Alan: Hey, you have a new background.
Mario: Yeah, same area.
It's just a
different position of my camera.
Alan: I see.
It makes you look like you're.
Yeah.
you've moved.
Mario: Yeah.
Right.
Different surroundings.
No, it's same area.
I just have a different setup.
Cause I have now,
a different work
computer and then my computer.
And so I had to move stuff around and,
This is the best I was able to set it up.
So I have my laptop in the center.
So now it's just like a plain boring wall
in the
back.
Alan: No.
It's yeah,
you'd need to, it's like a was it John Oliver, like when
the void there that, right.
You just in void room.
Mario: Yeah, my plan is to put up some, some of those, sound absorbing, you know,
Alan: Yeah.
foam things.
Mario: Yeah.
I'm going to put some of that because I can still hear a little
bit of echo
Alan: A little bit.
Mario: On my recordings.
So.
Alan: I say, I, I really
I, I mentioned before, but you know, when I listened to the audio and doing the edit
and things, this I'm really impressed with this little microphone
Mario: Yeah, it's true.
Alan: considering this room.
I say I've I've got a fan
on all the time
because it's like baking here.
And the in front of me is the there's a road, there's
a main road and this constant
traffic
noise.
And it can just can't hear it on this.
So whatever it's doing, it's doing a good job of it.
So
Mario: Yeah.
Is that, is that a Blue?
A Blue microphone?
Alan: Yes, it's a blue snowball.
Hmm.
Mario: Yeah.
Nice.
Alan: Yeah, it's a
Mario: Yeah, this one is the Rode
Podcaster.
it's a pretty good microphone, but.
Alan: It's kind of like the recommended by everybody one, right?
Yeah.
Mario: Yeah.
It's like a beginner, podcasting mic,
Mike
Alan: this,
Mario: it's pretty good.
but I think the echo really
comes from
Alan: yeah, I think it's your room
Mario: room that I'm in is not, it
doesn't have too much
stuff.
and especially this back wall here
is completely empty, so
Alan: Nice reflections.
Mario: it's.
Yeah.
I
need to add some of those foams.
Alan: I don't know if it makes a difference, but so this room,
Obviously we're in a Japanese apartment.
I claimed the the tatami room.
So virtually all Japanese apartments houses we'll have one
room that has a tatami floor.
And, since, you know, we were not a no.
We, we weren't using it for anything else.
I'm like, well, I'm just going to kind of take over that.
Although it's become the Alan's work and piling
up crap room.
But I don't know if having the floor is like a, you know, a tatami makes
any difference, but it does seem to do a reasonable job of absorbing
here reflections audio reflection.
so
Mario: Nice.
Yeah, that's good.
Alan: that.
Mario: So have you been what's new?
Alan: Ah, So yeah.
I know it's a
time just,
I it's just terrifying how fast this year has gone.
Mario: Yeah.
Alan: absolutely.
I just don't know what's going on at all.
It's Yeah,
it's been just disappeared.
Yeah, It's been actually, I've got some interesting news.
So I think I mentioned briefly to you a few, maybe a month or so ago that 500
startups are doing a thing with Kobe city.
And for it's what is 500 Kobe founders academy it's called and it's designed
for reasonably new founders with like either seed or pre-seed or kind of
early stages of company founding.
And it's hoping to anybody all over the world in previous years it was,
you go to Kobe for six weeks and you do kind of the program there.
Obviously with the way things are right now, it's virtual.
So they said it's, you can apply from anywhere.
Obviously Japanese startups are preferred, but it's, I'm open
to anybody all over the world.
So I Made a one evening pitch deck of like cause literally the
form is you know, who are you?
What's your company attach a, a your deck.
And I'm like,
Mario: Yeah.
Alan: okay.
So I made a very quick one evening attempt to T a, a pitch deck which
was kind of rushed, but And it seemed to get across the main points.
And so I got a message last week that I've been accepted.
Mario: Oh, nice.
Congrats.
Alan: Thank you so it's interesting cause it's a four week program and it's all
done online virtually, so it's mostly like, you know, video lectures, but then
they do two sessions one-to-one per week with like mentors and so it's, it's.
Organized by Kobe city, but it's kind of run by 500 startups.
And I say, I don't know too much about it yet.
I just got the links this morning for like some of the stuff to, to sign up.
So it starts next week and Yeah.
it's a four week lecture series plus say one-to-one and community stuff and ongoing
stuff after that as well, apparently.
Yeah.
And it's designed for.
Basically early stage founders.
So she'll be interesting.
So,
Mario: Nice, that's awesome
Alan: I mean, I don't know what to expect from it right now.
Because I've never done a program like this before, and also, you know, this
is it's not a you know, designed for
like funding VC kind of growth.
