Elixir Mentor

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96 episodes · showing the newest 96

Filipe Cabaço on Vitro

Nov 6, 2026 1 hr 46 min

Filipe Cabaço, team lead on Realtime at Supabase, returns after two years to talk about his side projects: Vitro, a browser for every AI agent with a replayable timeline of what each one did, and Ampoule, which packs an Elixir release into one file by compiling the BEAM to WebAssembly. We also get into MCP, persona testing with agents, token costs, why launching is the scary part, AI and security, and what learning and hiring look like now that agents write the code. 00:00 - Introduction 02:35 - Welcome back and ElixirConf in Chicago 05:31 - Vitro: observability for browser agents 11:01 - Persona testing with agents 13:56 - Why MCP is the right interface 16:59 - Compute off your laptop, subsidies ending 22:30 - Three AM agents and attention 24:06 - Token costs and picking models 27:47 - Side projects: doodle discs and a patio defender 33:31 - Reverse engineering bad apps with agents 37:14 - AI, hiring, and skipping university 47:07 - iHub and entrepreneur networks 49:32 - Afraid to launch your side projects 51:28 - Open source and self hosting 54:14 - Security and vibe coded leaks 57:49 - MCP auth should be SSO 59:34 - How Vitro is built: Elixir and Firecracker 1:02:48 - Market the result, not the features 1:05:51 - Tool sprawl and agent subscriptions 1:10:53 - A local AI gateway 1:14:40 - Home servers and bare metal 1:17:42 - Ampoule: Elixir anywhere via WebAssembly 1:22:48 - An Elixir mesh network on phones 1:27:32 - Cold email and deliverability 1:34:11 - Naming agents after Star Trek 1:36:39 - Why every agent needs its own browser 1:42:10 - Cloudflare's MCP and too many tools 1:44:21 - Peter Ullrich and funding the Erlang Foundation Resources Mentioned: - Vitro: https://vitro.run/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Ampoule: https://filipecabaco.github.io/ampoule/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - ex_tauri: https://github.com/filipecabaco/ex_tauri?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Burrito: https://github.com/burrito-elixir/burrito?utm_source=elixir-mentor - KinSwitch: https://kinswitc...

Peter Ullrich on Pushin

Oct 31, 2026 1 hr 56 min

Peter Ullrich returns to talk about Pushin.eu, the European GitHub alternative he's building in Elixir. Five months in, it has about 700 confirmed registrations after going viral on Hacker News, and Peter walks through what's next: webhooks, managed CI on microVMs, subscriptions in January, and a plan to win universities with free self-hosting. We also get into how he builds with Codex writing and Claude reviewing, importing from GitHub with the pun CLI, bootstrapping vs VC, why Indie Courses is shutting down, and his new news podcast, Macro Mayhem. 00:00 - Introduction 01:15 - Peter returns with Pushin 03:14 - Luck, sharing ideas, and your network 06:16 - What pushed him to build a GitHub competitor 06:43 - From bad Sonnet code to Opus 4.5 11:36 - Thinking big and building something European 12:32 - Bootstrapping vs VC 16:21 - Letter to Yourself and Indie Courses 26:11 - KinSwitch rebrand and check-in safety nets 32:48 - Securing uploads with BunnyCDN 34:55 - Going viral on Hacker News 37:51 - Roadmap: webhooks and managed CI 39:35 - Pricing tiers and self-hosting 46:49 - Five months in: users and growth 49:46 - Selling to universities and governments 55:31 - Macro Mayhem and the PHP-pocalypse 59:34 - Crypto hype and The Careless People 1:11:18 - Goatmire, the most creative conference 1:17:08 - Switching from GitHub with the pun CLI 1:19:34 - Forgejo, Codeberg, and GitLab 1:21:03 - Making sites ready for AI agents 1:26:35 - Tangled and the AT Protocol 1:30:34 - Simplifying UX: mobile first and shortcuts 1:35:07 - Codex writes, Claude reviews 1:40:52 - Reviewing code from your phone 1:43:30 - Deploying with Kamal 1:46:42 - Keeping users updated with changelogs 1:55:27 - Wrap-up Resources Mentioned: - Pushin: https://pushin.eu/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Macro Mayhem: https://macromayhem.fm/?utm_source=elixir-mentor Connect with Peter: - Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/peterullrich.com?utm_source=elixir-mentor - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/pjullrich?utm_sourc...

Nathan Hessler on ExMex and Conferences

Oct 16, 2026 1 hr 31 min

Nathan Hessler, organizer of ExMex and RBQ Conf, is back four weeks out from ExMex 2026 in Austin. We cover MCing Rails World, how he picks speakers and keynotes for a single track, what running a Ruby conference taught him, and the free CFP he built on Google Sheets that's turning into an agent friendly event harness. Then we get into TUIOS and agents that talk to each other, why PR review still matters, bootstrapping vs VC, and why conferences beat job boards for landing your next role. Use code MentoredFriends for $50 off your ExMex ticket (enter it in the promo code field on the site, not the checkout pop-up). 00:00 - Introduction 01:38 - MCing Rails World and introducing DHH 05:45 - Picking speakers for a single track 08:26 - What makes a great keynote 10:41 - Why he doesn't curate topics 14:01 - Four weeks out: hurry up and wait 16:14 - How RBQ Conf went 18:42 - Scheduling a single track 19:50 - Using AI for conference marketing 21:58 - Privacy and what agents can see 25:36 - A free CFP built on Google Sheets 32:30 - An agent friendly event harness 38:52 - TUIOS and agents that talk to each other 43:23 - Why PR review still matters with agents 45:03 - MCP, skills, and usage rules 51:23 - Building is the easy part 56:30 - Bootstrapping vs VC 59:01 - ExMex promo code and swag 1:06:47 - Why go to conferences 1:09:00 - Hiring, AI slop, and referrals 1:14:02 - Do conferences make money? 1:18:27 - MicroConf comes to Austin 1:23:33 - Remote work still needs in person 1:27:07 - Free community tickets Resources Mentioned: - ExMex: https://exmexconf.com/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - ExMex community tickets: https://exmexconf.com/community-tickets?utm_source=elixir-mentor - RBQ Conf: https://rbqconf.com/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - KinSwitch: https://kinswitch.app/?utm_source=elixir-mentor Connect with Nathan: - X: https://x.com/spune?utm_source=elixir-mentor - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhessler/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Hessler Consulting: https://hessle...

Alex Koutmos on Nerves and Finance

Oct 10, 2026 1 hr 38 min

Alex Koutmos, CTO of EagleMMS and author of Elixir Patterns, is back with two books in beta: Programming Nerves, which gets web developers building hardware from Livebook, and Elixir For Finance, written with his brother Dimitri on real market and Federal Reserve data. Then we ask whether anyone still buys technical books, and get into running on one server, what canceled trials teach you, and a laid off engineer with 1,000 applications. 00:00 - Introduction 02:41 - Programming Nerves: from Etch A Sketch to joystick 05:36 - The Patio Defender 07:40 - Why the book starts in Livebook 13:12 - Is anyone still buying technical books? 14:40 - DHH's Campfire rewrite and knowing your tools 18:00 - Shipping without a staging environment 20:42 - Cold outreach and email reputation 28:27 - Elixir For Finance: Yahoo Finance and FRED data 33:57 - Info products after AI 38:51 - Start on a single server 43:05 - Lessons from a failed two sided marketplace 47:04 - Splitting EagleMMS with his brother 51:55 - What canceled trials taught me 58:03 - Putting your work out there and ignoring trolls 1:04:45 - Laid off, 1,000 applications, and the death of software engineering 1:10:10 - Standing out in a tough job market 1:15:37 - Niche SaaS for the trades 1:20:21 - Grok Bots for clips and cold email 1:23:21 - AI pricing and platform risk 1:28:08 - Writing books without AI, and where books go next 1:30:18 - AI training and the authors' class action 1:35:24 - Where to find Alex 1:37:24 - What to buy for Programming Nerves Resources Mentioned: - Programming Nerves: https://www.programmingnerves.dev/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Elixir For Finance: https://www.financialelixir.dev/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Nerves Livebook: https://github.com/nerves-livebook/nerves_livebook?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Killswitch: https://killswitch.app/?utm_source=elixir-mentor Connect with Alex: - X: https://x.com/akoutmos?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/akoutmos.bsky.social?utm_sourc...

Mike Hostetler on Jido v3

Oct 2, 2026 1 hr 28 min

Mike Hostetler, creator of Jido and ReqLLM, is back for round three. Jido 2.0 hit the top of Hacker News and took his docs server down with it, and Jido v3 betas are already on Hex. We get into agentic back pressure, why models write better declarative Elixir, why most actors don't need an LLM at all, durable workflows with Jido Flow, and the multiplayer harness he's building on OTP. Plus Grok Bots and personal agents, reverse engineering bad IoT apps, and live questions from chat. 00:00 - Introduction 02:56 - The Jido 2.0 launch and a Hacker News hug of death 06:27 - Lessons from Ralph Wiggum loops 08:51 - Why models write better Elixir 11:44 - Agentic back pressure 14:22 - Jido v3's Spark DSL 20:48 - When do you need 10,000 agents? 26:28 - Q&A: A public actor mesh? 27:59 - Actors vs agents: Jido without an LLM 30:38 - Halo 2 NPCs and classical AI 33:36 - What's new in Jido v3 35:03 - Durable workflows with Runic and Jido Flow 39:34 - Property and fuzz testing with agents 42:27 - Who's building on Jido 44:27 - Q&A: TermUI and the Jido harness 48:28 - DASP, the Durable Actor Session Protocol 50:39 - Q&A: Pods, topologies, and the signal bus 55:01 - Grok Bots, Dots, and personal agents 57:20 - Reverse engineering IoT apps with an LLM 1:06:24 - LLMDB and LLM Catalog 1:07:51 - 600 PRs a month and vibe coded PRs 1:12:12 - The Founder Playbook skills repo 1:14:37 - Teaching and community after LLMs 1:17:31 - Will AI replace engineers? 1:22:57 - A hard lesson migrating Killswitch data 1:25:01 - What's next for Jido and the harness Resources Mentioned: - Jido: https://jido.run/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Runic: https://github.com/zblanco/runic?utm_source=elixir-mentor - LLM Catalog: https://llmcatalog.dev/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Founder Playbook: https://github.com/getagentseal/founder-playbook?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Killswitch: https://killswitch.app/?utm_source=elixir-mentor Connect with Mike: - X: https://x.com/mikehostetler?utm_source=elixir-mentor - LinkedIn:...

