays. 2:50 – Chuck: How did you get into this field? 2:55 – Guest: It’s weird. I was a chemical engineer in the past. Back in the day 1996 I was learning... My love for it started through an internship. It was kind of a scary place dealing with harmful materials. Make sure you aren’t carrying uranium with you, and wear multiple gas masks at all times. There was an acid leak through someone’s shoulder. I didn’t love it, but something fortunate happened. I broke my ankle in one summer, and when I showed-up they made me go to this trail where I couldn’t be near the chemicals. Well, the director had computer problems and asked him to help with him. I put in code and out came results. In the chemical industry it was/is: “Maybe the chemicals will react to this chemical in this way...?” It was this dopamine rush for me. After that summer, I wanted to do programming. 7:16 – Chuck: Same thing for me. This will manifest and then boom. I had a friend change to computer major – and this led me to the field. 8:45 – Guest: Yeah, I had a different career shown to me and then I had a choice. 9:02 – Chuck: How did you find Ruby? 9:05 – Guest: I got a job but they wouldn’t let me program because I didn’t have enough experience. I had to teach myself. I taught myself Java – 9 CDs back in the day. I stayed up late, and did anything I could to teach myself. I taught myself Java. I got promoted in the business and became a Java developer. After 5 years of that I started doing freelance work. I love Ruby’s language and how simple it was to me. I have flirted with other languages, but I keep coming back to Ruby. 13:00 – Chuck: The same for me, too. Oh, and this makes this so much easier, and it extends so much easier. I have questions about being an entrepreneur. Anyways, you get into Ruby and Rails, you’ve done a bunch of things. What are you proud of and/or interested in with Rails? How do you feel like Rails helps with building things? 14:00 – Guest shares his past projects.  I was proud of just hosting Rails, because there were so many changes back in the day. I have helped with open source contributions back in 2009. There was a security problem and I discovered this. Nothing happened and I just went in and fixed the bug; an infamous contribution. I am proud of my performance work. I made a plug-in for that, etc. Also, work with Highrise. 17:23 – Chuck: Yep, Highrise people will know. I’ve used Highrise in the past. 17:38 – Nathan: Yeah. 17:50 – Chuck and Nathan go back and forth. 17:58 – Chuck: You’ve done all these different things. So for a start-up what advice would you give? People are doing their own thing – what’s your advice on an incubator, or doing it alone or raising capitol? 18:41 – Nathan: I take a middle road approach. You do what makes sense with your business. What works for you? I would do that. It’s hard to pick-on what incubators could be. Ownership is everything – once you don’t own it – you loose that control. Don’t loose your equity. I wanted more control over my box. I would be careful raising money – do that as a last effort. Keep your ownership as far as you can. But if you are up against the wall – then go there. 22:29 – Chuck: Now I have 2 jobs: podcasting and developing this course. I guess my issue is how do you find the balance there between your fulltime job and your new fulltime job? 23:01 – Nathan: Yeah it’s tough. I do, too, now I am building something and trying to balance between that and Rockstar Coders. Clients have meetings and there are fires. There is no magic to it. I thought bunching your days into clusters would help me with focus, but it’s not good for the business. I don’t think the batch thing isn’t working for me. A little bit on, a little bit off. I think MT on Rockstar. Wednesday I take a half-day. Thursday all start-up, etc. It’s just balance. It can’t be lopsided one way or the other. Just living with my girlfriend and now wife was easy, but having a kid in the evening is tricky. I create nice walls that don’t interfere. I don’t know that’s it. 25:55 – Chuck: It sounds like they are completely separate. What I am building affects my people at work. I find the balance hard, too. 26:21 – Nathan: It’s also good to have partners who support you. 27:19 – Chuck: Do you start looking for help with marketing, or...? 27:27 – Nathan: Yeah that’s hard, too. Maybe? Some people aren’t in the US and they might be more affordable. My friend found someone in Europe who is awesome and their fees are cheaper. Their cost of living is cheaper than the U.S. There are talented folks out there. 28:50 – Chuck: Yeah, I had help with a guy from Argentina. I am in Utah and he was an hour ahead. So scheduling was easy. 29:27 – Nathan: I have a hard time giving that up, too. It’s hard to hire someone through startup work. Startup work needs to be done quickly, etc. BUT when things solidify then get help. 30:28 – Chuck: They see it as risky proposition. It seems like the cost is getting better so the risk is there. 30:48 – Nathan: There is tons of stops and goes if I look back into my career. In the moment they feel like failures, but really it was just a stepping-stone. It was just a source for good ideas, and writings, and things to talk at podcasters about, etc. I just feel like short-term they feel risky but in the long-term you can really squeeze out value from it. I am having trouble, right now, finding customers, it could be risky, and there might not be a market for this. But I am learning about x, y, and z. Everything is a stepping-stone for me now. I don’t feel like it’s a failure anymore to me. 32:50 – Chuck: What are you doing now? 32:55 – Guest: Rockstar. 3 / 4 teenagers want to be YouTubers! That’s just crazy and that will keep going. I want to be apart of that. I am making programs so people can make their own videos. That’s what I am fooling around with now. 35:06 – Chuck: Yeah we will have a channel. There is album art. I’m working on it.  I will start recording this week. 35:43 – Nathan: It is hard to get traction there. I don’t know why? Maybe video watchers need quicker transitions to keep interested. 36:12 – Chuck: I could supply some theories but I don’t know. I think with YouTube you actually have to watch it. Podcasts are gaining traction because you can go wherever with it. 36:51 – Nathan: Right now commuting can only be an auditory experience. When we get self-driving cars then videos will take off. 37:14 – Chuck: Picks! 37:19 – Advertisement!  Links: Ruby Elixir Rails Highrise Rockstar Coders Nathan’s Medium Nathan’s Twitter Nathan’s LinkedIn Nathan’s YouTube Past Episode with Nathan – DevChat.TV Sponsors: Code Badges Get a Coder Job Cache Fly Picks: Charles Board Games: Bubble Talk Shadow Hunters Apples to Apples The Resistance Airbnb Zion National Park Nathan Writing is important. Masterclass! Book: Living with a Seal Book: Living with the Monks Sara Blakely – Spanx