It's, it's
definitely, you know early stage founders.
Aimed at.
So I'm like, yeah, just give me the info.
I'm I'm ready to soak it all up.
And I say hopefully the, the networking and
community
side of things should be interesting in as well.
Mario: More to go to cover business apps, aspects, or business side of
Alan: it's actually, let me pull up the page so I can
give, I can give you the spiel.
Mario: Is it virtual or in person?
Alan: it's a virtual,
Mario: Okay.
Alan: oh, say in previous years,
Mario: of things in, in Japan with COVID.
Yeah,
Alan: I say
it's, it's all virtual this year.
So it's a virtual four week program
aimed at helping startups accelerate their business.
It's custom designed to support startups in an independent
manner while explore scaling in, Culebra and beyond gain access
to weekly AMA sessions to clarify
lessons on growth, fundamentals,
sales, capital growth, and more.
Yeah.
so it's basically
like
grow.
Mario: Yeah.
Alan: So Yeah.
Designed for early stage global
startups with global solutions,
Mario: Oh, nice.
So even though you're not in Kobe,
you can participate.
Obviously they accepted you.
Alan: Yes.
Mario: Yeah.
Alan: So yeah, it
should be quite an interesting as I just, the, these sessions that I've had with for
local, I mentioned that I've done these, these mentoring sessions that our startup
thing, and they were You know, Japanese either investors or exited founders that
are now doing advising and investing.
But just the whole process of.
you, know, as, as much as I know, you know, the same, we've all read the books.
We've kind of, we, we know all of the theory right behind doing this.
As, you know, putting it into practice is not as straightforward as just,
oh, well you just do this, right.
Especially you've got this internal fight with, you know, what you should be doing.
Part of you is like, nah, I don't want to do that.
And it's, you know, there's loads of things which I'm
doing and have done, which.
I know better.
But you.
still do it.
Right.
But just talking through it with somebody or explaining yourself to
somebody and having them point out the stuff that's directly in front
of your face has been really helpful.
So I'm kind of, I'm hoping for, for more of that, it's just.
As we've mentioned before doing this on your own is just, is hard.
Right?
You don't have that constant dynamic of somebody questioning or I'm
just talking through this stuff.
Right.
I think it's one of the reasons these sessions are helpful as well, just
to by, by bringing that stuff into the open makes you realize some of
the stupid things you're doing or
not doing as the case may be.
So.
Mario: And just, and just talking about things helps, sometimes, even if it's
just, just talking right, and just saying things out loud and in the process of
doing that, thoughts come up, you know,
Alan: but that's the one of the strangest.
Yeah.
That is one of the strange things about these mentoring sessions is that,
you know, I'm talking about it and
trying to do it in Japanese as well, which is challenging.
And as I'm saying things, I'm like, huh, I should be doing that.
And he's really good.
He's like, why didn't I think of that before?
And I, you know, I've been doing a bit of reading about, you know, this, this kind
of thing of just you know, I've talked before about how we did a business plan.
You know, early, when we set up the company just to get, to be able to
get a bank account here, we needed to have a business plan and having.
Effectively like a written map, stated goal plan of what you're going to do and
why you're doing and how you're going
to try and achieve it.
It, it it's when things are internally in your head, you just
miss the obvious things sometimes.
And really helps just to get out into the open.
Mario: Yeah.
Well, that's awesome.
that's really cool.
So when is that?
When is that again?
Alan: Starts on Monday starts
next week.
So I been said, I can't announce it
publicly, but
since this goes out in a few weeks, we'll be
okay.
Mario: yeah,
Alan: I can announce it publicly after it started, but they want to
do some
PR thing or something.
So
which again?
you know, it's just that the 500 startups network is just so big and so powerful
that you know, the, hopefully there's
some, some good people in that I can learn from too.
So, I mean, even just joining, you know MegaMaker has been.
Really interesting.
And I've learned a lot just
through, you
know, reading and you know, discussions on there and topics that come up there.
So,
I think it should
just be really interesting.
Hopefully.
I hope, I think.
Mario: Just by being there, you can absorb information and learn things that, even if
it's not something that you necessarily.
Need sometimes you don't need something right now.
You don't need to know something, but other people
are discussing something that you recognize that you
might need in the future.
So you make a mental note or, you know, anything like, take some notes
down and yeah, I
can become useful in the.
Alan: Yeah.
I know part of this is
they there's lectures and sections on like raising capital and stuff like, that.
And, you know, we've said before, it's like, that's not really in
my immediate plans, but it's helpful to know about until when, when it's discussed
to know some of the, the pros and cons and to know what's involved a bit more rather
than.
Just dismissing out of hand.