Michael Lubas on the State of Security

Sep 25, 2026 1 hr 28 min

Michael Lubas, CEO of Paraxial.io and the first guest ever on this podcast, is back to check in on the state of security. We get into Microsoft's record Patch Tuesday, why AI keeps lowering the bar for attackers, the OpenAI sandbox escape story, and whether the AI labs are overstating the risk. Michael shares why cheap foundational checks still beat a frontier model, why small companies should skip bug bounties, and why Elixir gets no credit for its security. Plus live questions from chat. 00:00 - Introduction 02:34 - ElixirConf US and the Hex pentest talk 06:20 - Microsoft's record Patch Tuesday 13:50 - Engineers who stopped reading their code 14:54 - LLMs as offensive security engineers 17:40 - Sandbox escapes and the OpenAI incident 23:00 - Are the AI labs overstating the risk? 26:09 - The open weights debate 29:32 - Developer anxiety and the Rails World keynote 35:00 - Why it's getting worse for defenders 38:30 - Run grep before a frontier model 41:11 - Why Elixir has an edge right now 45:21 - Patch windows in the AI era 47:11 - Can a startup stop a nation state? 50:06 - Securing your Elixir app with AI 57:17 - Letting AI patch production live 1:01:38 - Learning security as a developer 1:03:42 - Why small companies should skip bug bounties 1:04:54 - Insecure MCPs and AI assistants 1:10:14 - Verifying beneficiaries in Killswitch 1:12:36 - Q&A: Simulating catastrophic events 1:13:25 - Q&A: Learning ethical hacking with AI 1:16:22 - Kids, social media, and regulation 1:23:17 - Q&A: Are garbage collected languages safer? 1:27:26 - Where to find Michael Resources Mentioned: - Securing Hex: https://paraxial.io/blog/hex-pentest?utm_source=elixir-mentor - PortSwigger Web Security Academy: https://portswigger.net/web-security?utm_source=elixir-mentor - The Web Application Hacker's Handbook (2nd ed.) - Killswitch: https://killswitch.app/?utm_source=elixir-mentor Connect with Michael: - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaellubas?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Paraxial....

Adam Gusky on Getting Recommended by AI

Sep 24, 2026 1 hr 29 min

Adam Gusky, solo founder of Blawgy, on how businesses get recommended by ChatGPT and other AI tools, and what technical founders get wrong about marketing. Adam went from a college wrestling meme page and 30 side projects to quitting his job, selling Blawgy as a hand-built service, watching it churn, and rebuilding it into a product agencies now run for their clients. We get into SEO vs AEO, whether a post every day still works, and why most people will buy software instead of vibe coding it. I share how customers are finding Killswitch through AI answers, the Grok Bot team behind its marketing, and the partner program I'm building with attorneys and financial advisors. 00:00 - Introduction 02:19 - A college meme page and 30 side projects 04:05 - What Blawgy does 04:51 - Is SEO dead? SEO vs AEO and GEO 07:18 - How long before it works 10:34 - FoodBuddy and the menu item calorie play 12:21 - Agent readiness and llms.txt 15:23 - Customers finding Killswitch through AI 18:35 - Quitting the job to build Blawgy 22:12 - From hand-built service to real product 24:26 - Guardrails and multi-pass quality checks 26:17 - The Blawgy pixel and refreshing old posts 33:30 - Why people buy software instead of vibe coding it 38:37 - Handoff plans for solo founders 45:23 - Blawgy's stack, AI coding tools, and Tmux 54:06 - Marketing Killswitch with Grok Bots 56:31 - CAPTCHAs, bots, and AI slop on social 58:48 - A partner program for attorneys and advisors 1:01:09 - Local cold outreach that gets replies 1:03:02 - Why Blawgy sells to agencies 1:09:50 - Tiered pricing and finding agencies with Apollo 1:13:23 - SEO agencies, backlinks, and a cold email experiment 1:16:34 - Is a post every day overkill? 1:19:08 - Building an AI podcast producer 1:27:42 - Where to find Adam Resources Mentioned: - Blawgy: https://blawgy.com/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - MyFoodBuddy: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/myfoodbuddy/id6505124191?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Is It Agent Ready: https://isitagentready.com/?u...

Brice Ayres on Fractional Engineering

Sep 18, 2026 1 hr 44 min

Brice Ayres, founder of Axio Intelligence, on fractional engineering and what changes when one senior engineer can run a team of AI agents. Brice went from the Army and a 3.7 million follower Facebook cause to finding Elixir at Topgolf, leading engineering orgs, and going out on his own. We get into managing agents like an engineering org, whether you still need to read every line, and why Ash keeps LLMs on the rails. I share how a team of Grok Bots handles marketing, support, and QA for Killswitch, and we close with Brice's playbook for cutting cloud costs. 00:00 - Introduction 02:51 - Web dev class, the Army, and a viral nonprofit 08:38 - Finding Elixir at Topgolf 13:00 - What is fractional engineering? 16:10 - Vibe coding and why engineers still matter 24:03 - Think like an engineering manager 26:32 - Reviewing AI code, Ash, and established patterns 29:55 - Offmic, a live AI podcast producer 35:18 - Running agents like an engineering org 40:51 - Read-only agents in prod and self-healing infra 42:05 - A Polymarket bot with agent consensus 47:06 - Marketing Killswitch with Grok Bots 52:06 - Lighthouse scores and agentic browsing 56:13 - Getting found by LLMs 59:27 - Order with Surf: agentic food ordering 1:02:48 - Agent QA and local testing with K3s and Floci 1:05:40 - Data labeling, synthetic data, and edge AI 1:08:55 - Nerves, Peridio, and Avocado OS 1:11:47 - Bot traffic, analytics, and self-hosting 1:16:00 - Hardware stories and real-world edge cases 1:26:24 - When engineers ship faster than you can plan 1:29:10 - Monoliths, Postgres scaling, and ETS 1:36:40 - Where to find Brice 1:37:44 - Cutting cloud costs: logging and AZ traffic Resources Mentioned: - Axio Intelligence: https://axiointelligence.com/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Grok Bot: https://x.ai/news/introducing-grok-bot?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Killswitch: https://killswitch.app/?utm_source=elixir-mentor Connect with Brice: - X/Twitter: https://x.com/briceayres?utm_source=elixir-mentor - LinkedIn: h...

Francesco Ciulla on Winning Developer Adoption

Jun 27, 2026 1 hr 37 min

In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I step a little outside the BEAM to talk with Francesco Ciulla, Head of DevRel at Zerops. Francesco came up as a Rust developer and content creator with a 300,000-subscriber YouTube channel, and we get into the problem every builder runs into: getting developers to actually adopt what you ship. Francesco shares how he went from a corporate developer role at the European Space Agency to going independent, building an audience, and publishing his own Rust book. We talk about why distribution matters as much as the work itself, how public speaking changed him, and what being a developer looks like in 2026 with AI in the mix. From there we get into developer relations directly. Francesco explains what the job actually is, why you can't advocate for a product you don't believe in, and how he builds credibility for something he didn't write. He breaks down what Zerops does as a platform, how it compares to running things on GCP, and where developers fall off between signing up and getting real value. We also cover building a brand by declaring it and not stopping, why negative comments are a sign your audience is growing, language tribalism in tech, the risks of shipping vibe-coded projects without thinking about security, and what it takes to run Elixir on Zerops. A useful conversation for anyone trying to get a tool, a project, or themselves in front of developers. Resources Mentioned: - Zerops:https://zerops.io Connect with Francesco: - X/Twitter:https://x.com/FrancescoCiull4 - Website:https://francescociulla.com Sponsors: - BEAMOps:https://beamops.co.uk - Paraxial.io:https://paraxial.io SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor:https://elixirmentor.com

Jason Allum on Beadwork

Jun 20, 2026 1 hr 33 min

Jason Allum returns to the Elixir Mentor Podcast to talk about Beadwork, his filesystem-native, git-synced issue tracker built for AI coding agents. With 40 years of building software and cleaning up other people's messes, Jason has a sharp read on where agentic coding falls apart. The conversation starts with Beads, the ticketing tool that inspired Beadwork, and why it eventually devolved into slop as it grew. Jason explains how coding agents lose the thread on long tasks through compaction and drift, and how a clean queue of tickets keeps an agent moving toward the right outcome instead of stitching back together the very thing it was told to tear out. From there we get into how Beadwork is built: a git-synced design backed by an orphan branch that sidesteps the merge conflicts that made earlier tools painful for teams and work trees. Jason walks through breaking large changes into epics and issues, pausing the agent to catch drift, and the parts of the job an agent still can't do, like architecture decisions, taste, and judgment. We also cover raising the quality bar on agent output, the efficiency argument around tokens, multi-project and team workflows, and the prompts Jason reaches for to get better plans. If you write code alongside an agent every day, this one is full of practical, common-sense workflow advice you can put to use right away. Resources Mentioned: - Beadwork:https://github.com/jallum/beadwork - Bedrock (from last time):https://github.com/bedrock-kv/bedrock Connect with Jason: - X/Twitter:https://x.com/mullaj - GitHub:https://github.com/jallum Sponsors: - BEAMOps:https://beamops.co.uk - Paraxial.io:https://paraxial.io SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor:https://elixirmentor.com

Tjaco Oostdijk on Drums to Elixir

Jun 7, 2026 1 hr 31 min

In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I talk with Tjaco Oostdijk, a drummer turned Elixir developer now working at DPG Media, one of the largest media companies in the Netherlands. Tjaco played drums professionally from the age of seven and has taught for 22 years, before landing in software through a music distribution company writing Ruby and eventually moving to Elixir nearly a decade ago. We get into what it takes to keep Elixir running inside a large enterprise. DPG adopted Elixir after a high-traffic Ruby service fell over at scale, and Tjaco describes the reality of working in a locked-down environment standardized on Kotlin, using Copilot with Anthropic models while waiting for Claude Code to be approved. He also talks about the colleagues who stay skeptical of AI tooling and why that skepticism can be healthy. The heart of the conversation is muziekles.app, the application Tjaco built for Dutch music teachers to run their entire teaching practice, from year-long scheduling and student accounts to homework and assignments. He explains why he deliberately keeps payments out of the product, how he thinks about onboarding teachers, and the build process using Phoenix, Ash, Claude Code, and Tidewave. We also compare notes on shipping side projects fast, multi-tenancy in Ash, and the differences between hardware and software work. If you are building with Elixir inside a company that hasn't standardized on it, or shipping a side project with AI tooling, this conversation is full of practical, hard-won lessons from someone doing both at once. Connect with Tjaco: - Website:https://drumusician.com - X / Twitter:https://x.com/drumusician - GitHub:https://github.com/drumusician - LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/tjaco-oostdijk Resources Mentioned: - muziekles.app:https://muziekles.app - Tidewave:https://tidewave.ai - Vocablo:https://vocabloapp.com - Kabisa:https://kabisa.nl Sponsors: - BEAMOps:https://beamops.co.uk - Paraxial.io:https://paraxial.io SUPPORT...