Panel: Charles Max Wood Guest: Nathan Kontny This week on My Ruby Story, the panel talks with Nathan Kontny who has been in the Ruby community since 2005. He once was a chemical engineer, and then got into programming after a broken ankle incident; after that...the rest is history! Today, Nathan and Chuck talk about Ruby, how to begin a startup company, Rockstar Coders, balancing life, and much more! In particular, we dive pretty deep on: 1:05 – Chuck: E365 is the past episode you’ve been featured on. 1:14 – Nathan comments. 1:20 – Chuck. 1:56 – Nathan: Been in the community since 2005. I am a developer and entrepreneur. I do a lot of YouTube and videos nowadays. 2:50 – Chuck: How did you get into this field? 2:55 – Guest: It’s weird. I was a chemical engineer in the past. Back in the day 1996 I was learning... My love for it started through an internship. It was kind of a scary place dealing with harmful materials. Make sure you aren’t carrying uranium with you, and wear multiple gas masks at all times. There was an acid leak through someone’s shoulder. I didn’t love it, but something fortunate happened. I broke my ankle in one summer, and when I showed-up they made me go to this trail where I couldn’t be near the chemicals. Well, the director had computer problems and asked him to help with him. I put in code and out came results. In the chemical industry it was/is: “Maybe the chemicals will react to this chemical in this way...?” It was this dopamine rush for me. After that summer, I wanted to do programming. 7:16 – Chuck: Same thing for me. This will manifest and then boom. I had a friend change to computer major – and this led me to the field. 8:45 – Guest: Yeah, I had a different career shown to me and then I had a choice. 9:02 – Chuck: How did you find Ruby? 9:05 – Guest: I got a job but they wouldn’t let me program because I didn’t have enough experience. I had to teach myself. I taught myself Java – 9 CDs back in the day. I stayed up late, and did anything I could to teach myself. I taught myself Java. I got promoted in the business and became a Java developer. After 5 years of that I started doing freelance work. I love Ruby’s language and how simple it was to me. I have flirted with other languages, but I keep coming back to Ruby. 13:00 – Chuck: The same for me, too. Oh, and this makes this so much easier, and it extends so much easier. I have questions about being an entrepreneur. Anyways, you get into Ruby and Rails, you’ve done a bunch of things. What are you proud of and/or interested in with Rails? How do you feel like Rails helps with building things? 14:00 – Guest shares his past projects.  I was proud of just hosting Rails, because there were so many changes back in the day. I have helped with open source contributions back in 2009. There was a security problem and I discovered this. Nothing happened and I just went in and fixed the bug; an infamous contribution. I am proud of my performance work. I made a plug-in for that, etc. Also, work with Highrise. 17:23 – Chuck: Yep, Highrise people will know. I’ve used Highrise in the past. 17:38 – Nathan: Yeah. 17:50 – Chuck and Nathan go back and forth. 17:58 – Chuck: You’ve done all these different things. So for a start-up what advice would you give? People are doing their own thing – what’s your advice on an incubator, or doing it alone or raising capitol? 18:41 – Nathan: I take a middle road approach. You do what makes sense with your business. What works for you? I would do that. It’s hard to pick-on what incubators could be. Ownership is everything – once you don’t own it – you loose that control. Don’t loose your equity. I wanted more control over my box. I would be careful raising money – do that as a last effort. Keep your ownership as far as you can. But if you are up against the wall – then go there. 22:29 – Chuck: Now I have 2 jobs: podcasting and developing this course. I guess my issue is how do you find the balance there between your fulltime job and your new fulltime job? 23:01 – Nathan: Yeah it’s tough. I do, too, now I am building something and trying to balance between that and Rockstar Coders. Clients have meetings and there are fires. There is no magic to it. I thought bunching your days into clusters would help me with focus, but it’s not good for the business. I don’t think the batch thing isn’t working for me. A little bit on, a little bit off. I think MT on Rockstar. Wednesday I take a half-day. Thursday all start-up, etc. It’s just balance. It can’t be lopsided one way or the other. Just living with my girlfriend and now wife was easy, but having a kid in the evening is tricky. I create nice walls that don’t interfere. I don’t know that’s it. 25:55 – Chuck: It sounds like they are completely separate. What I am building affects my people at work. I find the balance hard, too. 26:21 – Nathan: It’s also good to have partners who support you. 27:19 – Chuck: Do you start looking for help with marketing, or...? 27:27 – Nathan: Yeah that’s hard, too. Maybe? Some people aren’t in the US and they might be more affordable. My friend found someone in Europe who is awesome and their fees are cheaper. Their cost of living is cheaper than the U.S. There are talented folks out there. 28:50 – Chuck: Yeah, I had help with a guy from Argentina. I am in Utah and he was an hour ahead. So scheduling was easy. 29:27 – Nathan: I have a hard time giving that up, too. It’s hard to hire someone through startup work. Startup work needs to be done quickly, etc. BUT when things solidify then get help. 30:28 – Chuck: They see it as risky proposition. It seems like the cost is getting better so the risk is there. 30:48 – Nathan: There is tons of stops and goes if I look back into my career. In the moment they feel like failures, but really it was just a stepping-stone. It was just a source for good ideas, and writings, and things to talk at podcasters about, etc. I just feel like short-term they feel risky but in the long-term you can really squeeze out value from it. I am having trouble, right now, finding customers, it could be risky, and there might not be a market for this. But I am learning about x, y, and z. Everything is a stepping-stone for me now. I don’t feel like it’s a failure anymore to me. 32:50 – Chuck: What are you doing now? 32:55 – Guest: Rockstar. 3 / 4 teenagers want to be YouTubers! That’s just crazy and that will keep going. I want to be apart of that. I am making programs so people can make their own videos. That’s what I am fooling around with now. 35:06 – Chuck: Yeah we will have a channel. There is album art. I’m working on it.  I will start recording this week. 35:43 – Nathan: It is hard to get traction there. I don’t know why? Maybe video watchers need quicker transitions to keep interested. 36:12 – Chuck: I could supply some theories but I don’t know. I think with YouTube you actually have to watch it. Podcasts are gaining traction because you can go wherever with it. 36:51 – Nathan: Right now commuting can only be an auditory experience. When we get self-driving cars then videos will take off. 37:14 – Chuck: Picks! 37:19 – Advertisement!  Links: Ruby Elixir Rails Highrise Rockstar Coders Nathan’s Medium Nathan’s Twitter Nathan’s LinkedIn Nathan’s YouTube Past Episode with Nathan – DevChat.TV Sponsors: Code Badges Get a Coder Job Cache Fly Picks: Charles Board Games: Bubble Talk Shadow Hunters Apples to Apples The Resistance Airbnb Zion National Park Nathan Writing is important. Masterclass! Book: Living with a Seal Book: Living with the Monks Sara Blakely – Spanx

