The Robot Factory: Recent Episodes
Jonathan Bowers, Caleb Sharp
Follow along as we attempt to build and sell a SaaS company. A build in public behind the scenes journey of a small software agency, Two Story Robot, trying something new.
We launched our hiring app, HappyHire, to help companies hire without bias. While celebrating, Caleb was sending some sick lines on his bike and bit it. Though battered, bruised, and one-armed, we persevered to launch HappyHire on schedule. Caleb is slowly mending and the rest of us remain unscathed...for the moment! Chat with us if you need help hiring well or just want to commiserate about the perils of stunt biking.
- (00:00) - 026 - Breaking Arms and Launching Hiring Apps
- (01:48) - Intro
- (03:41) - We Went on Retreat
- (08:04) - We Named The Hiring App
- (10:07) - Caleb's Reaction To HappyHire.team
- (13:52) - Chatting With a Potential HappyHire Customer
- (18:37) - Outro
The Products: HappyHire.team, Raisonne.gallery, OpenHouse.socialNewsletter: factory.twostoryrobot.com
Twitter: @twostoryrobot
Instagram: @therobotfactorypod
Follow Jonathan: @thejonotron
Follow Caleb: @calebissharp
Between cleaning peanut butter out of his mouth with club soda and building an AI, Caleb’s been busy. Speaking of busy, we've built our hiring app and are just about ready for testing/launch.
- (00:00) - 025
- (01:04) - Intro
- (03:42) - Recap of Values Based Hiring
- (05:47) - How Would a New User Use Our Hiring App?
- (06:52) - Caleb Wants The Company Card
- (08:35) - The Features We Built Into The Hiring App
- (15:10) - Caleb Built an AI BRAIN
- (25:07) - Outro
The Products: Raisonne.gallery, OpenHouse.socialNewsletter: factory.twostoryrobot.com
Twitter: @twostoryrobot
Instagram: @therobotfactorypod
Follow Jonathan: @thejonotron
Follow Caleb: @calebissharp
We heard from a listener, two actually. We discuss how our hiring app idea might resonate with fellow values oriented companies and what our next steps are for validating the idea.
- (00:00) - 024 - Getting Feedback On Our Hiring App
- (02:45) - Intro
- (03:21) - Emails From Listeners
- (04:39) - Feedback on our Hiring App Idea
- (10:38) - Building a Community Around Values First Principles
- (13:26) - Improving Diversity of Job Applicants
- (15:29) - Validating With Some HR Professionals
- (18:15) - Outro
The Products: Raisonne.gallery, OpenHouse.socialNewsletter: factory.twostoryrobot.com
Twitter: @twostoryrobot
Instagram: @therobotfactorypod
Follow Jonathan: @thejonotron
Follow Caleb: @calebissharp
Kristina Lorson taught herself Bubble and turned her clunky spreadsheet into a functioning app successfully transporting bands for 4 music festivals. In this first interview with Kristina we discuss the background pain that Kristina experienced and how she overcame some challenges to build the whole app herself. Traverse is well positioned to take on even more growth in 2023 and we'll be here for a front row seat.
- (00:00) - 016-kristina
- (00:34) - Kristina Lorson
- (03:03) - Traverse, Transportation Management
- (10:56) - Festival Transportation is Massively Overlooked
- (13:19) - When Transportation Doesn't Go Right
- (14:56) - Traverse So Far
- (17:16) - Finding Potential Investors in Your Users
- (18:08) - How Has This Not Been Solved Before?
- (22:00) - How Big Is This Opportunity?
- (23:18) - How Can We Also We Get Volunteers to Want to Invest?