Peter Ullrich on Hunting CVEs

May 30, 2026 1 hr 50 min

Peter Ullrich returns to talk about a CVE hunt across the most-downloaded Hex packages, run with Claude Code on Opus 4.7. After ElixirConf EU pulled him into AI security, he started pointing Opus at popular libraries day and night, and within half an hour of his first serious attempt he found the Decimal vulnerability, where raising 10 to a huge power can blow up an application's memory. We get into what separates a real CVE from noise, how CVSS scoring works, and why reachability matters so much, since a flaw in Phoenix's default config matters far more than a crash in a function nobody can call. Peter also walks through the process he runs with the EEF: verifying each issue, getting a second pair of eyes, coordinating a fix, and getting a number issued through a CNA, without sending slop reports to maintainers. We also touch on regulation and breach reporting. We also cover how Opus compares to Mythos, why Peter keeps coming back to Claude, his first impressions of Opus 4.8, and the economics, with a simple scan costing about $10 in API tokens. He also shares his Session Watcher plugin, an update on Killswitch and its browser-side encryption, thoughts on AEO, and how he uses dev containers to sandbox coding agents. Resources Mentioned: Peter's blog post: peterullrich.com/what-the-cvePeter's prompts: gistScrutineer: github.com/alpha-omega-security/scrutineerDecimal advisory: GHSA-rhv4-8758-jx7vEEF CNA published CVEs: cna.erlef.org/cvesEEF CNA security policy: cna.erlef.org/security-policyResponsible disclosure guidelines: security.erlef.orgAnthropic article: red.anthropic.comConnect with Peter: Website: peterullrich.comGitHub: github.com/pjullrichLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/pjullrichBluesky: @peterullrich.comSponsors: BEAMOps: beamops.co.ukParaxial.io: paraxial.ioSUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR Elixir Mentor: elixirmentor.com

Jason Allum on Bedrock

May 24, 2026 1 hr 35 min

In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I sit down with Jason Allum, creator of Bedrock and Beadwork and a 40-year veteran of computing, to talk about Bedrock: an embedded, distributed key-value store for Elixir with guarantees that go beyond ACID. Jason walks through the problem Bedrock solves, keeping distributed state consistent when the same data is read and written across many nodes. We get into why the BEAM's decades-old ideas map cleanly onto today's AI and agent workloads, how Bedrock borrows its architecture from FoundationDB, and what serializable transactions actually buy you over plain ACID. From there we dig into the machinery: log servers versus storage servers, the five-second version window and MVCC, letting it crash with supervision-tree thinking across a cluster, and how rows can live as values while indexes become keys. Jason also covers running distributed jobs with leases and what it takes to swap Postgres out for Bedrock. Along the way Jason makes the case that none of this is magic, that the real wins come from understanding your machine and the shape of your data. We finish on Beadwork, his lightweight system for managing agent tickets directly in git. If you build with Elixir or care about distributed databases, there's a lot here to chew on. Connect with Jason: - X/Twitter:https://x.com/mullaj - GitHub:https://github.com/jallum Projects: - Bedrock:https://github.com/bedrock-kv/bedrock - Beadwork:https://github.com/jallum/beadwork Resources Mentioned: - Notes on the FoundationDB paper:https://uvdn7.github.io/notes-on-the-foundationdb-paper/ - FoundationDB architecture:https://apple.github.io/foundationdb/architecture.html - Raft consensus algorithm (GeeksforGeeks):https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/system-design/raft-consensus-algorithm/ - The Raft Consensus Algorithm:https://raft.github.io/ Sponsors: - BEAMOps:https://beamops.co.uk - Paraxial.io:https://paraxial.io - Jido (Elixir AI Collective Discord):https://agentjido.xyz/discord SUPPORT...

Michael Lubas on AI, Attack, and Defense

May 16, 2026 1 hr 31 min

Michael Lubas, CEO of Paraxial.io and my first-ever guest, returns to talk about AI's dual role in cybersecurity: finding vulnerabilities and writing the code that creates them. We open with the Hex package manager penetration test Paraxial ran under the Erlang Ecosystem Foundation's Aegis initiative, funded through Alpha Omega. Michael caught a remote code execution bug before it shipped. From there we cover GitHub Actions supply chain attacks, why every maintainer should run zizmor, and campaigns that target release pipelines instead of application source. Then the AI inflection point. The EEF's CNA issued nine CVEs in all of 2025 and is on track for well over a hundred in 2026, driven by researchers like Peter Ullrich using AI to find bugs already sitting in source code. Firefox went from about 20 valid bug reports a month to over 400 in April 2026. Michael argues defenders without state-of-the-art models are at a structural disadvantage, and we get into why bug bounty programs are collapsing under AI-generated noise, something I saw firsthand with Killswitch. We close with the practical side: what a real pentest costs, when Claude Code helps solo developers, and the common Elixir gotchas, including binary term deserialization, SSRF, dynamic atom creation, and staying inside Ecto's default query syntax. Plus Paraxial vs. Sobelow and what SOC 2 actually covers. Resources Mentioned: - Securing Hex (Paraxial blog): https://paraxial.io/blog/hex-pentest?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Hex security audit report: https://hex.pm/reports/2026/paraxial.pdf?utm_source=elixir-mentor - EEF CNA: https://cna.erlef.org/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Hardening Firefox with Claude: https://hacks.mozilla.org/2026/05/behind-the-scenes-hardening-firefox/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - What the CVE? (Peter Ullrich): https://peterullrich.com/what-the-cve?utm_source=elixir-mentor Connect with Michael: - Website: https://paraxial.io/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - X/Twitter: https://x.com/paraxialio Spo...

Vasilis Spilka on LLMs & Ash

Apr 21, 2026 1 hr 36 min

In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I chat with Vasilis Spilka, Head of Software Development at Teacherspace, about building agentic software as a solo developer, the pairing of Ash and LLMs, and what it takes to ship a startup side project alongside a day job. Vasilis shares his path from Ruby on Rails in 2014 to nearly a decade of Elixir work across fintech, supply chain, and ad tech. We talk through Teacherspace's recent acquisition, the challenges of integrating with legacy Danish education contractors, and the three pivots it took to land on a working product. We spend a good chunk of the episode on Ash: why its unique DSL and introspection make it unusually strong with LLMs, how Spark lets you build your own DSLs, and why usage rules plus Igniter are a game-changer for library authors. Vasilis walks through his Claude Code workflow, the sculpting approach he uses for prototypes, and where he still won't let the LLM near — system design and API keys. The conversation also covers Communities, his local-first social platform; the paperclip-style autonomous company idea he's exploring with ash_typescript; whether LLMs actually understand anything; and the unglamorous reality of getting a consumer product off the ground through networking and volunteering. We close with practical tips on prompt phrasing and skill-file tweaks that meaningfully change output quality. Resources Mentioned: - Ash Framework: https://ash-hq.org - Tidewave: https://tidewave.ai - Igniter: https://hexdocs.pm/igniter - ash_typescript: https://github.com/ash-project/ash_typescript Connect with Vasilis: - X/Twitter: https://x.com/vasspilka - GitHub: https://github.com/vasspilka Sponsors: - BEAMOps: https://beamops.co.uk - Paraxial.io: https://paraxial.io - Jido (Elixir AI Collective Discord): https://agentjido.xyz/discord SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com

Luca Corti on Bringing Elixir to Fintech

Apr 12, 2026 1 hr 40 min

In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I sit down with Luca Corti, CTO at Sibill, a Milano-based fintech startup building cash flow management software for Italian small and medium businesses. Luca walks through his path from the early days of the internet at a small ISP in Milano to discovering functional programming at a major Italian telco—and why Elixir clicked for him immediately after years of fighting mutable state in OOP. Luca shares how he joined Sibill with an existing Python and TypeScript MVP, made the case for Elixir as the stack to rebuild on, and navigated integration with open banking APIs and Italy's national electronic invoicing system (SDI). We cover bank sync scheduling with Broadway and message queues, scaling a venture-backed engineering team to 40, and how fintech requirements around data privacy shape day-to-day engineering decisions. The conversation goes deep on the BEAM's real superpower—fault tolerance and resilience over raw concurrency—and Luca's hands-on approach to learning by building: an HTTP/2 server in Elixir a decade ago, and more recently using AI to help implement an HTTP/3 library. We also discuss hiring into an Elixir codebase, the challenges of selling SaaS to Italian SMBs accustomed to on-premises software, and a grounded take on AI tooling—useful, with clear limits, and nowhere close to replacing experienced engineers. Resources Mentioned: - Sibill: https://sibill.com - ankh (HTTP/2 library): https://github.com/lucacorti/ankh - lapin (AMQP client): https://github.com/lucacorti/lapin Connect with Luca: - X/Twitter: https://x.com/lucacorti - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucacorti - GitHub: https://github.com/lucacorti Sponsors: - Paraxial.io: https://paraxial.io - Jido (Elixir AI Collective Discord): https://agentjido.xyz/discord SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com

