As someone that was recently shopping for ergonomic keyboards, your prototype looks like something I’ve been searching for so I’d love to try it. Keep up the great work!
Turn on paid subscribers. I know it feels weird. I am sure there is a subset of people out there who want to support the work you are doing. You don't even need to gate anything (I don't).
Thanks for sharing that, yeah I've been pretty hesitant to monetize anything. Going to look into different ways to do it that feel natural and helpful for the audience as well
Charity would be nice but what would be nicer is if I could find a way to get sponsored that I felt was win-win, also want to avoid the pressure of needing to write if that's not the highest leverage use of time
Big respect for making the jump while sitll having runway. The keyboard market is suprisingly deep once you get into it, i went down that rabbit hole trying to solve wrist issues too and honestly ended up with like 4 diferent boards. The split layout was a game changer tho.
The fact that you pulled the trigger *before* you had financial certainty is the part most people miss. Everyone says "follow your passion" but few talk about the actual calculus — 6 months of runway, a podcast that's net negative, and unvested stock walking away.
I took a different path — kept the day jobs and built SaaS products on the side. Different tradeoffs, slower timeline, but the same core realization: intrinsic motivation compounds in ways that salary never does. The hours you spend on passion projects feel qualitatively different from any amount of paid work.
The Compose keyboard is a smart bet too. Scratching your own itch with a physical product — that's the kind of thing where you genuinely can't fake the customer insight.
Sick! I made the same leap a few months ago to pursue making videos and building a startup. there are a lot of emotions that come with it, especially leaving behind a career you've spent years building up, but it's so worth it.
Let’s go man. All the best for you!! Enjoyed your podcast a lot. It’s carving its own place I think. I have not found any others delivering engineering senior ++ and leaders content like yours.
Looks like you are destined for something big .
Believe yourself!
Good luck 🤞
Appreciate it, going to keep pushing to make it happen!
Thank you so much 😊
👊
> I will miss the unvested stock that I left behind, I’m sure, but hopefully it’s not something I will think about at the end of my life.
This is a good way of thinking about these kind of decisions, thank you for sharing it with the world.
As someone that was recently shopping for ergonomic keyboards, your prototype looks like something I’ve been searching for so I’d love to try it. Keep up the great work!
Amazing, thank you Igor!
Congrats on the decision, and best of luck with what's ahead!
Thank you Ivan!
Turn on paid subscribers. I know it feels weird. I am sure there is a subset of people out there who want to support the work you are doing. You don't even need to gate anything (I don't).
Thanks for sharing that, yeah I've been pretty hesitant to monetize anything. Going to look into different ways to do it that feel natural and helpful for the audience as well
Charity would be nice but what would be nicer is if I could find a way to get sponsored that I felt was win-win, also want to avoid the pressure of needing to write if that's not the highest leverage use of time
Congrats on such a big decision and good luck ahead! I believe you’ll do great
Thank you Jordan! 🙏
Your story is a reminder that intrinsic motivation beats perks and prestige every time.
The story is yet to be written, let's see if that is indeed true 6-12 months from now!
Big respect for making the jump while sitll having runway. The keyboard market is suprisingly deep once you get into it, i went down that rabbit hole trying to solve wrist issues too and honestly ended up with like 4 diferent boards. The split layout was a game changer tho.
Agreed split layout was a game changer, I have a little bag full of random keyboards too haha
Subscribed!
The fact that you pulled the trigger *before* you had financial certainty is the part most people miss. Everyone says "follow your passion" but few talk about the actual calculus — 6 months of runway, a podcast that's net negative, and unvested stock walking away.
I took a different path — kept the day jobs and built SaaS products on the side. Different tradeoffs, slower timeline, but the same core realization: intrinsic motivation compounds in ways that salary never does. The hours you spend on passion projects feel qualitatively different from any amount of paid work.
The Compose keyboard is a smart bet too. Scratching your own itch with a physical product — that's the kind of thing where you genuinely can't fake the customer insight.
Sick! I made the same leap a few months ago to pursue making videos and building a startup. there are a lot of emotions that come with it, especially leaving behind a career you've spent years building up, but it's so worth it.
Congrats on taking the plunge, wish you the best!
Let’s go man. All the best for you!! Enjoyed your podcast a lot. It’s carving its own place I think. I have not found any others delivering engineering senior ++ and leaders content like yours.
Happy to hear that, will keep on delivering senior engineering content! Love hearing their career stories
Love it. Subscribed to your podcast as well. By chance do you have a RSS for it (I’m old school)?
Amazing, and yes here's the RSS feed I believe: https://anchor.fm/s/106346b90/podcast/rss
Congrats on quitting your job! I was wondering how you would maintain all these verticals and a demanding job :)
Thank you! Yea it was a lot of context switching, now it can focus
Congrats Ryan! big things coming
Thank you Matt, time to test the waters outside of big tech
Legend.