Panel: Charles Max Wood Guest: Nathan Kontny This week on My Ruby Story, the panel talks with Nathan Kontny who has been in the Ruby community since 2005. He once was a chemical engineer, and then got into programming after a broken ankle incident; after that...the rest is history! Today, Nathan and Chuck talk about Ruby, how to begin a startup company, Rockstar Coders, balancing life, and much more! In particular, we dive pretty deep on: 1:05 – Chuck: E365 is the past episode you’ve been featured on. 1:14 – Nathan comments. 1:20 – Chuck. 1:56 – Nathan: Been in the community since 2005. I am a developer and entrepreneur. I do a lot of YouTube and videos nowadays. 2:50 – Chuck: How did you get into this field? 2:55 – Guest: It’s weird. I was a chemical engineer in the past. Back in the day 1996 I was learning... My love for it started through an internship. It was kind of a scary place dealing with harmful materials. Make sure you aren’t carrying uranium with you, and wear multiple gas masks at all times. There was an acid leak through someone’s shoulder. I didn’t love it, but something fortunate happened. I broke my ankle in one summer, and when I showed-up they made me go to this trail where I couldn’t be near the chemicals. Well, the director had computer problems and asked him to help with him. I put in code and out came results. In the chemical industry it was/is: “Maybe the chemicals will react to this chemical in this way...?” It was this dopamine rush for me. After that summer, I wanted to do programming. 7:16 – Chuck: Same thing for me. This will manifest and then boom. I had a friend change to computer major – and this led me to the field. 8:45 – Guest: Yeah, I had a different career shown to me and then I had a choice. 9:02 – Chuck: How did you find Ruby? 9:05 – Guest: I got a job but they wouldn’t let me program because I didn’t have enough experience. I had to teach myself. I taught myself Java – 9 CDs back in the day. I stayed up late, and did anything I could to teach myself. I taught myself Java. I got promoted in the business and became a Java developer. After 5 years of that I started doing freelance work. I love Ruby’s language and how simple it was to me. I have flirted with other languages, but I keep coming back to Ruby. 13:00 – Chuck: The same for me, too. Oh, and this makes this so much easier, and it extends so much easier. I have questions about being an entrepreneur. Anyways, you get into Ruby and Rails, you’ve done a bunch of things. What are you proud of and/or interested in with Rails? How do you feel like Rails helps with building things? 14:00 – Guest shares his past projects.  I was proud of just hosting Rails, because there were so many changes back in the day. I have helped with open source contributions back in 2009. There was a security problem and I discovered this. Nothing happened and I just went in and fixed the bug; an infamous contribution. I am proud of my performance work. I made a plug-in for that, etc. Also, work with Highrise. 17:23 – Chuck: Yep, Highrise people will know. I’ve used Highrise in the past. 17:38 – Nathan: Yeah. 17:50 – Chuck and Nathan go back and forth. 17:58 – Chuck: You’ve done all these different things. So for a start-up what advice would you give? People are doing their own thing – what’s your advice on an incubator, or doing it alone or raising capitol? 18:41 – Nathan: I take a middle road approach. You do what makes sense with your business. What works for you? I would do that. It’s hard to pick-on what incubators could be. Ownership is everything – once you don’t own it – you loose that control. Don’t loose your equity. I wanted more control over my box. I would be careful raising money – do that as a last effort. Keep your ownership as far as you can. But if you are up against the wall – then go there. 22:29 – Chuck: Now I have 2 jobs: podcasting and developing this course. I guess my issue is how do you find the balance there between your fulltime job and your new fulltime job? 23:01 – Nathan: Yeah it’s tough. I do, too, now I am building something and trying to balance between that and Rockstar Coders. Clients have meetings and there are fires. There is no magic to it. I thought bunching your days into clusters would help me with focus, but it’s not good for the business. I don’t think the batch thing isn’t working for me. A little bit on, a little bit off. I think MT on Rockstar. Wednesday I take a half-day. Thursday all start-up, etc. It’s just balance. It can’t be lopsided one way or the other. Just living with my girlfriend and now wife was easy, but having a kid in the evening is tricky. I create nice walls that don’t interfere. I don’t know that’s it. 25:55 – Chuck: It sounds like they are completely separate. What I am building affects my people at work. I find the balance hard, too. 26:21 – Nathan: It’s also good to have partners who support you. 27:19 – Chuck: Do you start looking for help with marketing, or...? 27:27 – Nathan: Yeah that’s hard, too. Maybe? Some people aren’t in the US and they might be more affordable. My friend found someone in Europe who is awesome and their fees are cheaper. Their cost of living is cheaper than the U.S. There are talented folks out there. 28:50 – Chuck: Yeah, I had help with a guy from Argentina. I am in Utah and he was an hour ahead. So scheduling was easy. 29:27 – Nathan: I have a hard time giving that up, too. It’s hard to hire someone through startup work. Startup work needs to be done quickly, etc. BUT when things solidify then get help. 30:28 – Chuck: They see it as risky proposition. It seems like the cost is getting better so the risk is there. 30:48 – Nathan: There is tons of stops and goes if I look back into my career. In the moment they feel like failures, but really it was just a stepping-stone. It was just a source for good ideas, and writings, and things to talk at podcasters about, etc. I just feel like short-term they feel risky but in the long-term you can really squeeze out value from it. I am having trouble, right now, finding customers, it could be risky, and there might not be a market for this. But I am learning about x, y, and z. Everything is a stepping-stone for me now. I don’t feel like it’s a failure anymore to me. 32:50 – Chuck: What are you doing now? 32:55 – Guest: Rockstar. 3 / 4 teenagers want to be YouTubers! That’s just crazy and that will keep going. I want to be apart of that. I am making programs so people can make their own videos. That’s what I am fooling around with now. 35:06 – Chuck: Yeah we will have a channel. There is album art. I’m working on it.  I will start recording this week. 35:43 – Nathan: It is hard to get traction there. I don’t know why? Maybe video watchers need quicker transitions to keep interested. 36:12 – Chuck: I could supply some theories but I don’t know. I think with YouTube you actually have to watch it. Podcasts are gaining traction because you can go wherever with it. 36:51 – Nathan: Right now commuting can only be an auditory experience. When we get self-driving cars then videos will take off. 37:14 – Chuck: Picks! 37:19 – Advertisement!  Links: Ruby Elixir Rails Highrise Rockstar Coders Nathan’s Medium Nathan’s Twitter Nathan’s LinkedIn Nathan’s YouTube Past Episode with Nathan – DevChat.TV Sponsors: Code Badges Get a Coder Job Cache Fly Picks: Charles Board Games: Bubble Talk Shadow Hunters Apples to Apples The Resistance Airbnb Zion National Park Nathan Writing is important. Masterclass! Book: Living with a Seal Book: Living with the Monks Sara Blakely – Spanx