Steve Domino on Starting a Fintech

Apr 4, 2026 1 hr 35 min

Steve Domino is the co-founder and CTO of Crew, a fintech startup building what he calls the most powerful checking account in the world — one with programmable automation rules, a family-scoped AI financial assistant, and zero of the fees that make traditional banking frustrating. He came up through startups, spent time at Divvy before its Bill.com acquisition, and brought his Elixir experience directly into Crew's foundation. We cover a lot of ground on the product side: how Crew's "Autopilot" rules engine lets users program their money (and the recursion checks it took to make that safe), why Crew consolidated savings and checking into a single account, how the team handles high-value deposits without physical branches, and what's coming — business accounts, wills and trusts, family investing, and a credit card designed to work like a debit card. Steve also talks through the challenge of projecting bills years into the future to keep balance reservations accurate, and how building and using your own product surfaces problems fast. On the Elixir side, Steve talks about why fintech is a natural fit for the BEAM — Crew decisions on card transactions in under 250 milliseconds — and how Oban became central to their reliability story when partner services go down. He shares what drew him to Elixir personally (pattern matching, the pipe operator, the with block), reflects on the Utah Elixir ecosystem that Divvy and Podium helped build, and explains how Penny, their AI financial assistant, is scoped per family so it can never reach outside a user's own data. We also spend time on career and engineering culture: Steve's take on the "Extreme Ownership" mindset that shaped how he grew into a leadership role, why he asks candidates to design something they'd actually build at Crew instead of solving puzzles, and his honest concern that developers leaning entirely on AI may lose the ability to think critically about architecture. Good conversation throughout. Resources Mentio...

Mark Cotner on Scaling Telecom

Mar 29, 2026 1 hr 32 min

Mark Cotner is a DBA managing around a thousand databases by day and a telecom CTO by night — building hospitality cable networks for RV parks, nursing homes, and apartment complexes at 100% annual growth. In this episode, he walks through the infrastructure, the business, and the two-year project that just landed on Hex: Timeless, an embedded observability suite for Elixir built on Rust NIFs, hitting 3 million metric inserts per second with 14:1 compression. We get into what a hospitality network actually looks like — branded cable hardware, DOCSIS provisioning, and mesh Wi-Fi across dispersed sites — and how Mark's team handles monitoring across thousands of cable modems using a full Elixir stack (DHCP, TFTP, NTP, and Ash). He also shares how a frustrating Ansible setup led him to build something he thought should exist: a lightweight, embeddable observability backend that drops into a Phoenix app in under five minutes via Igniter, with less than 5% CPU overhead. The technical core of the conversation covers the Timeless architecture in depth — PCO compression for metrics, OpenZL for logs and traces, 15 rounds of iteration before landing on a single consolidated Rust NIF, and why the Elixir-to-Rust translation layer ended up being the real bottleneck. Mark also talks benchmarking against Victoria Metrics on a 192-core AWS ARM instance, the custom C web server (Rocket) he built to cut HTTP latency 30x below Bandit, and how supervision trees let him pack an entire DOCSIS provisioning stack into one Elixir app without worrying about cascading failures. Whether you're curious about Elixir in telecom, Rust NIF development, time series database internals, or just want to hear what 30 years of observability experience looks like applied to the BEAM, this one is packed. Resources Mentioned: - Timeless on Hex: https://hex.pm/packages/timeless_phoenix - Timeless website): https://timelessmetrics.com Connect with Mark: - X/Twitter: https://x.com/awksedgreep SUPPORT ELIXIR...

George Millo on Agentic Coding

Mar 22, 2026 1 hr 31 min

George Millo — creator of Learn Phoenix Live View and alumnus of the Gauntlet AI fellowship — joins me to talk through what really changes when you commit to LLM-driven development. George went through Gauntlet's intensive 10-week program built around LLM maximalism, came out the other side rethinking how he builds software, and has spent the past year working on an AI-first engineering team applying those lessons in production. We spend a lot of time on the practical realities of agentic coding: verification debt (the gap that grows between your mental model and what the AI actually built), the importance of planning before prompting, why George works in small self-contained PRs, and how he uses Codex and Claude Code in parallel tabs without losing track of what's happening. We also get into the debate around vibe coding, spec-driven development, testing pitfalls, and why deep technical knowledge matters more now — not less — when AI is writing most of the code. The conversation covers where Elixir fits in an AI-first world: the BEAM's process model as a natural fit for agent architectures, Phoenix shipping with an agent.md file, Tidewave's approach to closing the feedback loop, and why Elixir's tooling consistency puts it ahead of the JavaScript fragmentation George deals with at his day job. We also get into the security risks that come with AI-assisted development — giving LLM tools codebase access, the OpenClaw skills marketplace vulnerabilities, and the kinds of security mistakes that are now much easier to ship without noticing. George closes with practical advice for anyone hesitant to adopt agentic workflows: stay curious, ask the AI to explain the code it writes, build something outside your comfort zone, and put in the reps. Resources Mentioned: - Learn Phoenix Live View: https://learnphoenixliveview.com Connect with George: - X/Twitter: x.com/georgemillo - LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/millog Sponsors: - Paraxial.io — Elixir-first application security: parax...

Leandro Pereira on MDEx

Mar 14, 2026 1 hr 35 min

Leandro Pereira is back on the Elixir Mentor Podcast — this time to dive deep into MDEx, his Rust-powered Markdown library for Elixir. MDEx is built on the Comrak Rust crate, runs 31x faster, and uses 3,500x less memory than existing Elixir alternatives. We also get into Lumis, his standalone syntax highlighting engine powered by tree-sitter and Neovim themes. Leandro walks through why he chose a Rust NIF over a pure Elixir implementation, what it took to ship Lumis as its own project, and the surprisingly hard technical challenge at the heart of MDEx: streaming Markdown for AI applications. We discuss how MDEx handles incomplete Markdown fragments in real time, what the upcoming Components feature unlocks for Phoenix/LiveView developers, and how the HEEx parser integration works under the hood. We also cover the human side of maintaining two solo open source projects: how Leandro prioritizes, uses AI to chip away at the backlog, and thinks about monetization. The conversation goes deeper into how the AI era has changed Markdown's role in the ecosystem, the pitfalls of vibe coding, and what it really takes to get an open source project noticed — including the uncomfortable truth that marketing matters more than most developers want to admit. The episode closes with a wide-ranging conversation on developer growth — the Dunning-Krueger curve, making the mental shift from OOP to functional programming, and why Elixir feels easier once it finally clicks. A great listen for anyone building libraries, wrestling with Rust NIFs, or navigating open source in the Elixir ecosystem. Resources Mentioned: - MDEx: https://mdelixir.dev - MDEx on Hex: https://hex.pm/packages/mdex - Lumis: https://lumis.sh - Lumis on Hex: https://hex.pm/packages/lumis Connect with Leandro: - X/Twitter: https://x.com/leandrocesquini - GitHub: https://github.com/leandrocp/mdex SPONSORS - Paraxial.io: https://paraxial.io - Jido (Elixir AI Collective Discord): https://agentjido.xyz/discord SUPPORT ELIXIR...

Josh Price on Ash & Alembic

Mar 11, 2026 1 hr 54 min

Josh Price, founder & CTO of Alembic and one of the core forces behind Ash Framework, joins me for a wide-ranging conversation that starts with the origin story of Alembic, winds through the history of GraphQL and Ash, and lands on Clarity — his new interactive introspection and visualization tool for understanding your Ash codebase. Josh has been writing Elixir for over ten years and building Alembic for nine, which gives him a rare perspective on how the ecosystem has matured and where it's headed in an agentic world. We trace how Josh's frustration with real-time data at a gaming company pointed him toward Elixir and Erlang, how that led to an obsession with GraphQL domain modeling, and how that obsession eventually collided with Ash — which turned out to solve exactly the problems he'd been hacking around for years. We talk about what Ash actually is beyond an API generator, why auto-generated migrations are criminally underrated, and why the developers who resist Ash most are often the ones in the middle of the experience curve. Josh also shares the inside story of how slowing Zack Daniel down was actually the best thing that ever happened to the Ash ecosystem. A big chunk of the conversation covers the AI moment we're in right now — Claude Code workflow tips (including the /insights command and how to keep session history beyond 30 days), why CLIs are beating MCPs for LLM tool use, Claude Code skills and usage rules for progressive disclosure, and how Clarity grew from Ash's built-in introspection into something far more interesting: an in-memory Erlang digraph knowledge graph of your entire Elixir application. Josh also shares his take on multi-model databases, the disappearance of the UI, and why the only limits left for software engineers are taste, judgment, and imagination. Resources mentioned in this episode: - Alembic: https://alembic.com.au - Clarity (Hex): https://hex.pm/packages/clarity - Ash Framework: https://ash-hq.org - Ash Framework book: https:...

