{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"State of Play","title":"Steve Ruiz: He Turned Down Adobe. Then He Shelved His Own Product.","html":"<iframe width=\"100%\" height=\"180\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless src=\"https://share.transistor.fm/e/58cbb5ff\"></iframe>","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2323,"description":"Steve Ruiz was about to start at Adobe. Bags packed. Job accepted. Start date: Monday.Then he looked at what was happening with his side project — an open-source canvas tool he'd been building — and 200,000 people were using it every month. Hundreds of sponsors had put up 00,000. Two major companies wanted to build on it. He called Adobe and said he wasn't coming.That project became TLDraw.Steve's background isn't in software — it's in fine art. He has a masters in it. He spent thousands of hours studying ink on paper — how it moves, how it bleeds, how it dries. And when he later wrote the algorithms for digital ink, he had this deep physical knowledge that most engineers just don't have.We talk about why he killed his own SaaS product to focus on the SDK, why he thinks craft only matters when you're building for high-agency users, and his surprisingly simple answer to the question every open-source founder faces — how do you actually make money?Get the UX Tools NewsletterJoin 100,000+ designers for weekly insights on creative software and the people shaping it: https://uxtools.coCHAPTERS:00:00 - Cold open01:30 - Art school to open source04:32 - 10,000 hours of unmotivated work06:08 - Finding ideas without external validation08:22 - The content-first experimentation loop11:30 - Why software is easier than art14:42 - Most software experiences haven't been discovered yet17:10 - Prototyping obsession and the infinite canvas17:47 - 200,000 users before you could even log in19:14 - Make Real: the first vibe code tool21:13 - Optimize for the points of contact23:51 - Killing the SaaS to ship the SDK29:19 - The open source money problem30:03 - \"Just charge for it\" — beating React Flow32:12 - When craft actually matters (high-agency users)35:57 - What's most fulfilling about building TLDrawABOUT TOMMY GEOCOI spent 15+ years in tech and design. Former military. Father of five. Now building a weird little media + product studio rediscovering soul in creative tech.ABOUT...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/Q4goNjMCyLVJblsVd-hc65Y9xpTGIkbjq5L00Huluhg/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9kZTM4/NTdjYjhlYmI5NzU0/YjRlNDNkMjFiNDgy/NTRhNi5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}