- (25:55) - When a Founder Feels The Pain Their Product Solves
- (29:25) - Deciding to Try Building It Myself
- (31:21) - Goals For The Upcoming Festival Season
- (34:45) - Can Traverse Be Acquired
- (39:41) - Solving Your Own Problems
The Products: Raisonne.gallery, OpenHouse.socialNewsletter: factory.twostoryrobot.com
Twitter: @twostoryrobot
Instagram: @therobotfactorypod
Follow Jonathan: @thejonotron
Follow Caleb: @calebissharp
Creators & Guests
- Jonathan Bowers (he/him) - Host
- Kristina Lorson Little - Guest
Jonathan, Caleb, and Daila discuss our newest project, raisonne.gallery. What started as a client project has turned into one of our first real products. It aims to solve the needs of art galleries who want to share their collection online and with other galleries.
[01:53] New Product for Art Galleries
[03:28] Building a Custom Database for Kamloops Art Gallery
[08:02] Launching a Landing Page for Raisonné
[09:34] Checking Our Spelling
[12:01] Caleb Groans While He Works
[13:53] Raisonne.gallery
Creators & Guests
- Jonathan Bowers (he/him) - Host
- Caleb Sharp - Host
- Daila Duford - Host
The Product: OpenHouse.socialNewsletter: factory.twostoryrobot.com
Twitter: @twostoryrobot
Instagram: @therobotfactorypod
The Product: OpenHouse.social
Newsletter: factory.twostoryrobot.com
Twitter: @twostoryrobot
Instagram: @therobotfactorypod
Follow Jonathan: @thejonotron
Follow Caleb: @calebissharp
We lucked into getting our first revenue generating Coda pack more-or-less paid for. Listen as guest Courtney Milligan shares how we build packs for Coda that export data to Excel and Google Workspace.
[00:43] What is Coda
[01:51] Tracking a saw mill in Coda
[05:57] Courtney's background
[08:32] Coda Packs
[16:31] Paid packs
[20:48] Working with Coda
Find our Coda Packs in the Pack gallery:
Export Tables (free): https://coda.io/packs/export-tables-10648
Export Tables Pro: https://coda.io/packs/export-tables-pro-10652
Export to Google Workspace: https://coda.io/packs/export-to-google-workspace-11813
The Product: OpenHouse.social
Newsletter: factory.twostoryrobot.com
Twitter: @twostoryrobot
Instagram: @therobotfactorypod
The Product: OpenHouse.social
Newsletter: factory.twostoryrobot.com
Twitter: @twostoryrobot
Instagram: @therobotfactorypod
Follow Jonathan: @thejonotron
Follow Caleb: @calebissharp
Jonathan, Caleb, and Daila discuss how turning satellite imagery into animated gifs is like building property management software, in that it's just a bunch of random coincidence and that we can increase our likelihood of luck.
[00:39] Building a dynamic image generator Bubble plugin
[02:57] Can we take screenshots of Google Maps? (No)
[08:51] Accounting and property management
[14:17] Accidentally creating things
The Product: OpenHouse.social
Newsletter: factory.twostoryrobot.com
Twitter: @twostoryrobot
Instagram: @therobotfactorypod
The Product: OpenHouse.social
Newsletter: factory.twostoryrobot.com
Twitter: @twostoryrobot
Instagram: @therobotfactorypod
Follow Jonathan: @thejonotron
Follow Caleb: @calebissharp
Daila couldn't make it on this episode, so Caleb and Jonathan explore some of the details of the free tier of OpenHouse.social, how easy it is to build forms with Tally.so, and if we might re-use the tech for OpenHouse.social to power a Bubble Plugin.
Form builder: Tally.so
The Product: OpenHouse.social
Newsletter: factory.twostoryrobot.com
Twitter: @twostoryrobot
Instagram: @therobotfactorypod
The Product: OpenHouse.social
Newsletter: factory.twostoryrobot.com
Twitter: @twostoryrobot
Instagram: @therobotfactorypod
Follow Jonathan: @thejonotron
Follow Caleb: @calebissharp
For the first time, we now have three co-hosts. We discuss what "free" even means and what features we might want to change for OpenHouse.social to make a free tier and we discuss some light upcoming plans for the property management app.
[03:01] What does free mean?
[05:47] Should we make OpenHouse.social free (as in beer)?