Thomas Athanas on Building Without Vendor Lock-In

Mar 7, 2026 1 hr 38 min

Thomas Athanas, Head of Engineering at LevelAll, joins me on the Elixir Mentor Podcast to talk through the infrastructure, architectural, and leadership decisions that come with building systems you actually own — and what happens when vendor lock-in catches up with you in production. Thomas walks through LevelAll's move away from Fly and Gigalixir toward bare metal hardware, the thundering herd problem that comes with serving 50,000 concurrent education users, and why they made the call to remove both Phoenix LiveView and Ash framework from production. We get into Ash APS premium support, JSONB query challenges, and the tradeoffs of leaning on a framework when hiring for it is hard. We talk about using AI as a development planning tool and context keeper for managers — including Thomas's "Lore Master" concept, where AI agents preserve institutional knowledge so it never walks out the door. From there we get into the Auth0 rate limiting incident that hit during a live onboarding, the FusionAuth migration that followed, enterprise auth requirements like OIDC and SAML, and the bcrypt hash conversion work that made it all possible. Thomas also shares his work on a custom Erlang-based bare metal deployment agent and his approach to Postgres configuration and backups with pgBackRest. The second half covers founder mode mentality, total ownership of problems, the player-coach leadership style, Sanity CMS vendor lock-in, building an audience vs. building a customer base, and practical advice for technical founders who keep procrastinating with features instead of making sales. Connect with Thomas: - X/Twitter: https://x.com/ThomasAthanas - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasathanas/ Sponsors: - BEAMOps: https://beamops.co.uk - Paraxial.io: https://paraxial.io - Jido: https://agentjido.xyz/discord SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com/?utm_source=elixir-mentor

Amos King on sharing knowledge

Feb 21, 2026 1 hr 37 min

In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I sit down with Amos King, Senior Staff Backend Engineer at Adobe, founder of Binary Noggin, and longtime Elixir community contributor. We dig into mentorship, knowledge sharing, and the team dynamics that make software organizations actually thrive. Amos traces his non-traditional path into software — from structural engineering to manufacturing automation to Erlang on Navy submarines — and explains how that background shapes how he thinks about building reliable systems. We talk about his decade running Binary Noggin, why he ultimately made the move to Adobe, and the hard lessons learned when the consulting market shifted. From there the conversation goes deep on team composition, why diverse backgrounds matter more than uniform credentials, and the mindset shift from object-oriented to functional programming. We also get into the practical side of Elixir: when GenServers are the right tool and when they're not, why vibe coding worries him from an engineering quality standpoint, and why teaching is actually a selfish act that benefits the teacher most. We close out with what separates a real staff engineer from a senior one, a call for the Elixir community to revive local meetups, and a real-world database query optimization story that reframes how to think about performance problems. Resources Mentioned: - Binary Noggin: https://binarynoggin.com Connect with Amos: - X/Twitter: https://x.com/Adkron - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amosking/ SPONSORS - BEAMOps: https://beamops.co.uk - Paraxial.io: https://paraxial.io - Jido: https://agentjido.xyz/discord SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com

Dave Lucia on Building TV Labs

Feb 14, 2026 1 hr 29 min

In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I chat with Dave Lucia, CTO and Co-Founder of TV Labs. Dave returns to the podcast to talk about building an AI-powered smart TV testing platform that lets media companies test streaming apps on hundreds of real physical devices through the cloud — all built primarily in Elixir. Dave walks through the founding of TV Labs, from meeting his co-founder at Bloomberg over a decade ago to building an MVP with WebRTC during the pandemic. He covers the technical challenges of managing a massive device lab — procurement, warm-up processes, security isolation, session management, and keeping hundreds of TVs, Rokus, Fire TVs, and Apple TVs healthy and available for enterprise clients. The platform uses a custom KQL query engine for real-time device matching and a licensing system built on Elixir GenServers sharded across the cluster. We get into Dave's 10-year history with Elixir in production, starting at Bloomberg and carrying through to TV Labs. He explains why Elixir was the right fit for orchestrating physical devices at scale, from its standard library minimizing dependencies to building Apple device communication libraries and even a Lua 5.3 interpreter directly in Elixir. Dave also shares how TV Labs uses OpenTelemetry for observability and runs multi-region infrastructure with session recording capabilities. The conversation shifts to AI, where Dave describes using Claude and other LLMs to accelerate development, automate operations like vendor management and support emails, and build AI agents for QA testing. We wrap up with a candid discussion on whether AI will replace developers and how these tools are fundamentally changing what's possible for small teams. Connect with Dave: - Website: https://davelucia.com - X/Twitter: https://x.com/davydog187 - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-lucia-a395441b/ Sponsors: - BEAMOps: https://beamops.co.uk - Paraxial.io: https://paraxial.io - Jido: https://agentjido.xyz/discor...

Rob Walling on Building SaaS

Feb 7, 2026 1 hr 28 min

In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I chat with Rob Walling — serial entrepreneur, author of The SaaS Playbook, founder of MicroConf, co-founder of TinySeed, and the guy who bootstrapped Drip to a successful exit. With over 20 years of experience and investments in 230+ B2B SaaS companies, Rob shares the playbook for building software businesses without venture capital. Rob breaks down his stairstep method of entrepreneurship, explaining why technical founders should start with small wins on existing marketplaces before attempting a standalone SaaS product. We get into the common traps developers fall into — refusing to learn marketing, building products that "sell themselves," and bootstrapping two-sided marketplaces without an existing audience. Rob also shares the full Drip origin story, from a plateauing email tool to a marketing automation platform that took off after listening to customer feedback. We cover the four core SaaS skills every founding team needs (marketing or sales, product, and engineering), how to decide between finding a co-founder and learning to sell on your own, and where successful SaaS ideas actually come from — 72% were discovered at a day job. Rob also weighs in on how AI is reshaping the SaaS landscape, why he doesn't believe in a "SaaS apocalypse," and what really drives company valuations. His final advice for technical founders: think in years, not months, and invest in learning entrepreneurship the same way you invested in learning to code. Resources Mentioned: - The SaaS Playbook: https://saasplaybook.com - MicroConf: https://microconf.com - TinySeed: https://tinyseed.com Connect with Rob: - Website: https://robwalling.com - X/Twitter: https://x.com/robwalling - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robwalling - Podcast: https://www.startupsfortherestofus.com Sponsors: - Paraxial.io: https://paraxial.io - Jido: https://agentjido.xyz/discord SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com

Jamil Bou Kheir on Firezone

Jan 31, 2026 1 hr 37 min

In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I chat with Jamil Bou Kheir, founder of Firezone, a YC-backed open-source zero-trust access platform. Jamil shares his journey from eight years as a Cisco security engineer to building an enterprise VPN replacement using Elixir and Rust. We explore how Firezone started as a simple WireGuard configuration tool that hit the front page of Hacker News, then evolved into a full zero-trust platform. Jamil explains the architecture decisions behind using Elixir for the control plane and Rust for the data plane, including their custom ICE implementation called Snownet for NAT traversal. The conversation covers practical insights on Phoenix PubSub for real-time signaling, Postgres WAL streaming for change data capture, and running a global Erlang cluster. Jamil also shares candid advice from the Y Combinator experience, discussing funding, product-market fit, and the challenges of rebuilding a product architecture mid-startup. We dive into the realities of open source licensing, security through transparency, and SOC 2 compliance. The episode touches on AI in development workflows, managing large refactors, and marketing strategies for technical founders. Whether you're interested in networking protocols, building with Elixir at scale, or the startup journey from side project to funded company, this conversation offers valuable perspective from someone doing it in production. Resources Mentioned: - Firezone: https://www.firezone.dev - WireGuard: https://www.wireguard.com - Github: https://github.com/firezone/firezone Connect with Jamil: - Website: https://www.firezone.dev - X/Twitter: https://x.com/jamilbk - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamilbk/ - GitHub: https://github.com/jamilbk Sponsors: - Paraxial.io: https://paraxial.io - Jido: https://agentjido.xyz/discord SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com

Enrique Leigh on Prende

Jan 24, 2026 1 hr 31 min

In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I chat with Enrique Leigh, founder of Prende Café in Chile. We explore how he built a specialty coffee subscription business using Phoenix LiveView, his journey from marketing and ad tech to becoming an Elixir developer, and why he chose custom e-commerce over platforms like Shopify. Enrique shares the WordPress crash during a Chile vs Brazil match that sparked his interest in Elixir, and how building his own coffee business became the perfect way to finally learn the language. We discuss UX principles from "Don't Make Me Think," marketing frameworks like Jobs to Be Done, and the counterintuitive lesson that adding more checkout steps can actually increase conversions. He also explains the specialty coffee value chain, from sourcing beans in Brazil to roasting and running a physical café alongside the e-commerce platform. Our conversation covers practical entrepreneurship topics including MVP philosophy, building subscription and coupon systems with Mercado Pago, using Oban for job scheduling, and content marketing strategies that work. Enrique shares insights on balancing Iron Man training with running a family business, productivity techniques from the Flow Research Collective, and the evolving landscape of ad tech after GDPR. We also discuss his future goals of learning Nerves to build IoT coffee machines and the growing Elixir community in Chile. The episode wraps up with advice for aspiring entrepreneurs: just launch it. Enrique emphasizes that the cost of inaction is often greater than the cost of action, and with tools like LLMs that work remarkably well with Elixir, there's never been a better time to build your own products. Resources Mentioned: - Don't Make Me Think: https://sensible.com/dont-make-me-think/ - Oban: https://getoban.pro/ - Jido: https://agentjido.xyz/discord Connect with Enrique: - Website: https://www.prendecafe.cl - X/Twitter: https://x.com/EnriqueLeigh - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/e...

Mike Ratliff on Building an Energy Tech Startup

Jan 17, 2026 1 hr 35 min

In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I chat with Mike Ratliff, a 30-year tech veteran and CTO currently building an energy tech startup. Mike shares his path from Ruby threading nightmares to leading 20-engineer Elixir teams, and how discovering the BEAM transformed his approach to building 24/7 grid systems. We dig into the technical challenges of power grid software, including distributed energy resource management, solar intermittency, and why utilities remain cautious about new technology. Mike explains how his current startup is tackling transmission interconnection problems using Elixir, and his plans to incorporate AI agents through the Jido framework. The conversation shifts to how AI is reshaping development teams and startup economics. Mike makes a compelling case for small, elite teams over large engineering organizations, sharing his philosophy on profit per headcount and why he believes we'll see one-person unicorn companies emerge. We discuss rethinking technical interviews for the LLM era, the Ash framework in production, and why great engineers become even greater with AI tools. Mike wraps up with hard-won startup wisdom: build painkillers not vitamins, learn to tell stories that move people, and understand that nobody buys on facts alone. Whether you're building energy infrastructure or SaaS products, this conversation offers practical perspective on scaling with small teams. Connect with Mike: - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-ratliff-3096571/ Sponsors: - Paraxial.io: https://paraxial.io - Jido Discord: https://agentjido.xyz/discord SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com/?utm_source=elixir-mentor

