Episode 27: Creating Dracula PRO with Blood, Sweat, and Tears with Zeno Rocha

Sponsored By:
Panelists Richard Littauer | Justin Dorfman | Eric Berry
Guest Zeno Rocha (https://zenorocha.com/) Liferay Cloud
(https://www.liferay.com/products/dxp-cloud) | Dracula Pro
(https://draculatheme.com/pro/) Show Notes In this episode we talk
with Zeno Rocha. He is the Chief Product Officer at Liferay Cloud,
a newly created Liferay, Inc division. He is responsible for
crafting the product strategy, shaping the features, and defining
the future of DXP Cloud. Zeno also created the popular Dracula
theme. We talk about the success of clipboard.js, Dracula theme,
and the importance not just creating the code, but promoting is as
well. 2:38 Zeno talks about how he started out as an Open Source
developer. He also explains what the developer scene is like in
Brazil. 05:15 Zeno has spoken at over 110 conferences now and
Richard is interested to know why he has this drive to get more
views and work on social problems. 9:54 Zeno explains how he got
involved in Dracula Theme and clipboard.js. Let’s just say there
are 28,000 stars. 11:54 Zeno gets into the importance of promoting
libraries that we create. If you want to reach and help more
people. We as a group need to promote! He discusses what he did to
promote his stuff. 15:45 One of the guys asked Zeno how did he get
from zero to 5,000 stars overnight. He explains it’s not because of
Hacker News but from something else. 18:20 Zeno talks about his
design capabilities with Dracula. He says he’s not a designer or a
marketeer. 20:18 Justin mentions about how he founded a project
called BootstrapCDN and how an influencer helped shoot the usage up
in one night. 22:54 Richard wonders how Zeno chooses his projects
and how does he plan to have projects live beyond him, in terms of
Dracula, which is a theming project that has grown beyond him. Zeno
explains a hospital stay and a stolen computer is involved in this,
so listen on. 30:34 Richard is curious about Dracula Pro and that
it’s monetized but how does it work. Zeno answers this talking
about dark mode and a keyboard that was crated for Dracula that had
record sales. 32:57 Zeno reaches a point where he says he needs to
learn about sales to make money. He finds a book that he reads that
taught his some very interesting lessons. Quotes 07:14 “If you
really want to learn something you have to teach it.” 08:10 “If I
learn that one framework and learn that one language, then I am
going to be successful.” 12:07 “If you want to get traction, if you
want to reach more people…then you have to spend time promoting to
others. 22:36 “Teach first, be welcoming first, communicate 10
times more than you code.” 30:56 “Typically I never monetize my
work.” 39:49 “Email is not dead. Whoever says that never sent a
newsletter. It works.” Spotlight 41:07 Justin’s spotlight this week
is SHML.xyz (shell markup language) 41:49 Eric’s spotlight is
Thoughtbot. Go on github.com/thoughtbot/laptop also a subscription
to Dracula Pro, found on Draculatheme.com. 43:41 Richard’s
spotlight is Caigmod.com (a newsletter). 44:30 Zeno’s spotlight is
HTML5 Boilerplate. Links Zeno Rocha (https://zenorocha.com/) Zeno
Rocha Twitter
(https://twitter.com/zenorocha?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor)
Zeno Rocha Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/zenorocha) Zeno
Rocha GitHub (https://github.com/zenorocha) Dracula Theme
(https://draculatheme.com/) GitHub/Alfred Workflows
(https://github.com/zenorocha) Launch: An Internet Millionaire’s
Secret Formula TO Sell Almost Anything Online, Build A Business You
Love, And Live The Life Of Your Dreams.
(https://www.amazon.com/Launch-Internet-Millionaires-Anything-Business/dp/1630470171/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=launch&qid=1583117642&sr=8-5)
SHML.xyz (https://odb.github.io/shml/) Thoughtbot
(https://github.com/thoughtbot/laptop) Craigmod.com
(https://craigmod.com/) HTML5 Boilerplate
(https://html5boilerplate.com/) GitHub: How did the repo get 5000
stars in a few days?
(https://github.com/zenorocha/clipboard.js/issues/56) Hacker
News-Modern Copy to Clipboard
(https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10301881) Special Guest: Zeno
Rocha.