

Code Story: Insights from Startup Tech Leaders
Noah Labhart - Startup Founder & CTO
Code Story is a startup podcast for technical founders building and scaling software products.Each episode features SaaS founders, engineers, and product leaders sharing how they built their product, found product-market fit, and navigated early-stage growth.We explore:Early engineering decisions and MVP developmentLanding the first customersPricing and go-to-market experimentsScaling challenges and infrastructure bottlenecksHiring the first teamLessons learned from growing a startupFrom first commit to first scale, Code Story focuses on the critical transition from building software to building a scalable business.If you’re a founder, engineer, or product leader interested in SaaS, startups, and scaling technology companies, this podcast breaks down how great products are built — and how they grow.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jun 23, 2020 • 34min
S2 E20: Daniel Gebler, Picnic
A resident of Amsterdam, Daniel Gebler found his way into tech through an artistic route – through creating demos, combining visuals and music through technology. A husband and Dad of 2, he enjoyed rock climbing, but mostly bouldering indoors – though he loves to go out in the trees with his friends when he can. After leading R&D at Fredhopper, he took several years to do research on large scale systems. Coming out of his research in 2015, he joined Picnic – the online supermarket delivering groceries directly to your home, free of charge.Today’s Sponsors:Ladder.sport – use code: BETTEREVERYDAY for 30% offPayoff.com/CODESTORY – pay off your credit card debtGo.RIMS.org/CODESTORY – to save 25% on a yearly membershipEpisode Resources:PicnicLeave us a review on Apple PodcastsAmazing tools we use:If you want the best publishing platform for your podcast, with amazing support & people – use Transistor.fmWant to record your remote interviews with class? Then, you need to use Squadcast.Code Story uses the 1-click product ClipGain, sign up now to get 3hrs of podcast processing time FREECredits: Code Story is hosted and produced by Noah Labhart, Co-produced and edited by Bradley Denham. Be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play, Breaker, Youtube, or the podcasting app of your choice.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Jun 16, 2020 • 24min
S2 E19: Denis Lunev, DepositFix
Nine years ago, Dennis Lunev moved from Russia to the USA. He likes to polish his skills in archery and throw axes. Previously, he was a software engineer attempting to build SaaS solutions that didn’t quite pan out. Afterwards while doing integration consulting he saw the need to connect payment gateways to HubSpot, so he set out to build DepositFix – a way to directly integrate Stripe and PayPal into the world’s most used CRM.Today’s Sponsors:Save the Children (www.savethechildren.org/savekids)Payoff (payoff.com/codestory)RIMS (Get 25% off a year long membership at Go.RIMS.org/codestory)Calibre (Start a free 15 day trial at CalibreApp.com)Episode Resources:DepositFixConnect with Denis on LinkedInRICE FrameworkHubSpotStripeLeave us a review on Apple PodcastsAmazing tools we use:If you want the best publishing platform for your podcast, with amazing support & people – use Transistor.fmWant to record your remote interviews with class? Then, you need to use Squadcast.Code Story uses the 1-click product ClipGain, sign up now to get 3hrs of podcast processing time FREECredits: Code Story is hosted and produced by Noah Labhart, Co-produced and edited by Bradley Denham. Be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play, Breaker, Youtube, or the podcasting app of your choice.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Jun 11, 2020 • 58min
S2 Bonus: Meet the Podcasters
A few weeks ago, I got to have a great chat with James Deeney on the Meet the Podcasters podcast. In this episode, we talk about Code Story and how we craft the narratives for the stories. We dig into the editing, the workflow, and the inspiration that started it all. Link to the episode: https://www.podcast.co/inspire/noah-labhart-code-storyShow Notes: 02:22 – How Noah first got into podcasting07:30 – Plans to launch a company podcast for Veryable09:20 – Similarities between starting a company and starting a podcast11:45 – Hiring a podcast team14:10 – How Noah initially financed Code Story16:30 – Why podcast quality is so important18:30 – Communicating clearly and avoiding tech jargon22:00 – How to conduct relaxed and conversational interviews27:00 – Editing interviews to craft a narrative29:30 – How music is added to Code Story33:00 – Why Noah decided to produce Code Story in seasons37:00 – Strategies Noah used to build his audience40:30 – Promoting a podcast in relevant online communities44:20 – Finding and pitching to podcast sponsors50:15 – Noah’s predictions on the future of podcast techAmazing tools we use:If you want the best publishing platform for your podcast, with amazing support & people – use Transistor.fm.Want to record your remote interviews with class? Then, you need to use Squadcast.Code Story uses the 1-click product ClipGain, sign up now to get 3hrs of podcast processing time FREE!Credits: Code Story is hosted and produced by Noah Labhart, Co-produced and edited by Bradley Denham. Be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play, Breaker, YouTube, or the podcasting app of your choice.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Jun 9, 2020 • 35min
S2 E18: Mubashar Iqbal, Pod Hunt
Mubashar Iqbal, AKA Mubs, has always been a maker. Having built 85 side projects, he is no stranger to launching new products, being inspired by his love for Product Hunt, he got the idea to create something with the same mechanics, but for podcasts. On a train ride home, he started to build pod hunt, a place for podcast lovers to submit and vote on new episodes, solving discovery around episodes over entire podcast shows. Today’s Sponsors:Ladder (ladder.sport)Payoff (payoff.com/codestory)Save the Children (www.savethechildren.org/savekids)Atomic Child (atomicchild.com)RIMS (go.rims.org/codestory)Scatterspoke (scatterspoke.com)Episode Resources:https://podhunt.app/https://mubs.me/Leave us a review on Apple PodcastsAmazing tools we use:If you want the best publishing platform for your podcast, with amazing support & people – use Transistor.fmWant to record your remote interviews with class? Then, you need to use Squadcast.Code Story uses the 1-click product ClipGain, sign up now to get 3hrs of podcast processing time FREECredits: Code Story is hosted and produced by Noah Labhart, Co-produced and edited by Bradley Denham. Be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play, Breaker, Youtube, or the podcasting app of your choice.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Jun 2, 2020 • 38min
S2 E17: Dominik Obermaier, HiveMQ
Growing up in a small rural city in Germany, Dominic Obermaier was not exposed too much when it comes to computers. After studying computer science in college, he was hooked. A frequent reader of ancient philosophy, he likes to hang out with friends and play board games, specifically long-lasting games such as Arkham horror. Obermaier started a company with his college friends with the goal to broker data from connected devices, and not just a few, but millions following his very own standardized IoT protocol MQTT. This solution is now known as HiveMQ.Today’s Sponsors:Atomic Child (atomicchild.com)Save the Children (savethechildren.org/savekids)RIMS (go.rims.org/codestory)Calibre (calibreapp.com)Episode Resources:https://www.hivemq.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/dobermaiLeave us a review on Apple PodcastsAmazing tools we use:If you want the best publishing platform for your podcast, with amazing support & people – use Transistor.fmWant to record your remote interviews with class? Then, you need to use Squadcast.Code Story uses the 1-click product ClipGain, sign up now to get 3hrs of podcast processing time FREECredits: Code Story is hosted and produced by Noah Labhart, Co-produced and edited by Bradley Denham. Be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play, Breaker, Youtube, or the podcasting app of your choice.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