Coby Benveniste & Daniel Garcia-Shulman on AI Marketing Agents

Jan 10, 2026 1 hr 49 min

In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I chat with Coby Benveniste and Daniel Garcia-Shulman from MarkeTeam.ai about building intelligent AI marketing agents with Elixir. They share their experience migrating from Python and React to a full Elixir and LiveView stack, and explain why the BEAM VM is ideal for powering autonomous agent workflows. Coby and Daniel explain their approach to agent architecture, including why they chose gen state machine over gen server for managing agent state machines. They walk through the ReAct pattern (reasoning, actions, observations) and how it maps naturally to Erlang's state machine behaviors. The conversation covers their custom marketing strategy LLM, how they use RAG patterns for brand context, and why specialized agents outperform single all-purpose agents. We explore the technical details of their stack, including how they handle DevOps without a dedicated team using mix release, their use of Fun with Flags for feature flagging, and how Broadway and Oban power their data pipelines. The discussion also covers practical workflows with Claude Code, context management using Beads, and the usage rules library for better LLM documentation. The episode wraps up with insights on hiring Elixir developers, the emerging field of AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), and advice for developers learning Elixir with LLM assistance. Whether you're building AI agents, exploring marketing automation, or curious about advanced Elixir patterns, this conversation offers practical insights from engineers shipping production AI systems. Resources Mentioned: - MarkeTeam AI: https://www.marketeam.ai - Beads (Claude Code context tool): https://github.com/steveyegge/beads Connect with Coby & Daniel: - Coby: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coby-benveniste/ - Daniel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielegsh/ SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com

Mikh Ahmed on SWARMMO

Jan 3, 2026 1 hr 19 min

Mikh Ahmed joins me to talk about SWARMMO, a massively multiplayer online browser game he's building entirely with Elixir and Godot. After experiencing burnout from AWS Lambda and serverless tooling at a Canadian fintech startup, Mikh discovered Elixir and realized it was exactly what he'd been looking for to build his dream game project. We explore how the BEAM's actor model maps perfectly to game architecture, with individual player processes, hierarchical AI units that form squads and platoons, and a simulation where NPCs actively compete for territory. Mikh shares his experience going from zero Elixir knowledge to building a game server that can handle a thousand concurrent AI units while using only 4GB of RAM and 50% CPU. The conversation covers the realities of indie game development: failed crowdfunding campaigns that led to private support, the challenge of marketing when you'd rather be coding, and plans for a Steam release and version 1.0 launch. We also discuss the potential for LLM-powered NPC personalities, why minimal dependencies matter, and how game design psychology from board games applies to digital experiences. Connect with Mikh: - X: https://x.com/SWARMMOOFFICIAL - SWARMMO: https://swarmmo.games/?lang=en SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com/?utm_source=elixir-mentor

George Guimarães on Forecasting

Dec 21, 2025 1 hr 34 min

In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I chat with George Guimarães about Soothsayer, his time series forecasting library inspired by NeuralProphet and built on Axon and NX for business data analysis. We explore how Soothsayer decomposes business data into seasonal components, handles holidays as special events, and uses neural networks to model nonlinear patterns. George explains why Elixir's ecosystem with NX, Axon, and Bumblebee provides unique advantages for machine learning workflows, allowing you to run models directly in your supervision tree without external infrastructure. The conversation expands into why Elixir is particularly well-suited for AI agent development. George shares insights from his current work building agentic commerce solutions, where the BEAM's actor model, fault tolerance, and message passing provide battle-tested patterns that other ecosystems are now trying to replicate for LLM workflows. We also discuss AEO (Agent Engine Optimization) as the new SEO, and how websites will evolve to serve both human and agent visitors. Whether you're interested in time series forecasting, building AI-powered applications in Elixir, or understanding why the BEAM's concurrency model is perfect for the agentic future, this conversation offers valuable perspective from an Elixir community OG. Resources Mentioned: - Soothsayer: https://github.com/georgeguimaraes/soothsayer Connect with George: - X: https://x.com/georgeguimaraes - Website: https://georgeguimaraes.com SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com/?utm_source=elixir-mentor

Isaak Tsalicoglou on REST API Design

Dec 13, 2025 2 hr 4 min

In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I chat with Isaak Tsalicoglou, author of Elixir Software Engineering. Isaak shares hard-won lessons from building production Elixir API clients, covering validation strategies, error handling approaches, authentication flows, and architectural patterns that actually work in the real world. We explore Isaak's journey back into programming through building internal tools for his family's industrial equipment business, and how that led to writing a comprehensive guide on REST API client development. He explains his approach to request validation, why he ultimately decided against using Ecto schemas for API responses, and the importance of resisting unnecessary complexity in software architecture. The conversation covers practical API design topics including how to structure clean RESTful routes, avoiding tight coupling between APIs and UIs, and finding the right balance between over-serving and under-serving data. Isaak also shares his thoughts on LLM-assisted development, explaining why he prefers using AI as a code reviewer rather than fully automated coding, and discusses his self-hosting infrastructure setup for privacy-conscious applications. This episode offers valuable insights for anyone building API clients in Elixir or thinking critically about software architecture decisions and their long-term implications. Resources Mentioned: - Elixir Software Engineering: https://leanpub.com/elixir-software-engineering Connect with Isaak: - X: https://x.com/realMrLaminar - LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/tisaakx SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com/?utm_source=elixir-mentor

José Valim on Tidewave

Dec 6, 2025 2 hr 4 min

In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I chat with Elixir creator José Valim about Tidewave, the AI coding agent that lives inside your web framework. José shares the journey from falling in love with MCP to discovering its limitations, and how Tidewave solves the copy-paste problem that plagues AI-assisted development. We explore how Tidewave integrates directly with your browser to eliminate tedious workflows, automatically detecting exceptions and validating changes without manual intervention. José explains why the tool now supports Phoenix, Rails, Django, FastAPI, Flask, and Next.js, and how building one feature benefits all frameworks simultaneously. The conversation covers prompting strategies, context management, and the unique challenges of building Tidewave with Tidewave. José offers candid insights on why MCP has fundamental limitations for user experience, the security concerns around AI agents, and why Elixir's message-passing architecture makes it ideal for building agentic systems. We discuss the evolving type system in Elixir, code review workflows with AI, and the upcoming Tidewave features including multi-element inspection and symbol search. The episode concludes with José's perspective on transitioning from open source maintainer to product owner, collecting user feedback through Discord, and exciting developments with Tauri for building desktop applications with Elixir. This conversation provides valuable insights for developers interested in AI-powered tooling and the future of web development. Resources Mentioned: - Code Benchmark: https://github.com/Tencent-Hunyuan/AutoCodeBenchmark Connect with José: - X: https://x.com/josevalim - Tidewave: https://tidewave.ai - Dashbit: https://dashbit.co SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com

Alex Koutmos on EagleMMS

Nov 29, 2025 1 hr 35 min

In this episode, I chat with Alex Koutmos, author of Elixir Patterns and creator of numerous open source libraries, about building EagleMMS—a SaaS platform helping collision repair shops accurately calculate consumable costs for vehicle repairs. Alex shares his journey from two failed startups to building a profitable business with nearly a thousand customers. We discuss the outdated methods insurance companies use to calculate repair costs, the brutal reality of door-to-door sales, and how Alex's brother (a licensed auto body technician and appraiser) became his co-founder and sales partner. Alex explains why customer support load is heavier than expected when dealing with insurance company pushback and how they coach shops through negotiations. On the technical side, Alex walks through his evolution from a Vue SPA to a full LiveView application, building PWAs that work seamlessly on mobile, and why Elixir has never been a bottleneck for his business needs. We cover ETS caching strategies for performance, database backup lessons learned the hard way, and why he refuses to do standups. Alex also previews his upcoming books on financial analytics with Explorer and Scholar, plus a Nerves book entering beta soon. Connect with Alex: - X: https://x.com/akoutmos - Books: https://akoutmos.com/top/books/ - EagleMMS: https://eaglemms.com/ SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com

Nathan Hessler on ExMex & engineering culture

Nov 22, 2025 1 hr 33 min

In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I chat with Nathan Hessler, an Elixir developer and organizer of the ExMex conference in Austin. Nathan shares his experience launching a successful regional conference just two weeks prior, offering invaluable insights for anyone considering organizing their own tech event. We explore the intricate logistics of conference planning, from choosing the perfect venue to managing sponsorships and hidden costs. Nathan reveals why he opted for a single-track format at Capital Factory, how he approached speaker selection to promote new voices in the community, and the creative process behind ExMex's clever Texas-themed naming convention. Our conversation shifts to Nathan's decade of experience in engineering leadership, where he shares wisdom on building healthy engineering cultures. We discuss the critical soft skills needed for technical management, strategies for creating trust and respect within teams, and how to foster environments where constructive debate thrives. Nathan emphasizes that the best engineering teams aren't built on shared hobbies but on mutual respect and the ability to engage in productive disagreement. The episode concludes with practical advice for aspiring conference organizers, including the importance of talking to other organizers, loving your speakers, and celebrating the unique character of your location. Nathan also reveals plans for RBQ, his upcoming Ruby conference scheduled for March 2025, continuing his mission to strengthen the Austin tech community through meaningful in-person connections. Resources Mentioned: - ExMex Conference: https://exmexconf.com/ - RBQ Conference: Upcoming Ruby conference in Austin (March 2025) - Capital Factory: Conference venue in Austin Connect with Nathan: - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhessler/ - Website: https://hesslerconsulting.com/ - ExMex: https://exmexconf.com/ SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com/?utm_source=elixir-...