Panel: Charles Max Wood Dave Kimura Eric Berry David Richards Special Guests: Nathan Kontny In this episode of Ruby Rogues, the panelists talk to Nathan Kontny about his video Should I use Ruby on Rails? Nathan has been a Rails developer since about 2005 when he created a startup and has since been making software and starting business. He has just recently been running the CRM Highrise and is now onto more projects elsewhere. They talk about his prior experiences as a software developer, why he chose to use Rails when creating software, and much more! In particular, we dive pretty deep on: Nathan intro Should I use Ruby on Rails? Video Engineer for Obama’s re-election campaign Created Draft Inkling using Rails Worked ad Y Combinator Chose Rails to create startups Lives are better when people feel like they’re being heard The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni Why did you use Rails over something like Django? Looking into discussion boards and the libraries already created What made you think it would stay the hottest? Hosting was awful Using the hype of Rails to get good press for his startup When did you first feel confident in your decision to use Rails? Rackspace Do you still use Rails or have you switched to something like Node? Still confident in his decision and loves it as a platform Using Rails for what it’s good for And much, much more! Links: Rails Should I use Ruby on Rails? Highrise Y Combinator Draft The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni Django Rackspace Node @natekontny Nathan’s Medium Nathan’s YouTube Nathan’s GitHub NateKontny@gmail.com Sponsors FreshBooks Linode Loot Crate Picks: Charles The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni Life Promises for Leaders by Zig Ziglar Spend time with the people you care about Dave Nest Hello Okyere and Acheampong House Fire GoFundMe David The Right Stuff Eric ThoughtWorks Tech Radar Amazon Echo Spot Nathan How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams Something Really New by Denis J. Hauptly Bluetooth Air Filter