It's like, well, no, I know
it's, it's a more educated decision.
Right.
So even if it's not in my immediate plans, it's helpful to know.
Right.
Mario: Right.
Alan: So she'd be interesting
Mario: Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, looking forward to see you, your report on how that went.
Alan: at the.
interest and the helpful thing for me as well as it's all
in English with a Japanese subtitles.
So
that's good because obviously most of the mentors are from
Non Japanese.
Right.
So that's helpful
Mario: Cool.
How about your product?
Alan: product world.
So I've been working on the subscription, the paddle integration
which is going reasonably easily.
So I think I mentioned before, you know, I chose Paddle.
So I don't have to think about it.
Don't have to worry about everything else, especially with, you know, from day one,
I'll be taking international payments.
Well, hopefully.
Right.
So one of the differences, we know pedal has all of this, it deals with a lot more
stuff in, terms of the tax filing and reporting and paying payments and stuff.
But one of the things they don't really provide is your actual.
Interface stuff.
It's his, there's a, an API there's, there's some JavaScript stuff
to pop in, in our payment thing.
But as far as, especially with doing a subscription service, we still
need to manage that subscription.
Right.
That is all API based.
So the API is is pretty straightforward.
You know, it's not, not really drastically more difficult than Stripe's or anything.
One of the reasons, of course, there isn't an SDK for Elixir, right.
Because why would there be, this is one of the downsides of using Elixir is you're in
this like a lot of the time, you're like, no, it's telling you you're on your own.
There's not quite the ecosystem of like Laravel or Rails or something.
So but it's easy.
I mean, it's just literally you've got to verify signatures and bounce that
back with it and things like that.
So it's a straightforward API is not difficult at all.
But you've got this missing API that you need to build, which is okay.
I want to downgrade or upgrade my subscription.
I want to change my payment things, stuff like that.
So I started.
Working on that.
But I found this rather neat little
service called Kanuu, K A N U U dot IO.
Which is interesting because it provides all of that subscription management stuff
for Paddle for a, very low monthly cost.
So it's it was such a price it's like
$15 a month for unlimited.
So zero for up to 10 subscribes.
So once you got 10 subscribers, it's up to them, zero, then
it's $15 a month unlimited.
You get custom domain and, and it basically manages.
So I still have to, you know, I know which customers are on which a
subscription plan, but when they choose to upgrade downgrade, cancel whatever.
I basically bounced them up to their, they send web hooks, but well Paddle sends
web books back to me for any changes.
So as long as I'm dealing with them, I can bounce them out to a canoe for
all of the, you know, changing their credit card information, and then
just, you know, if they change their plan, I get to know about
it.
And I act on
that.
So it just, it's one less thing to develop.
Right.
So I scrapped my code.
I was writing there and I'm just going to use this instead.
So that's quite nice.
That's one less thing to write,
right?
Mario: Yeah.
Yeah, for sure.
That's awesome.
What was the name again?
K a.
Alan: K A N U U dot IO.
Mario: Got it.
Cool
so it works with Paddle oh, it is
specifically built to work with
Alan: for Paddle.
Yes, exactly.
So obviously the, again, the
Paddle ecosystem is, is not quite as massive as the Stripe ecosystem.
But the fact that this exists was I say, oh, thank you.
I
don't need to write this.
I mean, just silly stuff, like, you know, changing the credit card information.
It's like, well, yeah,
Either use the JavaScript like form that's embedded on for paddle and
then, oh, I could just bounce them out to this and they take care of It all.
So it's nice.
I don't have to worry about any of that.
Now.
I just literally have to deal with the web hooks coming in from
puddle which is just event changes.
They, they just send a series of, so there's two, you
can either or you can both.
Request a history of the events that they've sent you.
And then you just receive events for pretty much anything that happens,
you know, changing the name, credit card upgrading downgrading, canceling,
and all of the requests that happen.
You just get Webhooks through that.
And they're very good about retrying and all the rest of the problem.
So Yeah.
that's, that's Nice, and easy to deal with.
So.
Mario: Nice,
Alan: So that's what I'm looking at at the
moment.
So is, I think I mentioned before that I'm trying to I was about to enter,
to add a bunch of people and then I'm like, you know, I should, if billing
is there, then I could still introduce them and they have the option of paying.
Mario: Right,
Alan: really want to get this in there.
Just so it's done.
I
can, then I feel you know, I don't mind, I, I, I don't mind, you know,
giving out beta accounts until the cows go home, but it'd be nice having the option
for people to talk grade.
Right.
Mario: yeah.
Yeah, for sure.
Alan: So that's pretty
cool.
That's a Nice.
discovery.
Mario: Nice.