Daniil Popov on CyanView

Oct 18, 2025 1 hr 33 min

In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I sit down with Daniil Popov to discuss CyanView, a system that brings Phoenix LiveView to embedded devices for professional video production. We examine the challenges of creating unified camera control systems that work across 27+ different protocols from manufacturers like Sony, Canon, and RED. Daniil shares how CyanView enables real-time camera shading for major broadcast events including the Olympics, Super Bowl, and Le Mans races. We discuss the technical implementation of LiveView on resource-constrained 32-bit ARM processors, managing distributed systems with MQTT, and solving complex problems like socket reconnection and performance optimization on embedded devices. Our conversation covers the unique advantages of using Elixir for embedded systems, from binary pattern matching for protocol reverse engineering to supervision trees for fault tolerance. Daniil explains how they utilize nearly 80% of Elixir's capabilities—far more than typical web applications—including NIFs for C integration, custom FPGA modules for color correction, and practical approaches to creating responsive interfaces on limited hardware. The episode wraps up with discussion of the future of camera control technology, the challenges of working with proprietary protocols, and why Elixir's actor model and distributed computing capabilities make it uniquely suited for this complex problem space. Whether you're interested in embedded systems, LiveView applications, or the intersection of hardware and software, this conversation offers valuable perspectives on pushing Elixir beyond traditional web development. Resources Mentioned: - CyanView:https://cyanview.com/ - Phoenix LiveView Documentation - MQTT Protocol and Mosquitto - Burrito and Tauri for Binary Compilation Connect with Daniil: - X/Twitter:https://x.com/mrpopov_com SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor:https://elixirmentor.com/?utm_source=elixir-mentor

Mike Hostetler on ReqLLM

Oct 11, 2025 1 hr 26 min

In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I chat with Mike Hostetler, creator of the Jido agent framework and ReqLLM library. Mike shares his journey building a unified interface for calling multiple LLM providers in Elixir, addressing the frustrating inconsistencies between different AI APIs. We dive into ReqLLM's architecture, exploring how it normalizes the differences between providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and more. Mike explains his decision to build a lightweight alternative to existing libraries like Instructor and LangChain, creating something that handles streaming, tool calling, and structured outputs with simple one-line function calls. Mike demonstrates the library live, showing how to test 112+ models across different providers, handle streaming responses, and calculate token usage costs. We discuss the challenges of supporting multiple providers, from handling deprecated models to dealing with provider-specific headers and parameter variations. The conversation also covers Jido's evolution, the upcoming Phoenix dashboard for managing agents, and Mike's vision for hierarchical agent systems in Elixir. We explore how ReqLLM fits into the broader Elixir AI ecosystem and discuss future plans for local LLM support and integration with frameworks like Ash. Resources Mentioned: - ReqLLM GitHub: https://github.com/agentjido/req_llm - Jido Framework: https://agentjido.xyz - models.dev: https://models.dev Connect with Mike: - GitHub: https://github.com/agentjido - Website: https://mike-hostetler.com SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com

Bobby Clayson on Building Marketplaces

Oct 4, 2025 1 hr 42 min

In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I sit down with Bobby Clayson, CEO of Crofter Market, who's tackling one of America's biggest challenges: food system centralization. Bobby shares his journey from building Tax Bit in the cryptocurrency space to creating a marketplace that connects local farmers directly with consumers. We dive deep into the technical and business challenges of building a two-sided marketplace with Elixir. Bobby explains how COVID exposed critical weaknesses in our food supply chain—from beef rationing while farms had surplus livestock to the loss of 50% of American ranchers over four decades. He shares how Crofter evolved from a simple directory to a full third-party logistics operation with refrigerated delivery. The conversation covers crucial startup lessons: solving the cold start problem, building trust with non-technical farmers, knowing when to pivot, and the importance of stepping away from code as a technical founder. Bobby offers candid advice about fundraising, hiring in the Elixir ecosystem, and why passion for your problem matters more than your idea. He emphasizes how functional programming naturally aligns with distributed systems and why Elixir's fault tolerance makes it perfect for marketplace infrastructure. This episode provides valuable insights for anyone building marketplaces, working with physical logistics, or transitioning from technical to leadership roles. Bobby's story demonstrates how technology can address real-world problems while supporting local farmers and improving public health through better food access. Resources Mentioned: - Crofter Market: https://crofter.com - The Cold Start Problem by Andrew Chen - Platform Revolution Connect with Bobby: - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbyclayson/ SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com

Barnabas Jovanovics on Ash Core Development

Sep 20, 2025 1 hr 19 min

In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I sit down with Barnabas Jovanovics, a core engineer on the Ash framework team. Barnabas shares his unique journey from working as an electrician and automation engineer to becoming a key contributor to one of Elixir's most powerful frameworks. We explore how Barnabas discovered Ash while building a booking platform, initially skeptical but quickly becoming convinced by its power. He discusses his major contributions including Ash RBAC for simplified role-based access control and GraphQL subscriptions, as well as his current work on a Discord bot framework that leverages Ash's architecture patterns. Our conversation covers the philosophy of open source development, the challenges of maintaining large projects, and the exciting new Ash TypeScript integration that just launched. This feature automatically generates type-safe TypeScript client code from your Ash resources, supporting both fetch and Phoenix channels for real-time communication. We also discuss valuable perspectives on the Elixir community, conference experiences at Goatmire and Alchemy Conf, and practical advice for developers navigating the rapidly evolving landscape of AI-assisted programming. Whether you're new to Ash or an experienced user, this conversation provides valuable insights into the framework's architecture and future direction. Resources Mentioned: - Ash Framework: https://ash-hq.org/ Connect with Barnabas: - X: https://x.com/barnabasMJ SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com

Michael Lubas on Evolving Elixir Security

Sep 18, 2025 1 hr 25 min

In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I welcome back Michael Lubas, founder of Paraxial.io, where he's building comprehensive security tooling specifically designed for the Elixir ecosystem. We explore how AI-generated code is impacting application security and why traditional scanning tools aren't catching critical vulnerabilities. Michael shares his experience with the most common security mistakes in Elixir projects, including binary deserialization exploits that can lead to remote code execution. We discuss how Phoenix 1.8's improved security documentation helps developers, the rise of organized ransomware attacks, and why security scanning is more crucial than ever with AI-assisted development becoming mainstream. Our conversation covers the challenges of enterprise security tooling, the differences between Rails and Elixir security patterns, and how Paraxial 3.0 is addressing the unique needs of Elixir developers. Michael explains why most enterprise security tools fail developers and how Paraxial takes a developer-first approach to vulnerability detection and remediation. We also discuss the future of AI in software development, identity verification challenges in an age of deepfakes, and the evolving hiring landscape for developers. This conversation provides essential context for anyone building production Elixir applications or concerned about security in the age of AI-generated code. Resources Mentioned: - Paraxial.io Security Platform: https://paraxial.io/ - Phoenix Security Documentation: https://hexdocs.pm/phoenix/security.html Connect with Michael Lubas: - X/Twitter: https://x.com/paraxialio - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaellubas/ SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com

Chris McCord on Phoenix 1.8 and AI-Powered Development

Sep 13, 2025 1 hr 36 min

In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I chat with Chris McCord, creator of Phoenix Framework and LiveView. We dive deep into Phoenix 1.8's groundbreaking AI features, including the revolutionary AGENTS.md file that's transforming how developers work with LLMs in their Elixir applications. Chris shares the fascinating evolution from Phoenix channels to LiveView, explaining how his early experiments with real-time Rails applications led to creating the framework that powers some of today's most ambitious web applications. We explore Phoenix.new, the browser-based development platform that lets anyone build Elixir apps without installing anything locally, and discuss how Tidewave MCP brings intelligent AI assistance directly into your development workflow. Our conversation reveals why Elixir's concurrency model and OTP primitives make it the perfect platform for building AI agents, with Chris explaining how gen servers naturally solve the complex state management and routing problems that other ecosystems struggle with. He provides valuable insights on using LLMs effectively in development, from avoiding common pitfalls to leveraging AI for code porting and debugging. The episode concludes with Chris's thoughts on open source sustainability, the importance of community culture, and practical advice for developers looking to level up their skills with AI-assisted development. This conversation offers essential perspective for anyone working with Elixir or considering how AI will shape the future of software development. Resources Mentioned: - Phoenix Framework: https://phoenixframework.org/ - Metaprogramming Elixir book - Phoenix.new - Browser-based development platform - Tidewave MCP - Local AI development integration Connect with Chris: - Website: https://chrismccord.com/ - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-mccord-98b47a37/ SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com

Adam Kirk on Building AI Meeting Automation

Aug 26, 2025 1 hr 25 min

In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I chat with Adam Kirk, CTO and co-founder of Jump, where they're building AI-powered meeting intelligence for financial advisors. We dive deep into scaling Elixir applications, managing LiveView at thousands of concurrent connections, and building high-performance teams in competitive markets. Adam shares his fascinating journey from PHP and Rails to Elixir, explaining how Jump pivoted from sales automation to financial advisor tools and found explosive product-market fit. We explore the technical challenges of real-time meeting processing, AI cost optimization, and the unique compliance requirements of the financial sector. Our conversation covers Jump's innovative hiring philosophy, including their distinctive approach of 30-minute coding assessments followed by paid trial weeks. Adam explains how they've successfully hired 40+ engineers, many learning Elixir on the job, while maintaining a strong culture of full-stack ownership and work-life balance. We also discuss practical aspects of scaling with LiveView, handling WebSocket reconnections gracefully, and why they chose Oban over traditional GenServer patterns in their Kubernetes environment. This episode provides valuable insights for anyone building AI-powered applications, scaling engineering teams, or navigating the challenges of startup growth. Resources Mentioned: - Jump: https://jumpapp.com/ - Jump Careers: https://careers.jumpapp.com/ - Adam on X: https://x.com/atomkirk SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com - Recruitment Services: https://elixirmentor.com/?utm_source=elixir-mentor

Mike Hostetler on Autonomous Agents

Jul 25, 2025 1 hr 1 min

In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I sit down with Mike Hostetler, creator of Jido, a powerful framework for building autonomous AI agent systems in Elixir. We explore why Elixir's actor model and OTP make it the ideal platform for creating massive agent swarms. Mike shares his vision of "10,000 agents per human" and explains how Jido's architecture leverages Elixir's strengths to build scalable, distributed agent systems. We dive deep into the framework's core components including actions (atomic units of work), signals (messaging backbone), and how agents can spawn sub-agents in supervision trees. The conversation covers practical applications, from Discord bots to job board automation. Our discussion reveals fascinating insights about the future of software development, where traditional coding languages may need to evolve for the agent-driven world. Mike explains his design philosophy of keeping LLMs separate from the core framework, allowing for both AI-powered and traditional NPC-style agents to coexist efficiently. This episode provides valuable perspective for developers interested in building autonomous systems, understanding distributed architecture, and preparing for the next evolution in software development where agents become integral to our development workflow. **Resources Mentioned:** - Jido Framework: https://github.com/agentjido - Agent Jido: https://agentjido.xyz - Mike's Website: https://mike-hostetler.com/ **Connect with Mike:** - X/Twitter: @mikehostetler SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com

