Cracking the Code: Marketing, Security, and Startups in Rails with Wafers' Ryan and Mike

Remote Ruby

Imagine if you could master the art of marketing in the Rails development world, or understand the nuances of web application firewalls (WAFs)? Well, look no further. We had an insightful chat with Ryan and Mike from Wafers, who shared their journey in Rails development, security, and their unique marketing strategies. They spoke about their presence at Rails Sassalay and RailsWorld conferences, where they stood out with their code-themed Cards Against Humanity game and a custom Lego set of DHH's car. Quite the creative spark, wouldn't you agree?
Now, let's debunk a myth: developers hate marketing. Is that really true? Ryan and Mike argue that it's not about hating marketing, but about disliking inauthentic and irrelevant tactics. They brought this authenticity to their open-source web application firewall, Wafers, and their testing process was as real as it gets. They touched on the crucial role of WAFs in managing bot traffic and improving website security - knowledge that is valuable for businesses of all sizes.
Our conversation also took us down the challenging road of starting a company that leverages Redis for different ecosystems. We shared our experiences with Redis and Lua scripts, and the intricate decisions about memory usage and performance. But, it hasn't all been about the technical side. Ryan and Mike emphasized the importance of customer feedback in product improvement and how engineering can be a unique tool for marketing. At the end of the day, it's about creating a balance and finding what works best for your startup. So, whether you're a Rails developer, a security enthusiast, or a marketing aficionado, this episode promises to serve a feast of knowledge.

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Honeybadger is an application health monitoring tool built by developers for developers.
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• Jason Charnes X/Twitter
• Chris Oliver X/Twitter
• Andrew Mason X/Twitter

Chapters

1. Marketing and Web Security in Rails (00:00:00)

2. Marketing Creativity at RailsWorld (00:07:59)

3. Developers' Marketing Perspective on WAFRIS (00:13:57)

4. Web Application Firewalls (00:22:58)

5. Exploring Ecosystems and Balancing Priorities (00:34:34)

6. Learning From Feedback and Marketing Strategies (00:41:30)