Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots
A podcast about the design, development, and business of great software. Each week thoughtbot is joined by the people who build and nurture the products we love.
Episodes
July 3, 2025 • 40 mins
Sami talks with Henrique Cardoso about his unified commerce platform BSPK (https://www.bspk.com) and the challenges of organising a large scale developer conference.
Henrique talks in depth about the bespoke nature of BSPK and how it differs from other CRM tools, how they went about unifying all the major commerce platforms to fit under one platform, as well as the hurdles he faced when tasked with re-engaging a community of de...
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June 26, 2025 • 35 mins
Will gets to grips with nutrition as he talks with Kay Lim, founder of Heartful Sprout (https://www.heartfulsprout.com/), about the importance of feeding our kids right.
Kay relives her journey of moving to the US, learning a whole new language from scratch and how becoming a new mom far from home sparked the idea for Heartful Sprout.
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Interested in giving your children the best start to food? Why not check out Heartful Sprout (h...
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June 19, 2025 • 47 mins
Chad and Sami get creative as they discuss the product ideas they would potentially like to develop.
Sami lays out his plan to rejuvenate the queuing system at theme parks, Chad has a bone to pick with his CRM tool, and the pair breakdown why success for a new business is not always as black and white as it might seem.
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You can find Chad all over social media as @cpytel and Sami through his website (https://samibirnbaum.com). You ...
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June 12, 2025 • 32 mins
Chad and Luisa Herrmann, founder of AINovva (https://ainovva.com/), sit down and attempt to demystify the “magic” of AI.
Luisa lays out the ramifications of working with AI on a daily basis, why it’s a tool that shouldn't be utilised just because you can, the bias built into every AI system, as well as the ever expanding AI bubble and what the final outcome of its rapid growth could look like down the road.
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If you’re interested i...
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June 5, 2025 • 40 mins
It’s time to start your engines as Sami talks with Jack Burrows, product director at CarWow (https://www.carwow.co.uk/), about the tricky world of buying and selling cars.
Jack covers the significant change CarWow has seen since he started with the company, the challenges they faced in order to keep up with the competition, and the importance of developing a platform that serves everyone in the buying and selling process.
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If yo...
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May 29, 2025 • 43 mins
Chad catches up with John Nunemaker, self-employed programer on a plethora of products, about all things technical to gain insight into life as a self-employed developer.
The pair share their experiences as rail devs and what keeps them using Ruby, John’s journey to success, his recent acquisition of Fireside (the podcast platform that hosts this very podcast!) and the lessons he learnt along the way.
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If you’re interested in a...
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May 22, 2025 • 39 mins
The Giant Robots hosts are back together for more off the wall discussion about construction, movies and a special announcement!
Find out what big purchase Sami made through the company during the last UK heatwave, why Chad has a listing on IMDB, and our three hosts turn film critics as they share thoughts on their favourite films.
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If you haven’t already, be sure to check out thoughtbot’s YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/...
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May 15, 2025 • 36 mins
Will talks with Kathryn Grayson Nanz, Senior Designer and Developer Advocate at Progress (https://www.progress.com/), about the influence and power design can have when developing new software.
Kathryn breaks down what it means to be a designer advocate and the role it plays within software development, the importance of design systems, designing for accessibility and knowing when to ask the right questions at the just the right ...
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May 8, 2025 • 39 mins
Sami talks with Tom Akehurst, Co-Founder of WireMock (https://www.wiremock.io/), about the delay and disconnect between front and back end development and how WireMock set out to bridge the two together.
Tom explains how his time working for Disney paved the way for WireMock, the different processes of mocking and testing APIs, and provides some useful advice on how to improve your testing process as a whole.
Sami also puts Tom’s ...
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May 1, 2025 • 35 mins
Chad talks with Sarah Merlin of IndiMade (https://www.indimadebrands.com) about what goes into revitalising an e-commerce platform and how they’re staying true to their customers.
Discover the challenges involved with such a big migration and the efforts needed to bring it into the modern day, the importance of communication with your team at all times, as well as well as the core values they work to in order to deliver the best ...