Yeah, that's really cool you're making me rethink and reevaluate
my decision to go with Outseta.
Alan: It's the reason I didn't go without setter was the complications
around my account stuff.
Are the,
the user account stuff.
Cause you said you're not using that either.
Right?
I mean, I was set to seems really nice and it just, it's a great
one-stop shop for everything.
Right.
You know, billing, user accounts help system just everything right.
But the, it seems best from my understanding when you start,
when you use The whole system.
Mario: The whole thing.
Yeah,
Alan: I mean, that's kind of what it's designed for.
It's like, yeah,
you've got a CRM built that relies upon you having your user accounts
within that
system,
So they have to sign up via that.
Otherwise you've, you've then got an additional API to manage
of,
well, someone's created an account here.
I've got to create a countdown outset or with
them.
Right.
So,
Mario: yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
it's not the best if you are not using the whole system, you have to kind
of what's the word I'm looking for?
fill in the
gaps, right?
Because you're not using everything.
anything that's missing there, you have to fill it in.
And so it ends up being quite a bit of
work to.
Make it work with just this one section of Outseta, right?
Alan: I mean that, that was the recent cause I started looking
into it and then know I've got an account there and I'm like, hold on.
I want to use that.
But to get to that, I have to do all this other stuff.
I've got to create a user account.
I've got to create this for them.
And then they have to, I have to authenticate them on outset or when
they log into my thing as well.
right?
And it's like,
Mario: yeah.
Alan: this actually, this is more work than I wanted to do.
Mario: Yeah.
Alan: Again, if you, if you're building something that is either membership-based
using another service or it's no code based, I think it's perfect.
But for something that you already have a user account system, it's seems
a little plus they, that didn't work well for me for multiple, currencies.
I could have multiple currencies, but it meant I had to have
different subscription plans.
I don't know if that's changed now, but when.
I raised it with support And were like, it just have a Japanese subscription
plan and a dollar subscription plan.
And if you want to.
you know, a pound sterling a
payment plan as well.
And then they subscribe to that
and it's like, can I not just have one plan?
And it's different currencies depending on where they are
no, you have different.
So I'm like, I, I don't that it didn't really fit my,
I needed.
Mario: Yeah.
I mean, with a SaaS business and the global nature of it, you really need all
this, flexibility and, all these options.
So I don't know.
I'm yeah, I think I'm going to have to rethink, because I still haven't
integrated anything with them.
other than just a little widget
for, contact us kind of thing, but I could get that from somewhere else.
And then they have a nice sort of, help kind of, system, you know, that
Alan: based type
thing.
Yeah.
Mm Hmm.
Mario: Yeah.
Where you can, write articles and, help.
articles and so on.
So, I kind of use that because it
doesn't really require a deep integration is
Alan: right.
It's I need to set up one of those two.
Mario: it's just a link that you send the user to.
and yeah,
that's all I've done.
I
haven't really done anything with the billing, or anything else.
So,
Alan: I don't want to dismiss.
I said, cause I think it's a really good solution, but for
what you're doing, I, it might
be
just not the best
fit.
Mario: Yeah.
it is.
Yeah.
I agree.
And that's why in part, that's why I've been kind of.
Postponing working in on that, in that area.
Cause I still, I'm still not fully convinced and fully committed to it.
So
Alan: Yeah.
Mario: will
look into Paddle again.
Alan: One of the things that, did have to do with paddle was you have to there's,
there's multiple like approval stages you have to go through, they have to
review a product that it's, it's not a,
Like a service based product.
It's just a subscription or or a sold product.
They then also, if you create subscription plans you have to then get approved
for it, say SaaS subscription plans.
So that has different tax implications than if it was a delivery thing
or, so there's, so there's different levels of approval.
Each one is like, you know, it's a few days or it's a week or more.
So there is there's definitely a process, but the, they seem very responsive to
support queries and they've been helpful, you know, for any things I've asked for.
And I say is just, seems, you know, very comprehensive from a dealing with global
sales and not having to worry about.
The implications of tax and things like that.
And obviously with this, something like Kanuu makes it,
Just one little bit easier as well.
So
Mario: Well, I might have to copy that.
Alan: you're okay.
Cause everything's got Laravel APIs
for both the Paddle and for Kanuu had that.
So yeah, you got it easy.
Mario: Nice.
Oh even, better.
So
what was I gonna ask you?
Oh, there was one thing
that I remember you mentioned about Paddle when you were
going through the approval process where you answered
something that you thought was
the right answer.
And they were
like, oh, then you're not approved.
And then you're like, no,
no,
Alan: Yeah.
They said something about it's the human interaction required.
And I'm like, well, yeah, because the people use the product and they're
like, oh, you can't use it the time.