Panel: Charles Max Wood Dave Kimura Eric Berry David Richards Special Guests: Nathan Kontny In this episode of Ruby Rogues, the panelists talk to Nathan Kontny about his video Should I use Ruby on Rails? Nathan has been a Rails developer since about 2005 when he created a startup and has since been making software and starting business. He has just recently been running the CRM Highrise and is now onto more projects elsewhere. They talk about his prior experiences as a software developer, why he chose to use Rails when creating software, and much more! In particular, we dive pretty deep on: Nathan intro Should I use Ruby on Rails? Video Engineer for Obama’s re-election campaign Created Draft Inkling using Rails Worked ad Y Combinator Chose Rails to create startups Lives are better when people feel like they’re being heard The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni Why did you use Rails over something like Django? Looking into discussion boards and the libraries already created What made you think it would stay the hottest? Hosting was awful Using the hype of Rails to get good press for his startup When did you first feel confident in your decision to use Rails? Rackspace Do you still use Rails or have you switched to something like Node? Still confident in his decision and loves it as a platform Using Rails for what it’s good for And much, much more! Links: Rails Should I use Ruby on Rails? Highrise Y Combinator Draft The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni Django Rackspace Node @natekontny Nathan’s Medium Nathan’s YouTube Nathan’s GitHub NateKontny@gmail.com Sponsors FreshBooks Linode Loot Crate Picks: Charles The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni Life Promises for Leaders by Zig Ziglar Spend time with the people you care about Dave Nest Hello Okyere and Acheampong House Fire GoFundMe David The Right Stuff Eric ThoughtWorks Tech Radar Amazon Echo Spot Nathan How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams Something Really New by Denis J. Hauptly Bluetooth Air Filter