[08:53] We still want Caleb as a co-host
[10:48] Back to property management stuff
The Product: OpenHouse.social
Newsletter: factory.twostoryrobot.com
Twitter: @twostoryrobot
Instagram: @therobotfactorypod
The Product: OpenHouse.social
Newsletter: factory.twostoryrobot.com
Twitter: @twostoryrobot
Instagram: @therobotfactorypod
Follow Jonathan: @thejonotron
Follow Caleb: @calebissharp
Caleb was unable to make it after feeling a bit under the weather. So we introduce Daila Duford as another host of the show. Caleb is still going to be a host, he hasn't been replaced.
We talk about how Daila and the Little Robot team was able to build one of the features for the new property management software in just an afternoon. We also discuss what no-code is and why we are excited about if for new products.
[01:24] Feedback from a listener, we don't have an audience.
[02:39] Building some initial property management features
[05:00] What is Figma and Bubble
[07:02] What is Little Robot
[10:23] Failing faster
[14:58] Back to property management
The Product: OpenHouse.social
Newsletter: factory.twostoryrobot.com
Twitter: @twostoryrobot
Instagram: @therobotfactorypod
The Product: OpenHouse.social
Newsletter: factory.twostoryrobot.com
Twitter: @twostoryrobot
Instagram: @therobotfactorypod
Follow Jonathan: @thejonotron
Follow Caleb: @calebissharp
Fresh off a trip to Disneyland, Caleb discovers he might be replaced as co-host of the podcast. Jonathan and Caleb decide it's probably best to just add more hosts and pivot to property management. We also talk about road signs.
[00:27] Welcome back from Disneyland, Caleb
[01:54] Caleb thinks he's getting replaced
[03:48] We learn about the gap in property management software
[09:31] On road construction signs
[12:56] Tweaking the music for the podcast
[15:33] More ideas about automation
The Product: OpenHouse.social
Newsletter: factory.twostoryrobot.com
Twitter: @twostoryrobot
Instagram: @therobotfactorypod
The Product: OpenHouse.social
Newsletter: factory.twostoryrobot.com
Twitter: @twostoryrobot
Instagram: @therobotfactorypod
Follow Jonathan: @thejonotron
Follow Caleb: @calebissharp
Jonathan and Caleb sit down with Brendan Shaw to chat about OpenHouse.social and instead think about a pivot into a different product entirely.
[00:39] Welcome Brendan
[01:51] How does an 18 year old become a real estate agent?
[07:51] On not trading hours for dollars
[09:15] Give us your feedback Brendan Shaw
[19:19] What part of Brendan's business could be automated
[30:00] Does Brendan just want to become a tech entrepreneur?
[36:57] How to get ahold of Brendan
Find Brendan Shaw:
Web: bsre.ca
Email: brendan@bsre.ca
Twitter: @brendanshawbc
Instagram: @brendanshaw
The Product: OpenHouse.social
Newsletter: factory.twostoryrobot.com
Twitter: @twostoryrobot
Instagram: @therobotfactorypod
The Product: OpenHouse.social
Newsletter: factory.twostoryrobot.com
Twitter: @twostoryrobot
Instagram: @therobotfactorypod
Follow Jonathan: @thejonotron
Follow Caleb: @calebissharp
Jonathan and Caleb discuss how AI might be helpful for content writing and how agencies might use OpenHouse.social. Also, this episode shouts out to the moms that are listening. Hi Moms!
Also, checkout our Instagram page, @therobotfactorypod for a collection of AI generated alternatives to our podcast cover art. If your interested in AI generated art, we mentioned DALL-E but we also recommend checking out Midjourney
[00:30] We can accept payments now
[06:02] What do real estate marketing agencies do
[16:36] What's left to do
The Product: OpenHouse.social
Newsletter: factory.twostoryrobot.com
Twitter: @twostoryrobot
Instagram: @therobotfactorypod
The Product: OpenHouse.social
Newsletter: factory.twostoryrobot.com
Twitter: @twostoryrobot
Instagram: @therobotfactorypod
Follow Jonathan: @thejonotron
Follow Caleb: @calebissharp
Caleb and Jonathan talk about how satisfying it is to watch our animated image of the OpenHouse.social app working and other less important things, like a working billing system.
