The Anycast with Matt Levine

Full episode launches on May 25  

In this episode of The Anycast, Matt sits down with Fly.io CEO Kurt Mackey to talk about podcasting, the approach many have toward customer satisfaction, and going toe-to-toe against Amazon’s AWS. Matt talks about how, back in 2004-2005, today’s guest Kurt Mackey introduced him to something he had never heard of before and that he thought was the dumbest thing he had ever heard: podcasts. Kurt shares his origin story of growing up in the early age of the Internet and building a company from scratch in 2011, as well as his current company Fly.io. Matt and Kurt go over the expectation curve and how we approach technology with surprise and disappointment, then surprise again. Kurt has a wide experience with databases – he and Matt touch upon that, startups, and the two sides of funding. Kurt discusses how it feels to be competing against trillion-dollar businesses as the primary startup competitors. Matt and Kurt go over the edge, what the future of apps will look like, and the performance-perception of speed connection. Kurt opens up about how, in order to balance his work and his personal life, he needs something that actually makes him stop thinking about work (like going on an electric skateboard!). What role do processes and bureaucracy play in the startup world? Kurt shares his thoughts on that. At Fly.io, they have a very unique hiring process. Kurt takes back the curtain to illustrate what it looks like – plus, he shares what he considers the coolest thing Fly.io has built so far. Kurt talks about the best and worst days of his business career. Mentioned in This Episode: Fly.io  Fly.io on Twitter (@FlyDotIO) RubyonRails.org MongoDB.com Jason Calacanis - Calacanis.com Hacker News

Full episode launches on May 11

In this episode of The Anycast, Matt sits down with someone he considers a friend and a person who has had three of the world’s coolest jobs: Jay Adelson. They have a conversation about Jay’s career and influences, his approach to hiring, how Jay sees social media today vs. the beginning, why a caring founder shouldn’t be penalized, and more. Jay shares his origin story and how he got to where he is today – including winning the Michigan Student Film Festival with a super 8 movie called The Invisible Man at the age of 8, starting the first Internet television network, running a social media company in 2006, and being part of the business that changed his perspective: Centric Electric. Jay goes over how Scorbit came to be and how it got influenced by Jay’s son Benjamin and Jay’s passion for pinballs. Matt and Jay talk about the role of community in what Jay focuses on, how hard it was to build the hardware, and how he approached coding. Matt asks Jay whether he’s good at hiring or not, as well as how he decides if a candidate is the right person for the job. The mailbag question revolves around where Jay believes pinball is today and where it’s going. Jay goes over how he sees social media today versus social media of the early days, as well as what he’s particularly proud of. Social media plays a role in people tending to always compare their insides to everybody else’s (filtered) exterior. Matt and Jay share their thoughts on what that means in regard to taking action, making things happen, and achieving success. For Jay, we should rethink what a founder should be and should not penalize someone for caring. Silicon Valley is still very important but Jay believes that the pandemic has helped us by spreading the sphere of influence out and by creating a little bit more diversity. Matt asks Jay about the greatest and the worst days of his business career. Mentioned in This Episode: Jay on Twitter (@JayAdelson) Scorbit.io Equinix.se Revision3 Center Electric

Full episode launches on April 27

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