Panel: Charles Max Wood Dave Kimura Eric Berry David Richards Special Guests: Nathan Kontny In this episode of Ruby Rogues, the panelists talk to Nathan Kontny about his video Should I use Ruby on Rails? Nathan has been a Rails developer since about 2005 when he created a startup and has since been making software and starting business. He has just recently been running the CRM Highrise and is now onto more projects elsewhere. They talk about his prior experiences as a software developer, why he chose to use Rails when creating software, and much more! In particular, we dive pretty deep on: Nathan intro Should I use Ruby on Rails? Video Engineer for Obama’s re-election campaign Created Draft Inkling using Rails Worked ad Y Combinator Chose Rails to create startups Lives are better when people feel like they’re being heard The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni Why did you use Rails over something like Django? Looking into discussion boards and the libraries already created What made you think it would stay the hottest? Hosting was awful Using the hype of Rails to get good press for his startup When did you first feel confident in your decision to use Rails? Rackspace Do you still use Rails or have you switched to something like Node? Still confident in his decision and loves it as a platform Using Rails for what it’s good for And much, much more! Links: Rails Should I use Ruby on Rails? Highrise Y Combinator Draft The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni Django Rackspace Node @natekontny Nathan’s Medium Nathan’s YouTube Nathan’s GitHub NateKontny@gmail.com Sponsors FreshBooks Linode Loot Crate Picks: Charles The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni Life Promises for Leaders by Zig Ziglar Spend time with the people you care about Dave Nest Hello Okyere and Acheampong House Fire GoFundMe David The Right Stuff Eric ThoughtWorks Tech Radar Amazon Echo Spot Nathan How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams Something Really New by Denis J. Hauptly Bluetooth Air Filter

Nathan Kontny is the CEO of Highrise, the SaaS CRM app that was originally developed by the 37Signals team, the makers of Basecamp. The Show Notes Highrise Basecamp Inkling Draft Zynga Groupon Y Combinator LeadGenius Airbnb inDinero Heroku Zenefits TaskRabbit Nathan Kontny's YouTube Channel Brian Chesky Dustin Curtis Justin Kan Jason Fried Nathan on Twitter Omer on Twitter Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to the podcast Leave a rating and review Follow Omer on Twitter Need help with your SaaS? Join SaaS Club Plus: our membership and community for new and early-stage SaaS founders. Join and get training & support. Join SaaS Club Launch: a 12-week group coaching program to help you get your SaaS from zero to your first $10K revenue. Apply for SaaS Club Accelerate: If you'd like to work directly with Omer 1:1, then request a free strategy session.

Nathan Kontny is the CEO of Highrise, the SaaS CRM app that was originally developed by the 37Signals team, the makers of Basecamp.The Show NotesHighriseBasecampInklingDraftZyngaGrouponY CombinatorLeadGeniusAirbnbinDineroHerokuZenefitsTaskRabbitNathan Kontny's YouTube ChannelBrian CheskyDustin CurtisJustin KanJason FriedNathan on TwitterOmer on TwitterEnjoyed this episode?Subscribe to the podcastLeave a rating and reviewFollow Omer on TwitterNeed help with your SaaS?Join SaaS Club Plus: our membership and community for new and early-stage SaaS founders. Join and get training & support.Join SaaS Club Launch: a 12-week group coaching program to help you get your SaaS from zero to your first $10K revenue.Apply for SaaS Club Accelerate: If you'd like to work directly with Omer 1:1, then request a free strategy session.

Not getting replies from customers? Are you wondering why, after sending tons of emails, only a few are showing interest? In today's episode, Nathan Kontny shares with us the challenges salespersons face when outreaching as well as some personalized outreach strategies for you to see great results. Here are the highlights of my conversation with […] The post TSE 781: How to Personalize Your Outreach in Bulk appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Segment 1:Nathan Kontny is the CEO of Highrise, a simple and easy to use CRM for entrepreneurs.Segment 2: Jim McCormick has shaped capital campaigns, sales strategies, and major donor programs for clients from the National World War II Museum to multiple international companies. Jim is the author of the new book “Body Language Sales Secrets”.Segment 3: Michael Gale is the co-author of the Wall Street Journal Bestseller, The Digital Helix: Transforming Your Organization's DNA to Thrive in the Digital Age. Segment 4:Barry Moltz shares how to get your business unstuck.Segment 5: Jason Sehorn is a former NFL Cornerback, who spent nine years as a member of the New York Giants ('94-'02) and one with the St. Louis Rams ('03). Most recently he has been a college football analyst for ESPNU in Charlotte, NC.Sponsored by Nextiva.