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April 24, 2025 • 43 mins
Sami and fellow thoughtboter Rémy look to the stars as they talk all things astronomical.
Learn about Rémy’s new open source gem Astonoby (https://github.com/rhannequin/astronoby) that plots the coordinates of objects in space, the hidden inventions developed as humans looked to the stars and listen as the pair theorise whether there truly is other life in the universe.
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If you’re enthusiastic about space and want to try out Rémy...
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April 17, 2025 • 50 mins
Chad, Will and Sami discuss life outside of thoughtbot and the hobbies that occupy them in their down time.
Sami talks about taking the cold plunge, Will about his recent efforts with running, before Chad takes his co-hosts down the rabbit hole that is Dungeons and Dragons.
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Watch the trailer for Chad’s upcoming production Thresher (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQs51JGy0iQ), a collaboration between his production company 12 S...
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April 10, 2025 • 32 mins
Chad talks with Karen King, Found of Gold Star Pro (https://www.usegoldstar.com), and her drive to help small business owners reach their full potential.
Karen talks about the all-inclusive space Gold Star Pro offers for solopreneurs, the automation behind it all, as well as balancing a life of world travel with running a successful business.
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Want to take a step up in your small business and ditch plethora of different plat...
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April 3, 2025 • 42 mins
Sami goes back to school as he asks Otto Terrell and Polly Gupta, head of sustainability and sustainability strategist at True (https://www.true.tech/), the key questions around the environmental buzz words of 2025.
Sami finds out the differences between carbon neutral and net zero, why the big corporations have been so slow to adopt a sustainable model, and how true is working with companies to forge a clear path for everyone to n...
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March 27, 2025 • 34 mins
Sami talks with Steven Wardell, managing partner of Wardell Advisors LLC, about the lacking tech developments within the healthcare sector.
Together they assess why digital health products have failed to maintain the same pace as other consumer technology, the difficulties and regulations involved when develop technology for the health sector and whether AI could finally bridge the gap to play a larger role in medical assessments ...
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March 20, 2025 • 41 mins
Sami chats with Tanu Chellam, Senior Vice President of Product at Seldon (https://www.seldon.io) and Chairperson of the Board at Atlas Rosetta (https://atlas-rosetta.com/), about her journey and career in the world of products.
Tanu covers her journey from start to finish, from building websites as a teenager and her dreams of travelling, all the way through to her time at AutoDesk where she was instrumental in scaling one of the...
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March 13, 2025 • 43 mins
Ever wondered how our Giant Robots hosts got into programming in the first place? In today’s episode Sami and Will take some time to dive into their coding journeys and the lessons they learnt along the way.
Hear about their ambitions growing up and where they thought they were headed, the motivation, drive and hurdles they overcame to get to where they are today and how impostor syndrome isn’t just a “new job” problem.
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Hear mo...
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March 6, 2025 • 38 mins
Chad talks with Andrei Oprisan, head of engineering at Agent.AI (https://Agent.AI), about his new approach to making AI tools and agents accessible to everyone.
Hear how the community are helping to shape and build on Agent.AI in ways the team never thought of, the road blocks of developing such an accessible market place, and the desire to make every AI agent as easy to use for as many people as possible.
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Explore Agent.AI’s...
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February 27, 2025 • 42 mins
Sami is joined by James Hueston, venture investor at Primetime Partners (https://www.primetimepartners.com/), as they discuss technology’s failure to connect with the older generation.
James explains how technology aimed at older people is often not fit for purpose, how the investment process for new startups is currently swamped with the same AI ideas, and Sami explores the idea of how AI can help improve loneliness in our modern ...
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February 20, 2025 • 37 mins
Chad talks with fellow thoughtboters Dawn Delatte and Elaina Natario about the evolution of design sprints within the company.
Listen to how design sprints helped shape and streamline the discovery stage of work with clients, how it helps route out what should and shouldn’t be done in a project, as well as the way thoughtbot has tweaked the formula over the years to build their own playbook.
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Check out thoughtbot’s Design Sprint...
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