The Laravel Podcast

The Laravel Podcast is brought to you by Tighten, your friendly neighborhood Laravel experts. Check us out at tighten.com and also by other sponsors you will hear about later in the episode. 

In this episode, Matt Stauffer talks with Tom Crary, President and COO at Laravel, about the path that took him from a Big Four CPA firm to running the business side of one of the most loved frameworks in PHP. Tom walks through his years at Accel-backed startups, his time as CEO of Pond5 through the Shutterstock acquisition, and the surprisingly fast turnaround that ended with him signing his Laravel offer letter on Christmas Eve.

They get into the division of labor between Tom and Taylor Otwell, scaling the team from 10 to 105 people in two years, and what Tom calls the hand-to-hand combat phase after Laravel Cloud and Nightwatch launched. Tom also previews fast hibernation, the growth of Private Cloud, and how Laravel is leaning into AI-assisted workflows.
Matt Stauffer on X 
Tom Crary on LinkedIn 
Laravel Twitter
Laravel Website
Tighten Website
Suggestion Box 

----- Editing and transcription sponsored by Tighten.

Big thanks to the companies that support the show:

Honeybadger - https://www.honeybadger.io/for/laravel/

Mailtrap - https://l.rw.rw/laravel_pod_3

Thunk - https://tidyup.agency/

Laravel - Laracon US and Laravel Cloud

The Laravel Podcast is brought to you by Tighten, your friendly neighborhood Laravel experts. Check us out at tighten.com and also by other sponsors you will hear about later in the episode. 

Matt Stauffer talks with Jason Beggs, staff software engineer at Laravel and the design engineer behind the Laravel Cloud front end. Jason shares how he unexpectedly became “the Tailwind guy”—and how that path led him to helping build one of the most talked-about products in the PHP world.
They get into what design engineering actually looks like at Laravel: working closely with designers, building in React (even when it’s not your favorite), using AI to handle big refactors, and what it’s like to create a product you’re also the perfect user for.
Matt Stauffer on X 
Jason Beggs on X 
Jason Beggs’s Website 
You Might Not Need an Effect 
Epic React
Expose 
Laravel Twitter
Laravel Website 
Tighten Website 
Suggestion Box 
----- Editing and transcription sponsored by Tighten - https://tighten.com/

Big thanks to the companies that support the show:
Honeybadger 
Mailtrap 
Thunk 
Laravel - Laracon US and Laravel Cloud

The Laravel Podcast is brought to you by Tighten, your friendly neighborhood Laravel experts. Check us out at tighten.com and also by other sponsors you will hear about later in the episode. 

Matt Stauffer sits down with Dave Hicking, Laravel's Agency Partnership Manager, to trace his winding path into the Laravel world — from a UConn IT library to Tighten (twice), Yale's rare books collection, Userscape, and finally Laravel HQ.
They dig into the evolution of the Laravel partner program, including the newly restructured tiers, and what Dave is actively building to make "partner" mean something beyond a logo on a page. The conversation covers the strategic thinking behind community growth, what real collaboration between Laravel and its agencies looks like, and why their success is genuinely, structurally mutual.
Matt Stauffer on Twitter 
Dave Hicking Website 
Dave Hicking on Twitter 
Dave Hicking on LinkedIn 
Laravel Partners 
https://randsinrepose.com/ 
Pragmatic AI Podcast
Laravel Twitter 
Laravel Website 
Tighten Website 
Suggestion Box 
----- Editing and transcription sponsored by Tighten.
Big thanks to the companies that support the show:
Honeybadger
Mailtrap
Thunk 
Laravel - Laracon US and Laravel Cloud

In this episode, Matt Stauffer interviews Ryuta Hamasaki, a senior software engineer at Laravel, who shares his journey from discovering Laravel to becoming a key player in the Laravel community. Ryuta discusses his experiences attending international conferences, his motivations for organizing Laravel Live Japan, and his day-to-day work at Laravel, particularly on the Nightwatch team. The conversation highlights the importance of community, collaboration, and the challenges of organizing tech events in Japan.
Matt Stauffer on Twitter
Ryuta Hamasaki (@avosalmon) on X
Ryuta on GitHub
Laravel Live Japan
Laravel Twitter
Laravel Website
Tighten Website
Suggestion Box

----- Editing and transcription sponsored by Tighten.

In this conversation, Devon Garbalosa shares his journey from working in a tire shop to discovering his passion for web development, highlighting a pivotal moment when he discovered Laravel. He discusses the ease of connecting to databases and implementing authentication, emphasizing how frameworks can significantly enhance development efficiency and effectiveness.
Matt Stauffer on Twitter
Devon Garbalosa on Twitter
Laravel Twitter
Laravel Website
Tighten Website
Suggestion Box

----- Editing and transcription sponsored by Tighten.