Scaling DevTools Taylor Otwell - founder of Laravel
Taylor Otwell is the creator of the Laravel framework. Taylor has created numerous paid products that have generated millions, such as:
- Laravel Forge (server provisioning/management)
- Laravel Vapor (serverless Laravel hosting with AWS)
- Laravel Envoyer (zero downtime PHP deployments)
- Laravel Nova (Laravel admin panel)
In this interview, Taylor shares why he is now building Laravel Cloud - an infrastructure platform for Laravel apps and why Laravel Cloud needed VC funding.
We also cover:
- The different challenges of bootstrapped and VC funded startups
- How the Laravel ecosystem became so entrepreneurial
- Building products for the average joe developer
- The role of taste and craft in developer tools
- What Taylor and Adam Wathan learned from each other
- Fear and Taylor's comparison with Alex Honnold
This episode is brought to you by WorkOS. If you're thinking about selling to enterprise customers, WorkOS can help you add enterprise features like Single Sign On and audit logs.
Links:
Chapters:
00:00 The Journey of Laravel's Creator
02:48 Transitioning from Bootstrap to VC Funding
06:10 Building Laravel Cloud: A New Challenge
09:04 The Shift in Company Structure and Culture
11:50 Maintaining Quality and Usability in Development
15:09 Community Impact and Collaboration
17:56 Craftsmanship and Design Philosophy
20:45 Navigating Growth and Market Needs
23:54 Advice for Aspiring DevTool Founders
26:48 Future Directions and Innovations in Laravel
Thank you to Michael Grinich for making this happen. Thank you to Ostap Brehin for introducing me to Laravel. Thank you to Hank Taylor for helping me prep.