[00:16] Maybe we are waiting too long to launch anything
[04:08] We have a few of our Mom's subscribed to the newsletter 👋🏼
[05:07] OpenHouse.social is now live but how do we build an audience
[07:23] We made a cool interactive animation for our landing page
[09:15] Is this a bad time to launch a real estate tool?
[10:12] Cover art for the podcast
[11:27] We can't even take anyones money if they wanted to pay us
[21:47] How can we get some paid users?
The Product: OpenHouse.social
Newsletter: factory.twostoryrobot.com
Twitter: @twostoryrobot
Instagram: @therobotfactorypod
The Product: OpenHouse.social
Newsletter: factory.twostoryrobot.com
Twitter: @twostoryrobot
Instagram: @therobotfactorypod
Follow Jonathan: @thejonotron
Follow Caleb: @calebissharp
Jonathan and Caleb share some progress updates and how we do image processing in the browser to cut costs.
[01:23] Shower thoughts: reducing image size in the browser
[06:44] Creating a user account and removing background from profile photos
[12:28] We have a logo and a landing page
The Product: OpenHouse.social
Newsletter: factory.twostoryrobot.com
Twitter: @twostoryrobot
Instagram: @therobotfactorypod
Follow Jonathan: @thejonotron
Follow Caleb: @calebissharp
Jonathan and Caleb chat with Vann De Marco, a real estate agent from Vancouver, to get his raw feedback from an early version of the OpenHouse.social tool. Vann tries generating a social media image for an actual listing of his while we watch.
[00:35] Our guest, Vann De Marco
[03:11] What's up with rising real estate prices?
[04:25] Getting Vann to try OpenHouse.social
[05:53] Watching Vann experience OpenHouse.social for the first time
[08:42] We try to guess the price of a condo
[11:51] Vann generates an image
[14:24] How does Vann normally post to social media
[18:35] How do you use Canva
[21:23] What are other agents doing?
[25:29] Should we add custom templates?
[27:58] What's the real estate season like?
[29:35] How to get ahold of Vann
The Product: OpenHouse.social
Newsletter: factory.twostoryrobot.com
Twitter: @twostoryrobot
Vann De Marco
https://vanndemarco.com/
Instagram: @vann.demarco
Or just phone him apparently: 604-356-5643
Jonathan and Caleb share the new domain that they purchased for the real estate product and discuss how writing good code could increase the acquisition price.
[00:37] Costco will answer your questions
[03:12] We bought the domain OpenHouse.social
[04:56] Can we charge more for the app if the code is good?
[09:30] How do we generate images dynamically
[14:28] A landing page for OpenHouse.social
[17:08] What should our landing page look like
[19:14] Next time, our friend Vann comes on the show
The Product: OpenHouse.social
Newsletter: factory.twostoryrobot.com
Twitter: @twostoryrobot
Jonathan and Caleb discuss ideas for a name for the product and some of the technical details of how it is built.
[00:48] We may have a name
[03:02] Update on progress so far
[04:34] How are we deploying this product
[07:31] Trying out some new tech and how much time did it take
[09:40] How much data can we share in the open
[11:36] We could always pivot to something else
[13:12] What's next
[18:17] What kind of music plays in our club
Newsletter: factory.twostoryrobot.com
Twitter: @twostoryrobot
Jonathan and Caleb discuss the first steps of their first product. They answer who is it for and what does it do.
[01:07] What is the podcast about?
[03:36] What is our first product?
[07:13] What is our business model?
[09:55] What tech are we using?
[11:38] What do people currently do?
[14:05] What are we calling this tool?
[14:43] What's next?
Newsletter: factory.twostoryrobot.com
Twitter: @twostoryrobot
Introducing The Robot Factory, a new podcast by Two Story Robot.
We are sharing our journey as we attempt to build and sell a new startup. Follow along!
Newsletter: factory.twostoryrobot.com
Twitter: @twostoryrobot