Rethinking my AI for Code Reviews SaaS
Last year I took a big pivot for my sideproject coderbuds.com to start using using AI. Coderbuds was originally aimed at connecting disparate teams and developers. Additional developers could be onboa...
Blog
Writing about building products, development, and lessons learned along the way.
My Product Autopsies
Here are some things I've built over the years that didn't survive. Many died naturally. Most I killed. Let me introduce you to some projects I have known and loved:
Using a Kaizen Blitz to improve security automation
At my current work with Pfizer we are looking at automating as much as possible. One of the ways we keep our applications secure is by scanning dependencies for vulnerabilities and updating them. We'v...
VILT Stack - A future-proof way to build with Laravel in the 2020s
THIS IS WILD. A stack that lets you build fast, allows for clean code with clear separation of concerns, uses the best of modern css practices and is reactive. No, I’m not talking about all the hype f...
Using Statamic as a CMS alongside a Laravel App
“So, when will we get WordPress and Yoast installed” I’m asked in our weekly standup. I’ve just finishing the MVP of a Laravel SaaS I’m building. A few too many redesigns has buried the original conve...
Building products: Moving from WordPress to Laravel
Why would a diehard WordPress contributor, organiser and business owner jump ship to a new platform? In this first post, I’ll look at how I was building with WordPress and some great practices I honed...
Migrating WordPress users and passwords to Laravel
I recently needed to migrate users from a WordPress SaaS application to a Laravel SaaS application. The SaaS in question is: Simplehours – take a look. As part of the migration I needed to move the us...
Weekend MVP - How to test your product idea quickly using WordPress
I had a good shower idea. You know, those ideas that flit into your head but don’t often linger around too long. Well, I had this one idea and decided to run with it, but I gave myself just the weeken...
Using MVC with WordPress - WordCamp London Talk 1.
This is a write up of the talk I gave at WordCamp London 2018 about building products with WordPress. The TL;DR – Products and WordPress can go together using an MVC framework that we released at Word...
10 Mistakes I made building a WordPress Startup
I’m going to talk about lessons learnt building a WordPress product. This article expands upon my last WordCamp talk. Both my products are SaaS and both are built on WordPress. WordPress I hope you al...
When to launch your SaaS startup
I’m continuing from my post about building our SaaS startup in WordPress. Be sure to read the first part before this. I’ve run through our process of building. How we use a feedback engine to drive ou...
Building a SaaS startup with WordPress
Last week at the WordPress London Meetup I gave a talk about SaaS and WordPress. It’s a subject very dear to my heart. At the start of the year, we launched YoGrow. Our startup is gaining traction and...
The 1-minute secret to nailing product-market fit
I’m currently at Entrepreneurial Spark, a business accelerator in Brighton. Last year when I applied, I was told that to get a spot on the programme I would have to pitch my startup idea. There were t...
The problem with WordPress.com
Have you ever recommended a film and then when you watch it with your mate you can see them hating it. They’re looking over at you and saying “WTF! You said this was awesome, but it sucks”. You’re say...
Accepted on Entrepreneurial Spark 2016
I am happy to announce that we are joining the business accelerator Entrepreneurial Spark next month. Sponsored by Natwest Bank, this national programme takes early stage startups and provides them th...
Building a WordPress Product
We have just released our first proper product. Why do I call this a ‘proper’ plugin? We’ve released plugins before, but this one is different. I’m going to run through how we built our latest WordPre...
WordCamp London 2015
Day Two of WordCamp London starts in a few hours. Another cracking day is in store. WordCamp’s inspire without fail. It’s nice to be on ‘home turf’ and to see so many from all over the world have come...