Zach Daniel on Ash and Ash AI

Jul 12, 2025 2 hr 2 min

In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I sit down with Zach Daniel, the brilliant creator of Ash Framework, for a fascinating discussion about the intersection of AI and application development. We dive deep into LLM workflows, explore the revolutionary usage rules system, and get an exclusive look at Ash AI - the comprehensive toolkit that's changing how we integrate AI capabilities into Elixir applications. Zach shares his insights on effective LLM usage patterns, from vibe coding workflows to production-ready AI integrations. We explore the groundbreaking usage rules system that allows library authors to provide LLM-specific guidance, making AI assistance dramatically more effective for framework users. The conversation covers Ash AI's powerful features including automated chatbot generation, prompt-backed actions, and seamless tool integration that lets you build AI-enabled applications with minimal effort. Our discussion also touches on the challenges of scaling open source communities, the future of solo entrepreneurship in the AI era, and how tools like Deep Wiki are creating surprisingly accurate AI-generated documentation. Zach provides valuable perspective on managing large open source projects while maintaining code quality and community engagement. This episode offers essential insights for developers interested in leveraging AI tools effectively, understanding modern framework design, and building robust applications with Elixir and Ash. Whether you're exploring AI integration or looking to understand cutting-edge development workflows, this conversation provides practical wisdom and forward-thinking perspectives. Resources Mentioned: - Ash Framework: https://ash-hq.org/ - Ash Framework Book: https://pragprog.com/titles/ldash/ash-framework/ - Usage Rules: https://hexdocs.pm/usage_rules/ - Deep Wiki: https://deepwiki.org/ Connect with Zach: - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachdaniel/ - Substack: https://www.zachdaniel.dev/ - GitHub: https:...

Greg Medland on Elixir Careers and Market Trends

Jun 21, 2025 1 hr 27 min

In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I welcome back Greg Medland, a recruiter who specializes in connecting talented developers with companies seeking expertise in the Elixir ecosystem. We dive deep into the current state of the Elixir job market and explore what developers can expect in 2025. Greg shares valuable insights on how the market has evolved since the post-COVID correction, revealing encouraging signs of recovery and continued Elixir adoption. We discuss the most in-demand skills including Ash Framework experience, full-stack capabilities with React, and AI/ML integration. The conversation explores how companies like Apple, BBC, and numerous startups are successfully leveraging Elixir at scale. We tackle the elephant in the room - AI's impact on developer roles. Greg provides a balanced perspective on how AI tools are changing the hiring landscape, what employers expect regarding AI proficiency, and how developers can leverage these tools while maintaining their value. He emphasizes the importance of using AI as a productivity enhancer rather than a replacement for critical thinking. The episode concludes with practical career advice including resume tips, interview strategies, and how to stand out in a competitive market. Greg shares his unique perspective from reviewing more Elixir developer resumes than perhaps anyone else, offering actionable insights for developers at all levels. Resources Mentioned: - Elixir Remote US Jobs Channel (Elixir Slack) - I Ask.ai: https://iask.ai Connect with Greg: - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregmedlandg2/ SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com

Brian Cardarella on Elixir Adoption

Jun 7, 2025 3 hr 2 min

In this comprehensive episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I sit down with Brian Cardarella, CEO of DockYard, to tackle one of the most critical topics facing our community: Elixir adoption. We dive deep into the challenges and opportunities that shape how developers and companies discover and embrace Elixir. Brian shares his extensive experience from the consulting world, discussing everything from the changing conference landscape and social media fragmentation to the existential questions around AI's impact on programming languages. We explore why traditional adoption pathways have shifted, the role of LLMs in shaping developer choices, and practical strategies for convincing teams to adopt Elixir in both startup and enterprise environments. Our conversation covers the technical barriers newcomers face with OTP, the importance of community building, and the economic realities affecting the entire tech industry. Brian provides candid insights about running a consultancy during market downturns, the influence of private equity, and why Elixir's "makes hard things easy" philosophy sometimes struggles with the "easy things" developers expect. We also tackle community-submitted questions about migration strategies, tooling gaps, type systems, and the future of Live View Native. This episode offers both tactical advice for developers and strategic insights for technical leaders considering Elixir adoption. Resources Mentioned: - Elixir Outreach Stipend Program: https://elixir-lang.org/blog/2025/06/02/elixir-outreach-stipend-for-speakers/ - Conference opportunities list by Dave Erensson:https://www.codosaur.us/speaking/cfps-ending-soon Connect with Brian: - X/Twitter: https://x.com/bcardarella/ - DockYard: https://dockyard.com/ SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com

Henry Saint-Juste on Rapid Prototyping

May 24, 2025 1 hr 36 min

In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I sit down with Henry Saint-Juste, Solutions Architect at NetJets, to explore his philosophy of rapid prototyping and moving fast to validate ideas before committing to tech stacks. Henry shares his unique approach to staying 2-3 sprints ahead of engineering teams and building proof of concepts that drive real business decisions. We dive deep into Henry's experience building NetJets' mobile application using a "code once, deploy anywhere" strategy with React Native and Expo. Henry explains how he evaluates cross-platform frameworks and why React Native succeeded where other solutions like Flutter and Cordova fell short. Our conversation covers his methodology for rapid prototyping, platform engineering approaches, and the importance of getting user feedback loops as quickly as possible. Henry also shares his experience working with Elixir at a previous healthcare startup, his thoughts on automation and "speed of thought" development, and some fascinating insights about his unique perks working at NetJets (hint: private jets are involved). We explore modern deployment strategies, the evolving landscape of DevOps tools, and wrap up with predictions about AI's impact on software engineering teams. This conversation offers valuable insights for anyone interested in rapid prototyping methodologies, cross-platform mobile development, and building MVPs that actually provide meaningful data for product decisions. Connect with Henry: - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hberson/ SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com

Elliott Clark on Simplifying Cloud Infrastructure

May 17, 2025 1 hr 37 min

In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I talk with Elliott Clark, former engineer at both Facebook and Microsoft, who now runs Batteries Included. Elliott shares his rich background from working on the .NET team at Microsoft and infrastructure and developer efficiency at Facebook to creating a platform that simplifies cloud deployment for developers of all sizes. Elliott explains how his experience at tech giants shaped his vision for Batteries Included, particularly the pain points he observed while at Facebook's developer efficiency team where he saw firsthand how complex configurations led to outages. He discusses why he chose Elixir and LiveView for his platform, highlighting how the unified language environment allows backend developers to build cohesive UIs without the traditional frontend/backend divide. We explore how Batteries Included automates complex infrastructure tasks like setting up Kubernetes, Postgres databases, Redis, and monitoring tools with just a few clicks. Elliott also shares insights on their "Robin Hood" business model—keeping the platform free for smaller developers while charging larger enterprises, a philosophy informed by his time with open-source projects at multiple companies. Our conversation dives into technical territory with discussions on managing large Elixir codebases (approaching 300,000 lines of code), challenges of umbrella projects, and the testing philosophies that help maintain quality. Elliott brings valuable perspectives from his work on large-scale systems at Facebook and Microsoft, offering insights on preventing regressions and building resilient infrastructure. Whether you're interested in Elixir, deployment infrastructure, or the challenges of building developer tools, this episode offers valuable insights from someone who has worked at both tech giants and startups. Elliott's practical approach to solving deployment pain points demonstrates how developers can build tools that truly make a difference in the...

Kimberly Erni on Flexible Career Paths

May 10, 2025 1 hr 31 min

In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I chat with Kimberly Erni, a software developer who has found balance through contract-based work. We explore the often-overlooked topic of burnout in the tech industry, where "grind culture" is normalized but comes with significant personal costs. Kimberly shares her personal journey, including how taking a break from full-time work helped her overcome infertility struggles. We discuss the challenges of working in startups with constantly shifting priorities, unrealistic deadlines, and the pressure to always be "on." Both of us open up about our own experiences with burnout and the importance of creating boundaries, especially in remote work environments. The conversation covers practical advice for developers considering alternative career paths, including how to transition to contract work, the benefits of building products incrementally, and choosing technologies that maximize productivity while minimizing maintenance overhead. Kimberly also discusses her plans to develop a crochet pattern app, which leads to an insightful discussion about building sustainable side businesses. This episode provides valuable perspective for anyone feeling overwhelmed in their tech career or looking to create a more flexible work arrangement that accommodates personal priorities. Whether you're dealing with burnout, considering contract work, or building your own product, Kimberly's story offers both inspiration and practical guidance. Resources Mentioned: - Healthy Gamer video on burnout: https://youtu.be/XW-02QiiHDM?si=d7LeRrHTJjrpPsnP Connect with Kimberly: - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimberly-erni/ SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com

Tristan Brice on Radio Resilience

Apr 26, 2025 1 hr 49 min

In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I chat with Tristan Kildaire, a systems programmer who works on low-level projects including his own programming language. We explore LoRa radio technology, Reticulum mesh networking, and how Elixir can revolutionize IoT development. Tristan explains the fundamentals of long-range wireless communication using LoRa, which operates in unlicensed spectrum bands and enables low-power, long-distance data transmission perfect for IoT applications. We discuss Reticulum, a cryptographically-secure mesh networking framework that works across heterogeneous networks from radio to Ethernet, providing resilient communication even in challenging environments. The conversation covers practical applications in smart metering, home automation, and security systems, along with an introduction to the Nerves project for building reliable IoT systems with Elixir. Tristan shares insights on why Erlang's fault-tolerant design makes it ideal for IoT applications, discusses IPv6 advocacy, and explains how Phoenix LiveView enables web development without JavaScript. We conclude with a lighthearted discussion about AI-assisted programming and the concept of "vibe coding," imagining a collaborative Elixir project built entirely through AI assistance. This episode provides valuable insights for anyone interested in radio technology, mesh networking, or IoT development with Elixir. Connect with Tristan: - Website: https://deavmi.assigned.network/ - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tristan-brice-velloza-kildaire/ SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com