What, What,
did you mean by that?
And they're like, does it require
a human in order to deliver the service?
No.
Mario: Oh, why didn't you ask that?
Alan: So when they rephrase it, I'm I don't
definitely know that.
And they'll okay.
Then that
case it's fine.
So yeah, it's a slightly confusing wording that.
So just be wary of
that.
I was just, just make sure you understand what it is.
They're asking again, it's from a tax and because they act
as a was it seller of record?
I forget the legal term, but basically that they're selling your product.
So and, and, you know, your credit card receipt comes as sold by Paddle.
So they're effectively have to And again, because of the tax implications,
if they're selling a physical service.
Oh, so say it's a service based thing and I'm doing, you know, effectively
freelance or something like that.
The tax implications are very different and they're, like, we don't do that
if you're doing that, we're not for
you.
So if you, if it's just a pure digital delivery, then
it's it's best.
That's
basically, it's got to be a digital delivery.
Mario: did they give you a chance to add something to that where it shows on the
Alan: it shows Paddle.
And then I've got
one here.
Mario: dash something or something like that?
Yeah.
Cause
otherwise people can
Alan: Yeah,
Mario: and I'm like, oh, I don't have
anything with paddles,
Alan: right.
So they both the invoices that they get have like the Paddle
logo at the bottom, but it has your name and logo stuff as well.
And on
the receipts, it says Paddle parentheses
your.
Product.
So it's and most things, I mean like tailwind UI is sold via Paddle.
So if you look at your receipt for that, if you have that then you'll, you'll see.
I have a surprising number of services I pay for use it just
because I think it's very convenient.
So yeah, maybe, maybe with that, but yeah, people seem to understand
now that it's a lot of them say, you know, it'll be billed by Paddle.
Something because I've got the issue that my,
Company's XenoCode, my application is DotPlan and it's been sold by Paddle.
So people will be like, what the hell am I paying for that?
Yeah, exactly.
It's a bit confusing, but that?
Mario: Yeah.
Well, I kind of have a similar situation.
Fusioncast is not the company name.
It's just the product name.
Yeah,
Alan: And you might be able to, I see.
I think you
can set
what gets displayed on that.
So I think it would say
Paddle bracket DotPlan.
I think,
can't remember
Mario: Nice.
All right.
Anything else?
Alan: think.
What about you?
new job, right.
So I assume quite
intensive.
Mario: Yeah.
It is.
Just, you know, getting on board and,
learning new things.
There's lots of
unknowns and
getting to know what I'm working
with
and the people I'm working with, which has been great.
yeah.
It's been going great.
I'm really loving it.
Just, you know, working with my
team and,
Very smooth
onboarding
process.
Alan: I think you did tell me less last week, but how, how
big is.
Mario: It's, Like a mid size company is not too small, not too large.
but they do have,
lots of,
Business going on nationwide.
So there's, lots of things going on, very complex system to handle all of that.
So yeah, it's a fun.
Project, that I'm working with.
And it involves, rewriting of an old system, basically, you know?
And so there's lots of opportunities to improve and to make it better.
There's also the challenge of.
Digging into an, an old code base written by, multiple different people who write
code in a different style than your own.
And so you have to.
Dive in there and do a lot of detective work to figure things out.
So, that's challenging, but it it's a fun project in that.
it's very promising in terms of, the potential, you
know, to rewrite
it and make it better
Alan: Was it written in a different language and
framework as
well?
Or is it, oh, it was all PHP
right now.
Okay.
So well, oh, okay.
That's fun.
I remember doing that.
Mario: Yeah.
Yeah, yeah,
Alan: Nice.
Mario: yeah, so it's a, it's an interesting
project, but I liked that
kind of challenge, you know, I kind of like
Alan: It is kind of therapeutic.
I did something very similar for a client in the last few weeks was, was
basically taking an older Ruby code base and rails
defying it.
It wasn't using rails before.
And it's against kind of grown over time and it's
yeah, thankfully it
wasn't too much to change, but obviously there's the
opportunity for like, ah, we can
do this better using things.
So it is quite
therapeutic for
sure.
Mario: Yeah.
Yeah,
Alan: And you have the power to effectively yet.
Like I said, rewrite things, I'll leave things out.
I'll just,
Yeah.
it's nice.
Cool.
Mario: Yeah.
Yeah.
So it's been going great, but you know, it's it's been taking up most
of my time and mental bandwidth and, haven't really been putting too much
time into a fusion cast just a little bit here and there on the weekend.
I did manage to make some changes to the UI based on some
really good feedback that I got.