Nathan Kontny, the CEO of Highrise, is a tech leader whose career has followed a somewhat unconventional path. He was trained as a nuclear chemist and discovered a love for software programming when a broken ankle kept him from working in the lab during a summer internship. He'd would go on to found not one, or two but three companies, including a ‘Zynga for advertisers' and Draft, the writing software he always wished he had. Through all these experiences, he'd learn that tapping into passion, be it for software and even writing, has made opportunities appear that he never imagined. In this week's podcast, he'll talk about what he's learned about passion, how writing shapes how he leads and why he hosts job interviews over chat.

What it’s about In the hustle and bustle of business it’s easy to think that most companies, large or small, are cold, corporate, and don’t care about you as a customer. Nathan Kontny wants to change the way business is done by making it personal. Whether it’s making an email more personal, or seeking out other business owners for advice on a product you’re working on, getting personal is the key to success for Nathan. In this interview, I talk to Nathan about how he built a relationship over time to take over Highrise, why he believes in being flexible and adaptable, and the importance of opening up about yourself.

Business Systems Expored: Nathan Kontny - How To Effectively Manage a Team by Best Of Tech & Startups

In this episode of Business Systems Explored, we speak to Nathan Kontny, the CEO of the CRM platform Highrise. Nathan breaks down the team management systems he used to effectively take over and run a busy software company.

In this episode we talk with Nathan Kontny. Nate is the CEO of the popular CRM Highrise and the creator of the awesome online writing platform Draft. Nate has some great stories and insights to share from his experience as the founder of two YCombinator startup companies. What you’ll discover in this show: Why you want to build a company that solves your problems. Why you need to truly care about the problem you’re solving. What Nate learned from the unexpected lack of interest he received from angel investors at YCombinator’s Demo Day. Why you want to sell your product before your finished. The indicator during the sales process you need that lets you know you’re on track. How Nate discovered the importance of passion and excitement, and how it carries him through the process. Why you want to ask, “What’s my purpose?” before you start. Why building software that intrigued Nate was software that didn’t intrigue the world. How he learned to find the true problems worth solving. Why Nate said it’s really hard to solve other people’s problems. How he’s using these strategies to make Highrise better and easier to use for his clients. How Nate uses the basis of Sherlock Holmes to become better with what he does. Why Nate doesn’t find logic as the best indicator to follow. When you should trust your gut and instincts. How marketing events won’t build a business. How he discovered the importance of long-term audience building. The importance of unique ways to communicate new feature releases to your clients. How Nate is learning and working through the challenges after becoming CEO at Highrise. Why Nate asks, “Am I working on a real problem or am I working on something that I just find curious?” The importance of a good mentor or teacher. View Original Post at FailToLearn.com

Jason shows of the latest work they've done in Basecamp 3 to help with onboarding new users. There's a lot of great, inspiring, ideas here and more to come. Please subscribe to our channel! We - Jason Fried and Nathan Kontny - make new videos every day about the challenges we have and things we learn about product development and running a business.  https://www.youtube.com/c/WorkInProgressShow or on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/work-in-progress/id1042673913 Twitter: https://twitter.com/jasonfried https://twitter.com/natekontny Products:  http://basecamp.com http://highrisehq.com Blog: https://signalvnoise.com/ http://ninjasandrobots.com/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/jason.fried https://instagram.com/imn8

Showing off some work. Discovered something about companies in Highrise that is giving people trouble. Showing some ideas on how to fix that. Also discussing how we arrived (FINALLY) with a good name for the new bulk email feature of Highrise. Please subscribe to our channel! We - Jason Fried and Nathan Kontny - make new videos every day about the challenges we have and things we learn about product development and running a business.  https://www.youtube.com/c/WorkInProgressShow or on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/work-in-progress/id1042673913 Twitter: https://twitter.com/jasonfried https://twitter.com/natekontny Products:  http://basecamp.com http://highrisehq.com Blog: https://signalvnoise.com/ http://ninjasandrobots.com/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/jason.fried https://instagram.com/imn8

