Episode 144: Simon Minton of Ringer on Empowering Individual Contributors

Guest Simon Minton Panelists Richard Littauer | Justin Dorfman Show
Notes Hello and welcome to Sustain! The podcast where we talk about
sustaining open source for the long haul. Richard and Justin are
super excited to have as their guest today, Simon Minton, who’s the
CEO of Ringer, which we’ll hear all about. Simon tells us how
Ringer is different by the ways they provide for their maintainers,
how they give back to projects, handle consultancy with projects,
and he explains their recruitment process. Simon shares his
long-term plan for Ringer, and a new tool they are building to help
the ecosystem in the long-term. Go ahead and download this episode
now to hear more! [00:01:54] Simon tells us how Ringer was born,
what it is, and how many people use it. [00:05:00] Find out how
Ringer is different. [00:08:59] Besides a payment gateway, we hear
about some other infrastructure and services Simon is providing for
the maintainers. [00:12:01] How does Ringer make sure that the
money doesn’t just flow to the people on the top of the projects,
but also to the projects as a whole? [00:14:16] Richard wonders how
Simon teaches the next generation to become the next generation of
Ringer HQ/maintainers besides the 5%. [00:15:19] Richard brings up
a concern around consulting and Simon explains how they handle this
with larger and smaller projects. [00:17:32] We learn about some
projects where Ringer will be their consultancy platform.
[00:19:19] Ringer’s recruitment process is explained. [00:21:33]
Justin thinks the Ringer site is really cool and Simon shares where
the inspiration came from. [00:23:30] Richard wonders if Simon has
a long-term plan, and as he scales up his team if services will be
provided to the consultants., and he tells us about the educational
services he offers. [00:30:58] Simon informs us about a tool they
are building right now to help the ecosystem in the long-term.
[00:33:20] Justin brings up thanks.dev and the founder, Ali Nehzat.
[00:35:58] We learn the meaning of Ringer and where you can follow
Simon online. Spotlight [00:37:04] Justin’s spotlight is
NextAuth.js. [00:37:30] Richard’s spotlight is Wikiquote and the
works of Seneca the Younger. [00:38:13] Simon’s spotlight is Spatie
and Freek Van der Herten. Links SustainOSS
(https://sustainoss.org/) SustainOSS Twitter
(https://twitter.com/SustainOSS?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor)
SustainOSS Discourse (https://discourse.sustainoss.org/)
podcast@sustainoss.org (mailto:podcast@sustainoss.org) Richard
Littauer Twitter
(https://twitter.com/richlitt?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor)
Justin Dorfman Twitter
(https://twitter.com/jdorfman?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor)
Simon Minton LinkedIn (https://uk.linkedin.com/in/minton) Simon
Minton Twitter (https://twitter.com/simonminton) Ringer
(https://www.ringerhq.com/) filament (https://filamentphp.com/)
Sustain Podcast-Episode 142: Nicholas Zakas on Sponsoring
Dependencies, All the Way Down (https://podcast.sustainoss.org/142)
Electron (https://www.electronjs.org/) Ali Nehzat Twitter
(https://twitter.com/nehzata) thanks.dev (https://thanks.dev/home)
NextAuth.js (https://next-auth.js.org/) Wikiquote-Seneca the
Younger (https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Seneca_the_Younger)
Spatie-GitHub (https://github.com/spatie) Freek Van der
Herten-GitHub (https://github.com/freekmurze) Credits Produced by
Richard Littauer (https://www.burntfen.com/) Edited by Paul M. Bahr
at Peachtree Sound (https://www.peachtreesound.com/) Show notes by
DeAnn Bahr Peachtree Sound (https://www.peachtreesound.com/)
Special Guest: Simon Minton.