May 26, 2020 • 45min
S2 E16: Kyle Campbell, CTO.ai
Kyle Campbell is a native Canadian and high school dropout growing up in Nova Scotia. He’s been working with technology since he was eight years old. Learning computers, building websites, and even starting an online record label. A husband and a dad, he loves the outdoors, camping and motorbikes, and frequently hits the trails with a group of tight-knit campers. After moving into entrepreneurship post-high school, he worked his way up through the ranks of several companies in the Vancouver area, and founded his own companies along the way, one of which got acquired by Zillow. Post that Kyle started to consider the current complexity of the infrastructure and DevOps landscape, Cloud, Kubernetes containers, et cetera. So he set out with the mission to make DevOps successful, easy to use, and bring developer tools to where development happens by enabling developer shortcuts. Today’s Sponsors:Ladder (ladder.sport)Save the Children (savethechildren.org)Atomic Child (atomicchild.com)Collard (collard.app/codestory)Episode Resources:https://cto.ai/https://ca.linkedin.com/in/slajaxLeave us a review on Apple Podcasts Amazing tools we use:If you want the best publishing platform for your podcast, with amazing support & people – use Transistor.fmWant to record your remote interviews with class? Then, you need to use Squadcast.Code Story uses the 1-click product ClipGain, sign up now to get 3hrs of podcast processing time FREECredits: Code Story is hosted and produced by Noah Labhart, Co-produced and edited by Bradley Denham. Be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play, Breaker, Youtube, or the podcasting app of your choice.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

May 20, 2020 • 50min
S2 Bonus: Interview on Podcast Junkies
Recently, I had the pleasure of guesting on Harry Duran’s Podcast Junkies. In this episode, we talked about technology startups, communication skills and formatting podcasts for length, production and promos. I was able to share my insights on entrepreneurship and how my podcasting skills have transferred over to Veryable, my startup company. Enjoy the episode. Link to the episode: https://podcastjunkies.com/noah-labhart-interview/Show Notes: 06:00 – Harry welcomes to the podcast, Noah Labhart who speaks to his podcasting genesis story14:28 – How Noah mapped out his vision and plan for the Code Story podcast22:33 – Noah speaks to how he formats his podcast, including length, production and promotions25:46 – How Noah has grown more confident as a podcast host29:31 – Noah’s background in technology33:50 – Noah talks about his own startup, Veryable, and the initial response he received in the marketplace43:01 – Noah’s future plans for the growth of Veryable and the Code Story podcast47:03 – What is something that Noah has changed his mind about recently48:32 – What is the most misunderstood thing about Noah48:49 – Harry thanks Noah for joining the show and where listeners can follow Noah Amazing tools we use:If you want the best publishing platform for your podcast, with amazing support & people – use Transistor.fm.Want to record your remote interviews with class? Then, you need to use Squadcast.Code Story uses the 1-click product ClipGain, sign up now to get 3hrs of podcast processing time FREE!Credits: Code Story is hosted and produced by Noah Labhart, Co-produced and edited by Bradley Denham. Be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play, Breaker, YouTube, or the podcasting app of your choice.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

