Startup on Leonard Austin

2025 Reflections and 2026 Predictions

Wed, 31 Dec 2025 12:00:00 +0000

tl;dr — The year of the voice interface and job losses.

Claude Code Changed Everything

I’d been hearing about everyone moving over to Claude Code since around November, and I finally started trying it on the 18th of December. Wow. Genuine game changer. It’s not that it’s a single step change in capability, more that we’ve reached a tipping point — Claude Opus 4.5 can handle longer running tasks over much larger codebases, and it all just works.

Etiquette for Tech Teams

Sat, 10 Mar 2018 10:25:40 +0100

For a Happy Workplace

This article attempts to offer some of the rules for a productive, cohesive and enjoyable working environment for tech teams. It is a semi-working article that I will add to over time.

Meetings

Always include an Agenda and Objective to meeting invites. It helps invitees decide whether the meeting is relevant to them.
Long blocks of uninterrupted time is when the magic happens, for most engineers. Be mindful of this when scheduling meetings. The “best” time will differ depending on who you are inviting to the meeting.
Default meeting duration is 30 minutes. Meetings longer than 1 hour tend to become unproductive: avoid them.
Keep in mind everyone in the meeting, avoid tangents that are not applicable to the majority of the room. Stick to the agenda! Some conversations should just go into a ticket or google doc.
At any point, excuse yourself from a meeting if it is not relevant to you.
Announcing the meeting in #meetings slack channel. Don’t invite the whole company to every meeting, but allow people to invite themselves to things that are of interest to them.
If you need a room make sure you book a room, so you’re not taking it from anybody else.
Feel free to use your laptops in meetings unless the host specifically states otherwise.

Engineering Team Core Values

Mon, 15 Jan 2018 10:17:14 +0100

Simple Code is Elegant

Tidy, readable, simple code is paramount. It makes reviewing PR easier, it makes coming back to the code after 18 months easier, it makes your peers like you more.

Anti-Gossip

Constructive conversations over background criticism. Call it out when you see it (even if in other parts of the company). If you feel the need to complain, make a difference and give feedback instead.

Approachable

During busy times, when you are deep in code and stress is mounting, it is easy to forget to Treat Others as You Would Expect to be Treated and be “approachable”. Others should not be worried about talking to you. Definitely no jerks, even if they are geniuses. Adjust your technical language when speaking to non-technical staff.

My Three Favourite Business Videos

Sun, 17 Dec 2017 10:05:07 +0100

I’m not sure how many videos related to business I’ve watched (probably hundreds) but only three come to mind when asked to recommend some.

1. How to Start a Movement | Derek Sivers

2. Start With Why | Simon Sinek

3. How To Run A Company With (Almost) No Rules | Ricardo Semler

Ravelin Tech Stack

Tue, 15 Aug 2017 10:46:43 +0100

An Overview of Ravelin’s Technology

I write this post as an overview of each aspect Ravelin’s technology stack; almost not worthy of the hours and days that each component has taken to implement. This overview will not attempt to deep dive into any given topic but, where possible, link out to sources and reference material. The intention is to write more specifically and in far greater detail over the coming months.

Train Every Software Engineer to Be a Penetration Tester

Mon, 31 Jul 2017 11:44:55 +0100

Because security matters

The Idea

External Pen Testers are useful, but only have a limited amount of time to get to know our systems and are not intimately familiar with the Ravelin codebase. On the other hand, engineers and data scientists within Ravelin know the codebase inside out (they wrote it after all), they understand the API and the expected functionality. Why not train all technical staff on Pen Testing? Not only will they gain experience with security awareness, leading to a more secure code but also have a bit of fun during War Games.

How to Take Your Startup to the Next Level Aaron Patzer From Mint.com

Mon, 26 Dec 2016 11:13:44 +0100

I’m always on the look out for new great “how to” videos or books for setting up and marketing web apps. I’ve always liked the presentations and talks from Aaron Patzer from Mint.com, which he started and sold for $170 Million within 3 years. He’s talks are very open and frank, and I think they make a lot sense.

Just found this great talk from FOWA Miami 2010. Some of the key points Aaron makes are: