If you’ve ever been to a Laracon, you’d be mistaken for thinking you’d just walked into a music festival, not a PHP framework conference. Taylor Otwell founded Laravel in his native Little Rock, Arkansas, and has spent most of the past 14 years bootstrapping a company known for building exceptional product experiences alongside a community of over 1 million people. On this episode of Spotlight On, Taylor joins Accel’s Miles Clements to discuss building outside of Silicon Valley, why software is an excellent vehicle for viral community growth, and why he ultimately decided to take on investment. 

Conversation Highlights: 

00:00 – The beginnings of Laravel

03:24 – On choosing to bootstrap and build a company outside of Silicon Valley

7:59 – Navigating the tension between open source and commercialization 

11:50 – How Taylor’s definition of “selling out his community” changed 

14:27 – What’s changed since Taylor took on fundraising after 13 years of bootstrapping

17:29 – What it takes to go from programmer to CEO 

20:56 – Taylor’s secrets to scaling (and keeping a four-meeting week) 

23:31 – How Laravel’s kept its DNA while doubling in a year  

29:50 – How Taylor built a 1 million+ strong community around a PHP framework

Mentioned in this episode: 

• Our Series A Investment in Laravel: The Future of Shipping

• How Sentry's David Cramer Turned an Open Source Side Project into a $3B Business

Check out Taylor’s artifact: The Founder of Laravel on Centering Mission and Users During Growth 

Featured: Taylor Otwell, CEO and Founder of Laravel and Miles Clements, Partner at Accel