May 19, 2020 • 22min
S2 E15: Desi McAdams, Nanno
A mother of 2, Desi McAdam understands the needs of a parent. She graduated from Georgia Tech with a degree in computer science, and loves to roller skate – and may have participated in roller derby a time or 2. Fast forward several years, she and her co-founder were meeting to figure out how to create a co-working space with childcare. In attempting to do this, they came up with the idea for Nanno – an on-demand platform for connecting parents to vetted, quality sitters…. when & where they need them. Today’s Sponsors:Kernl (https://kernl.us)Episode Resources:https://www.nanno.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/desimcadam/Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts! Amazing tools we use:If you want the best publishing platform for your podcast, with amazing support & people – use Transistor.fmWant to record your remote interviews with class? Then, you need to use Squadcast.Code Story uses the 1-click product ClipGain, sign up now to get 3hrs of podcast processing time FREECredits: Code Story is hosted and produced by Noah Labhart, Co-produced and edited by Bradley Denham. Be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play, Breaker, Youtube, or the podcasting app of your choice.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

May 12, 2020 • 27min
S2 E14: Rob Moore, Floom
A Maryland native, Rob Moore quickly found himself in the UK studying game theory and behavioral economics. A lover of travel, he has been able to live the digital nomad life and see a number of amazing places. Post-graduation he started doing data visualization work for several different companies. He noticed the difficulty of going from a core product to a sellable SaaS platform. Internalizing dry principles and learning the pains of smaller product value delivery, he built Floom to be the startup as a service tool, enabling small SaaS businesses away quickly to productize their products. Today’s Sponsors:Ladder (ladder.sport) Tresta (tresta.com)Payoff (payoff.com)Episode Resources:Rob Moore Website https://www.robmoo.re/Flume Website https://floom.app/Rob creates Data Visualization on https://d3js.org/Rob’s game theory model as a downloadable document http://s3.amazonaws.com/rob-moore/ExamsGamesAndKnapsacks_RobMooreOxfordThesis.pdfAws Lambda Website https://aws.amazon.com/lambda/Aws AppSync site https://aws.amazon.com/appsync/The programme Rob took, Entrepreneur First Website https://www.joinef.com/Indie Hackers Website https://www.indiehackers.com/Product Hunt Website https://www.producthunt.com/Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts! Amazing tools we use:If you want the best publishing platform for your podcast, with amazing support & people – use Transistor.fmWant to record your remote interviews with class? Then, you need to use Squadcast.Code Story uses the 1-click product ClipGain, sign up now to get 3hrs of podcast processing time FREECredits: Code Story is hosted and produced by Noah Labhart, Co-produced and edited by Bradley Denham. Be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play, Breaker, Youtube, or the podcasting app of your choice.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

May 6, 2020 • 31min
S2 Bonus: Andrew Overton, Saga
Andrew Overton is a finance grad from Howard University. He spent 3 years after graduation, in investment banking. After a while, he desired to work in tech and joined Graphiq in Santa Barbara to learn the ropes. During that time, he obtained his masters in CS from Johns Hopkins, and fulfilled his life long dream of working for Apple – specifically, on Apple Music data pipelines. Married to his wife Jessica, he is a family centered dude, looking up to both his brother and parents. And outside of tech, he loves to read and practice Ju Jitsu to blow off steam and practice thinking a few moves ahead. During his career, he had the idea of saving his own family’s story somehow, but drug his feet on the idea. In 2019, he committed to making progress and validated the idea – in fact, it was at this point where he connected with his co-founder, Amelia Lin, and set off to create a robust product to capture stories from your loved ones – through an easy interface, all in one place, and saved in audio format. It’s like getting a personal podcast of your Grandma’s childhood stories. This is the creation story of Saga.Download Saga in the App Store:https://apps.apple.com/us/app/saga-save-family-memories/id1504305671Today’s SponsorsCloudForecast (https://cloudforecast.io)Linkshttps://trysaga.com/https://www.cnet.com/news/turn-grandmas-memories-into-a-podcast-with-the-saga-app/https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-p-overton/https://www.linkedin.com/in/amelialin/https://www.crunchbase.com/person/andrew-overton-32b7Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!Amazing tools we use:If you want the best publishing platform for your podcast, with amazing support & people – use Transistor.fm.Want to record your remote interviews with class? Then, you need to use Squadcast.Code Story uses the 1-click product ClipGain, sign up now to get 3hrs of podcast processing time FREE!Credits: Code Story is hosted and produced by Noah Labhart, Co-produced and edited by Bradley Denham. Be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play, Breaker, YouTube, or the podcasting app of your choice.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy


