The Laravel Podcast

The Laravel Podcast is brought to you by Tighten, your friendly neighborhood Laravel experts. Check us out at tighten.com and also by other sponsors you will hear about later in the episode. 

Matt Stauffer sits down with Dave Hicking, Laravel's Agency Partnership Manager, to trace his winding path into the Laravel world — from a UConn IT library to Tighten (twice), Yale's rare books collection, Userscape, and finally Laravel HQ.
They dig into the evolution of the Laravel partner program, including the newly restructured tiers, and what Dave is actively building to make "partner" mean something beyond a logo on a page. The conversation covers the strategic thinking behind community growth, what real collaboration between Laravel and its agencies looks like, and why their success is genuinely, structurally mutual.
Matt Stauffer on Twitter - https://x.com/mattstauffer
Dave Hicking Website - https://davehicking.com
Dave Hicking on Twitter - https://x.com/dhicking
Dave Hicking on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dhicking/
Laravel Partners - https://laravel.com/partners
https://randsinrepose.com/ - https://randsinrepose.com/
Pragmatic AI Podcast - https://pragmaticai.fm/
Laravel Twitter - https://twitter.com/laravelphp
Laravel Website - https://laravel.com/
Tighten Website - https://tighten.com/
Suggestion Box - https://suggest.gg/laravelpodcast
----- Editing and transcription sponsored by Tighten - https://tighten.com/
Big thanks to the companies that support the show:
Honeybadger - https://www.honeybadger.io/for/laravel/
Mailtrap - https://l.rw.rw/laravel_pod_1
Thunk - https://tidyup.agency/
Laravel - Laracon US and Laravel Cloud

In this episode, Matt Stauffer interviews Ryuta Hamasaki, a senior software engineer at Laravel, who shares his journey from discovering Laravel to becoming a key player in the Laravel community. Ryuta discusses his experiences attending international conferences, his motivations for organizing Laravel Live Japan, and his day-to-day work at Laravel, particularly on the Nightwatch team. The conversation highlights the importance of community, collaboration, and the challenges of organizing tech events in Japan.
Matt Stauffer on Twitter
Ryuta Hamasaki (@avosalmon) on X
Ryuta on GitHub
Laravel Live Japan
Laravel Twitter
Laravel Website
Tighten Website
Suggestion Box

----- Editing and transcription sponsored by Tighten.

In this conversation, Devon Garbalosa shares his journey from working in a tire shop to discovering his passion for web development, highlighting a pivotal moment when he discovered Laravel. He discusses the ease of connecting to databases and implementing authentication, emphasizing how frameworks can significantly enhance development efficiency and effectiveness.
Matt Stauffer on Twitter
Devon Garbalosa on Twitter
Laravel Twitter
Laravel Website
Tighten Website
Suggestion Box

----- Editing and transcription sponsored by Tighten.

In this episode, Matt Stauffer interviews Leah Thompson, a DevRel engineer at Laravel, who shares her unique journey into tech, transitioning from a mathematics background and teaching to web development. Leah discusses her experiences in the Laravel community, the importance of networking, and her role in building marketing websites. She emphasizes the value of public speaking, building in public, and engaging with the community through streaming.
Matt Stauffer on Twitter
Leah Thompson on Twitter
Leah Thompson on Twitch
Leah Thompson on GitHub
Leah Thompson on Bluesky
Design That Sticks | Leah Thompson Laracon US 2025
Laravel Twitter
Laravel Website
Tighten Website
Suggestion Box

----- Editing and transcription sponsored by Tighten.

In this episode of the Laravel Podcast, host Matt Stauffer chats with Chris Fidao, Team Lead of Laravel’s Infrastructure Cloud Team. They talk about Chris’s journey from his first experience with Laravel to creating educational content and eventually leading an engineering team. Chris shares what it takes to build and maintain Laravel’s Cloud infrastructure, his approach to leadership and team growth, and his perspective on topics like serverless architecture and foreign key constraints.
Matt Stauffer on Twitter
Chris Fidao on Twitter
Laravel Learn
Laravel Twitter
Laravel Website
Tighten Website
Suggestion Box

----- Editing and transcription sponsored by Tighten.