And also the fact that, some of the APIs that I'm working with, there
were some changes, some updates
that have made it possible to not record the backup recording automatically
from the beginning, from the
moment that you join a
session.
because that was really a technical limitation that I had because of
the API that I'm using for that.
And I turned it into a feature where, you know, it's a
backup, right.
So it's great that it's automatic, but I did get some feedback.
They were saying, it's great.
But at the same time, I wish I had the option to, just start recording whenever
I want to not just have it automatically.
because even, even if I don't start recording locally, it's recording that,
you know, backups still automatically from the get-go.
So it just seemed very.
Forceful,
if you will,
the user not having
that
Alan: So now they can, you can initiate a session.
And separately
say, start recording
it.
Right.
Nice.
Mario: Yes.
So basically now I have the ability to start recording both locally and
backup of the same
time on demand.
When I click the button, then both, both
recordings start.
Alan: I mean, th that's probably more in line
with expectations, right?
Mario: Exactly.
Exactly.
I was
super excited when I found out that they've updated that.
So,
I worked
on, on that.
And so now
that's
one of the changes that are coming.
It's still not
Alan: Oh, I have
a book request or at least
feature quirk.
Mario: oh yeah, for sure.
Let me, let me, let me write it
down.
Alan: So if I'm logged in,
I think I may have mentioned this before.
If I'm logged in, I can't join
our session.
Mario: If you are logged in on your own account
Alan: I can't.
So I was
logged in because I was recording intro.
And I was getting 403 for joining this session.
And it's really confusing cause it
takes like, it takes a few brain cycles before I go, I have got to log out and
then we've got to go to Fusioncast, sign in, sign out, and then go.
So if.
It doesn't work for a technical thing.
Just pop up a thing there saying like, you need to sign out to join
as a guest or something if, if
that's easiest work around.
But yeah, four three is really unlike, oh, it's broken.
Hold on.
This rings a bell.
Mario: Yeah, that's a good one.
Well, I guess because of you are logged
in, you have a session going
on.
and It thinks that the session that you're trying to
Alan: It's belongs to
Mario: belongs to you,
but it
Alan: that's what I said, I think is easiest thing was just, just
pop up message and say to join somebody else's session, you
need to log out first and put a
log out button and do It that it was logged you out and then redirect
you back to it or something.
Something like that.
Just, just not just a 4 0 3.
Mario: yeah.
that's that yeah, that's true.
It's it's really bare bones right now.
It's just, you know, 403 and needs to be polished.
Alan: And and also I'm
going
to bug you about the
password
rules again.
Mario: Oh yeah, no, that was on my list.
Yeah, it's on my list.
I need to work on that.
password rules.
Yeah.
I'm going to get to
that one pretty soon.
Cool.
Yeah, want to have it on
my notes here so
that I don't forget about it
out of sight, out of
Alan: Tell me about it I mean, especially one of the things I,
Especially with like a personal project, like this, using something,
like get to a bud grr as I've been using linear
for client work we use a linear book trucker.
That's really Nice.
That's probably one of the most impressive client side.
You know, browser apps.
I mean, there's an application, but it's just react.
So it just runs electron or whatever.
It's probably one of the most impressive apps.
You know, client side had apps, web apps that I've ever used.
It's really responsive.
It's super fast.
It feels like it's incredibly fast.
It's.
I don't know what they're doing.
I want to kind of look into their sinking magic sometimes just
because it's really well done.
If anything could convince me that client setups are worth it, Figma
and linear, probably the two, which are like, wow, that's really good.
So worth looking at book for personal or you're the only one working on it.
It feels like
a
commodity is like overkill.
Right?
I mean, I know I should.
So I'm actually just using dot plans future features or future plans list for
that, which means it's got very big, but it also means that it's there on the page.
Every time I like go to it and say, oh Yeah.
I need to
do that stuff.
So that's actually my my to do list.
So someone mentioned, I don't think I've mentioned this, but
someone of my testers as mentioned this idea of doing an auto
check-in, have I mentioned that?, so it's been, you mentioned it and at first I'm
like, huh, I don't get it.
And it's one of those that sits in your head long enough that you're
like, it's actually quite good idea.
So his comment
was during the date, he'll go through you know, in the morning.
You know, look at today's plans are what's left over from yesterday's plans.
Add his plans to do going through the day, check them off and then forget about it.
And the next morning he's like, ah, I didn't check in.
And he's like, I've if I've changed my plans or the, if I've checked
stuff off during the day set like an auto check in time, say 6:00 PM.
Then if it hits 6:00 PM, just, just publish my check-in and I'm like,
That's quite, that's quite a good idea.
Cause he was like, well, you've done stuff.
So therefore publish it.
And it's like, well, Yeah.
I mean, I always want to publish it.
It's just, sometimes I literally were like finished the day and be like, oh, I'll get
them done and forget to go and check in.
So he's like, I want it to publish my check-ins every day.
I just sometimes forget.
So rather than I've got like an email reminder right now, which I mean,
who reads their email these days?
Seriously?
Mario: Yeah.
Alan: So he's like, I just want it to check in for me.
So it's, it's been bouncing around my head for a good few
weeks now.
And I'm coming around to the idea that I might add it as an option,
because to be honest, I do the same.
I'll go through and, you know, mock stuff is done, but then I'll
completely forget to actually check in and I'm like, you might
be onto
something.
So.
Mario: Yeah.
Yeah.
That sounds like a, like a neat feature.
Alan: And also as
Mario: There'll be cool.
Alan: so mentioned here, I've got a Japanese beta tested that's
I added time-tracking to dot
plan for as like a an experimental feature.
So it's really basic.
You can start and stop a timeout, or you can start a timer attached to a project.
So you can say I'm looking on this project and then stop it.
I'm working on another project.
Stop it.
And that that works really well.
It says super simple feature, but it, I, I was on the fence about adding it, but
I kind of was convinced by him and by a few of the people actually, you know, in
my business, we need to do that anyway.
So if it was kind of part of the same product, then it could be useful.
So I've added that as a.
An optional feature, you can turn it on or off within the admin.
So the owner of the account can turn it on or off as a, as a workspace level.
But this company has requested now.
It's like, that's great.
But people are now stopped checking in because they're like, I recorded my time.
Whereas before they were checking in as like the stop working now, it's
like, now they're just clicking stop.
So his suggestion was when you stop, pop up your.
Your, your plans, right?
That you have open it's like, do you want to check in, so I kind of have that
as a two-step stop, as opposed to just stopping it where you stop and it says,
do you want to check in what you've done?
Okay.
Tap, tap, click.
Those has done like check-in.
So I'm adding that as well as a see,
how it works for them because they're quite actively using it.
So that they're actually it's an interesting test case because
they seem keen on the idea.
They're sticky points are parts of the implementation, not technically,
but just how it fits their Workday.
And so it's kind of a good.
test case because they.
They They want to use it, but they wanted to be as little
work as possible for it to work.
Right.
So it's like, okay, now this is, it's an interesting evolution of that feature
that is like well, if I'm going to have timecards you know, timing check clock-in
and clock-out might as well integrate with the plan system itself and make it based
around that, which was, was the part, which I was not keen on adding timing.
Too far.
That's the reason I didn't really want to add that in first place
was just like, well, that's a separate thing from the check-ins.
Right.
But this actually would make
it part of the check-in.
So I'm kind of playing around with that as a, as an idea at the
moment.
I don't know if I'll make it into it, but.
Mario: sounds good.
sounds like it would make the product more useful, I guess, more
Alan: Integrate.
Yes.
It's, it's, it's part of the same thing then.
right.
Mario: different
Alan: And that, that's why I made it an
optional
feature is because as I said,
quite a few of the beta users.
Because they do client work and client work is more, often, you
know, they do like agency type stuff.
More often than not is timed as well.
You know, so having an idea of how much time has been spent on a product that
they have to do timekeeping anyway.
So I
say, well, if that's kind of built in and
it
merges this idea of doing a check-in with recording time as well, then it
kind of makes that a bit more coherent.
Mario: Nice.
Cool.
well Yeah,
play
with
Alan: Yeah, it's a little bit, I said the whole timing
thing is kind of an
experimental
branch at the moment.
I mean, it's,
there and it's, it's in the product, but I'm not,
I'm not a hundred
percent
convinced.
Mario: Yeah, well, I know how it goes.
Sometimes it takes a while to really either confirm
Alan: I mean, this is one of the
the pros and cons of, of bootstrapping slash not having a,
A
separate process of defining
the product from end to end.
Right.
You know, kind of iterating on the product is it is very much a learning process.
Right.
You know, it's and again, this is one of the kind of regrets
of not just making a simpler.
more known product.
If I was making a calendaring app or.
a calendar meeting
scheduling out, then that's fine.
I kind of know what it needs to do.
and it's kind of a defined
space.
Right.
But because it's one of the downsides of making something that
I am not, I don't know the answers
to all the questions
yet.
Mario: Right, right.
So there's a lot of exploration and trial and error for sure.
Alan: You know,
it's a live alone.
Right.
Mario: Yup, yup.
Alan: So
what's your next plan on
the scale?
Try and get these is there any more new users lined
up?
Oh, did
you get Laurie signed
up?
Did he contact you?
Mario: Yeah.
I, yes, yes, I did I haven't heard from him.
Since that, but I, wrote an email to him with some information.
I gave him the option to do an onboarding call or just for
him to try it out on his own.
So I gave him some information just quick, facts about, you know, what
Fusioncast is and how it works.
And I gave him a private code invite so that he could, create
his own account and give it a try.
So I told him, let me know if you have any questions, or we could do a
call, and so I haven't heard from him yet, so I don't know if he's had a.
Yeah, I know.
Right.
I don't think he's created an account yet or maybe he did, but
he hasn't done anything with it.
Yeah.
So we'll see.
I'll reach out to him again.
I just wanted to give him some time, some space.
I don't, you know, I don't like to bug people with, you know,
so just give it some time and but I'll reach out to him to see if he
has any questions and, we'll go from.
so I think that's it, really just, on my end, just a, those little changes
that I've been able to work on.
And most of it has to do with functionality within the studio.
mainly just cleaning stuff up.
So now
that I have better control of recording, It simplifies a lot of
things.
Cause now I don't have
to say, okay, backup recording is in progress,
Alan: Yeah.
Yeah.
right,
Mario: not, or, you know, any of
that.
Alan: it's either it is recording or isn't,
right?
Mario: Exactly.
And there isn't really a need to emphasize any differences in
that.
and so I came to the
realization also
that, Indicating when
Fusioncast is
uploading is kind of not really necessary, right?
If it's, recording,
it is a uploading at the same
Alan: Recording kind of
Mario: the system needs to
know internally.
Alan: If it's recording,
it's
been uploaded, right?
Mario: Exactly.
So there's no
need to be indicating both processes for the user.
The user doesn't really
care about that.
the system needs
to know internally what's going on and I
need
to manage that under the hood, but I don't need to display that
it's uploading it's enough to say that it's recording and that's it.
So I'm cleaning a lot of stuff up, like that for example, the microphone
and camera, when it's on, it's on, you can tell it doesn't need to have
a green icon indicating that it's on.
if it's muted, then it'll display a little red microphone, but if
it's not muted, it's just nothing.
And then the camera is even easier because if the camera is on, you can see it.
And if it's, you know, if it's disabled, then.
You can see it as well.
It's a black, you know, frame.
So, so there's really no need for that.
So I'm, I'm
just removing redundant
stuff and simplifying and that's based on feedback
Alan: I like that because yeah, the, the, I'm just saying recording, like evenly,
a backup and local recovery in progress.
you
just you're recording.
That's it.
Right.
Same with the upload cloud upload.
It's just
recording.
Mario: yeah, exactly.
So, you know, uploading is.
by
Alan: is, it's an implementation detail though, that you need to know, but your
user
just needs to know it's recording,
right?
Mario: exactly.
Yeah.
Again, I don't know what I was thinking
when
Alan: funny because it makes sense when You say it, but I've never
really questioned it.
Just knowing that those, this is one of the really difficult things about
being too close to your prototype because you expose things which a lot
of the
time your users
don't care on need to know about.
Right.
But you're like, well, it does this.
I need to tell you it's doing this
Mario: Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah let's see, what else?
Oh yeah.
I wouldn't even
have, at the top, in the center where it
says backup recording, it's not gonna, there won't be anything there at all.
And just every video frame we'll
have
recording, you know,
on the top
Alan: You could move the timer
middle maybe.
Mario: Yeah, I
could move that.
I thought about that.
maybe Yeah.
Put it
in
the
Alan: That's a useful, maybe it's a useful thing to, to
know.
and it always, I always look for it and it's always
over there
Mario: Yeah.
So
if it's in the center, it will be easier to
find.
Alan: I like that.
That's
Mario: Okay, cool
Alan: That's a nice idea.
Mario: I've been working on a bug that I found if you switch
cameras in the middle
of a session, for example,
it'll change the camera.
To the rest of the participants in the session.
It'll, reflect that change to everyone, but not on your, on your own, it'll
still show the video input from the
previous camera.
A little complicated to fix that and I haven't had much time for that.
So it's going a little slow, but as I ease into
my new job, I think I'll have more mental, bandwidth to, work,
late in the night or,
Alan: No the first, first few weeks were always
just
exhausting, just because there's so much new stuff to, take in.
And, you know, if you want to make a good impression and it's
just getting to know like the, the boundaries of you
know, just expectations
and things like that.
So, yeah, it's, it's always hard for the first few weeks, so I'm not gonna, I'm
not going to give you any grief about
that.
No problem.
I'll let you off.
Mario: All right.
Alan: Cool.
I'm glad.
It's going well,
Mario: Cool.
Well, yeah, that's all we have, I
guess.
Maybe it's a good time
to wrap it up.
All right.
Have a
good
Alan: Talk to you later.
Cheers man