profile

Arvid Kahl

Taylor Otwell — The (Quite Entrepreneurial) Creator of Laravel — The Bootstrapped Founder 394

Published 10 months ago • 1 min read

Dear founder,

I had the opportunity to sit down and talk to Taylor Otwell, the creator of the popular PHP framework Laravel.

​

Not only did he invent this highly popular open-source framework; he also turned it into a very profitable business that helps developers build profitable businesses themselves.

I know very few other open-source devs that have such a clear understanding of market needs and developer requirements.

Taylor seems to be extremely capable of striking a balance between profitable entrepreneurship and community-centric open-source contributions. He intentionally built an ecosystem of free and paid-for tools that is now joined by Laravel Cloud, their latest and biggest tool offering just yet.

In this episode, Taylor will share the Laravel journey from start to today and what the future holds for this powerful PHP framework. Enjoy!

We're the podcast database with the best and most real-time API out there. Check out podscan.fm — and tell your friends!

Thank you for reading this week’s essay edition of The Bootstrapped Founder. Did you enjoy it? If so, please spread the word and ​share this issue on Twitter.​

If you want to reach tens of thousands of creators, makers, and dreamers, you can ​apply to sponsor ​an episode of this newsletter. Or just reply to this email!

To make sure you keep getting your weekly dose of Bootstrapped Founder, please add arvid@thebootstrappedfounder.com to your address book or whitelist us.

Did someone forward you this issue of The Bootstrapped Founder? ​You can subscribe to it here!​​

Want to change which emails you get from The Bootstrapped Founder or unsubscribe for good? No worries, just click this link: ​change email preferences​ or ​unsubscribe​​.

Our postal address: 600 1st Ave, Ste 330 PMB 92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2246

​Opt-out of preference-based advertising​

Arvid Kahl

I help founders and creators serve and empower their customers.

Being your own boss isn't easy, but it's worth it. Learn how to build a legacy while being kind and authentic. I want to empower as many entrepreneurs as possible to help themselves (and those they choose to serve).

Read more from Arvid Kahl

Podcast, YouTube, Blog Dear founder, Building in public once helped me sell my company. Today, that same transparency could destroy yours. THE BOOTSTRAPPED FOUNDER • EPISODE 439 439: The Increasing Risk of Building in Public 16:15 MORE INFO That’s not hyperbole. I owe my entire career as a writer, podcaster, and founder to being radically transparent about my business. I shared my Stripe-verified monthly recurring revenue numbers with the world, and that visibility attracted financial and...

1 day ago • 8 min read

Podcast, YouTube, Blog Dear founder, A couple things happened these last few weeks that brought into sharp focus just how naively we interact with agentic systems — to the point where we get surprised by the consequences of using them. THE BOOTSTRAPPED FOUNDER • EPISODE 438 438: AI Liability: The Landmines Under Your SaaS 25:23 MORE INFO Anthropic made it very clear in their terms and conditions that their Max plans — the $200 plan and all the others meant to work with tools like Claude Code,...

15 days ago • 12 min read

Podcast, YouTube, Blog Dear founder, Here’s a question I’ve been sitting with lately: if building software keeps getting easier — and it clearly is — then what exactly are we building our businesses on? THE BOOTSTRAPPED FOUNDER • EPISODE 437 437: Data Is the Only Moat 15:39 MORE INFO Because conversations about the quality of vibe-coded or AI-engineered software aside, it is obvious that with LLM-originated tooling, writing complex software has become significantly easier. It hasn’t become...

22 days ago • 9 min read