We talk about an interesting feature idea that just gives people the ability to give themselves clean slates of your product. Jason also talks about a revelation he's had about how powerful in-person product demos are. Please subscribe to our channel! We - Jason Fried and Nathan Kontny - make new videos every day about the challenges we have and things we learn about product development and running a business. https://www.youtube.com/c/WorkInProgressShow or on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/work-in-progress/id1042673913 Twitter: https://twitter.com/jasonfried https://twitter.com/natekontny Products: http://basecamp.com http://highrisehq.com Blog: https://signalvnoise.com/ http://ninjasandrobots.com/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/jason.fried https://instagram.com/imn8

We talk about solving anxiety for our customers. And how simply organizing something differently can have a huge impact. We answer questions on Blab about our feelings about Silicon Valley, how we balance design and development and more. Please subscribe to our channel! We - Jason Fried and Nathan Kontny - make new videos every day about the challenges we have and things we learn about product development and running a business. https://www.youtube.com/c/WorkInProgressShow or on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/work-in-progress/id1042673913 Twitter: https://twitter.com/jasonfried https://twitter.com/natekontny Products: http://basecamp.com http://highrisehq.com Blog: https://signalvnoise.com/ http://ninjasandrobots.com/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/jason.fried https://instagram.com/imn8

We talk about some observations I had from a recent trip, what it's like for us to plan around holidays and vacations, and we get into things like split testing pricing plans. Please subscribe to our channel! We - Jason Fried and Nathan Kontny - make new videos every day about the challenges we have and things we learn about product development and running a business. https://www.youtube.com/c/WorkInProgressShow or on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/work-in-progress/id1042673913 Twitter: https://twitter.com/jasonfried https://twitter.com/natekontny Products: http://basecamp.com http://highrisehq.com Blog: https://signalvnoise.com/ http://ninjasandrobots.com/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/jason.fried https://instagram.com/imn8

Jason's been doing some in-person demos with the Art Institute of Chicago. We talk about the value of doing those even though they don't makes sense from a "value of time" perspective. We also talk about how we do experiments in our companies and when we decided to dive into the latest technology frameworks. Please subscribe to our channel! We - Jason Fried and Nathan Kontny - make new videos every day about the challenges we have and things we learn about product development and running a business. https://www.youtube.com/c/WorkInProgressShow or on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/work-in-progress/id1042673913 Twitter: https://twitter.com/jasonfried https://twitter.com/natekontny Products: http://basecamp.com http://highrisehq.com Blog: https://signalvnoise.com/ http://ninjasandrobots.com/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/jason.fried https://instagram.com/imn8

Nathan is the Founder of two Y Combinator companies: Inkling and Cityposh. Inkling was in the second batch of YC in the winter of 2006 and is still profitable and growing today. After Cityposh, he was a software engineer for President Obama’s re-election campaign. Nathan’s new focus is Draft, which we are sure to dive into today. Below are two free resources to IGNITE your Entrepreneurial journey!FreePodcastCourse.com: A free 15-day course that will teach you how to create, grow, and monetize YOUR Podcast!TheWebinarCourse.com: A free 10-day course that will teach you how to create and present Webinars that convert!

Processes are part of being a business owner and creative. We could even make the case that it s part of being human. Whether we are aware of them or not we have a method for how we do things. Those systems may not be efficient but they exist. Creative and developer Nathan Kontny has shaped his entrepreneurial efforts around finding ways to improve upon the existing processes of other creatives and business owners. He does this as the CEO of Highrise as well as with solutions he has built like the writing platform Draft. Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by WeaveWriter. WeaveWriter empowers you to write every day, tell better stories and make every word count through the power of habit. You can sign-up for the Free WeaveWriter Roadmap to jumpstart your writing habit. Links from the show @natekontny ninjasandrobots.com Thanks to Triple Scoop Music for providing the music for today s show and thanks to our wonderful audio producer Anna Queza of AQreative. The post Ep. 030 Strategic Processes with Nathan Kontny appeared first on Fastermind.co.

Nathan is the Founder of two Y Combinator companies: Inkling and Cityposh. Inkling was in the second batch of YC in the winter of 2006 and is still profitable and growing today. After Cityposh, he was a software engineer for President Obama’s re-election campaign. Nathan’s new focus is Draft, which we are sure to dive into today. Visit EOFire.com

Join Jerry and Jackie as they interview, all the way from Chicago, Nathan Kontny. Nathan is the brains behind the fantastic blog ninjasandrobots.com He was a software engineer on the Obama Presidential Campaign (and fist bumped by the President himself) and he is currently hard at work on an app called "Draft". Draft is a project to help people become better writers and we're going to be asking him all about it.