Elixir Mentor

Jacob Luetzow

Welcome to the Elixir Mentor Podcast, your go-to source for All Things Elixir. This show digs into the heart of the Elixir community, featuring interviews with enthusiasts and pioneers who share their stories and innovative projects that define our ecosystem. Each episode explores groundbreaking libraries and boundary-pushing applications shaping Elixir's future. We discuss best practices, emerging trends, and the latest tools and techniques. Perfect for developers at any stage of their Elixir journey, providing insights and inspiration. Join me as we explore the world of Elixir together.

  1. Mike Ratliff on Building an Energy Tech Startup

    20 HR AGO

    Mike Ratliff on Building an Energy Tech Startup

    In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I chat with Mike Ratliff, a 30-year tech veteran and CTO currently building an energy tech startup. Mike shares his path from Ruby threading nightmares to leading 20-engineer Elixir teams, and how discovering the BEAM transformed his approach to building 24/7 grid systems. We dig into the technical challenges of power grid software, including distributed energy resource management, solar intermittency, and why utilities remain cautious about new technology. Mike explains how his current startup is tackling transmission interconnection problems using Elixir, and his plans to incorporate AI agents through the Jido framework. The conversation shifts to how AI is reshaping development teams and startup economics. Mike makes a compelling case for small, elite teams over large engineering organizations, sharing his philosophy on profit per headcount and why he believes we'll see one-person unicorn companies emerge. We discuss rethinking technical interviews for the LLM era, the Ash framework in production, and why great engineers become even greater with AI tools. Mike wraps up with hard-won startup wisdom: build painkillers not vitamins, learn to tell stories that move people, and understand that nobody buys on facts alone. Whether you're building energy infrastructure or SaaS products, this conversation offers practical perspective on scaling with small teams. Connect with Mike: - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-ratliff-3096571/ Sponsors: - Paraxial.io: https://paraxial.io - Jido Discord: https://agentjido.xyz/discord SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com/?utm_source=elixir-mentor

    1h 36m
  2. Coby Benveniste & Daniel Garcia-Shulman on AI Marketing Agents

    10 JAN

    Coby Benveniste & Daniel Garcia-Shulman on AI Marketing Agents

    In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I chat with Coby Benveniste and Daniel Garcia-Shulman from MarkeTeam.ai about building intelligent AI marketing agents with Elixir. They share their experience migrating from Python and React to a full Elixir and LiveView stack, and explain why the BEAM VM is ideal for powering autonomous agent workflows. Coby and Daniel explain their approach to agent architecture, including why they chose gen state machine over gen server for managing agent state machines. They walk through the ReAct pattern (reasoning, actions, observations) and how it maps naturally to Erlang's state machine behaviors. The conversation covers their custom marketing strategy LLM, how they use RAG patterns for brand context, and why specialized agents outperform single all-purpose agents. We explore the technical details of their stack, including how they handle DevOps without a dedicated team using mix release, their use of Fun with Flags for feature flagging, and how Broadway and Oban power their data pipelines. The discussion also covers practical workflows with Claude Code, context management using Beads, and the usage rules library for better LLM documentation. The episode wraps up with insights on hiring Elixir developers, the emerging field of AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), and advice for developers learning Elixir with LLM assistance. Whether you're building AI agents, exploring marketing automation, or curious about advanced Elixir patterns, this conversation offers practical insights from engineers shipping production AI systems. Resources Mentioned:- MarkeTeam AI: https://www.marketeam.ai- Beads (Claude Code context tool): https://github.com/steveyegge/beads Connect with Coby & Daniel:- Coby: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coby-benveniste/- Daniel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielegsh/ SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR- Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com

    1h 50m
  3. Mikh Ahmed on SWARMMO

    3 JAN

    Mikh Ahmed on SWARMMO

    Mikh Ahmed joins me to talk about SWARMMO, a massively multiplayer online browser game he's building entirely with Elixir and Godot. After experiencing burnout from AWS Lambda and serverless tooling at a Canadian fintech startup, Mikh discovered Elixir and realized it was exactly what he'd been looking for to build his dream game project. We explore how the BEAM's actor model maps perfectly to game architecture, with individual player processes, hierarchical AI units that form squads and platoons, and a simulation where NPCs actively compete for territory. Mikh shares his experience going from zero Elixir knowledge to building a game server that can handle a thousand concurrent AI units while using only 4GB of RAM and 50% CPU. The conversation covers the realities of indie game development: failed crowdfunding campaigns that led to private support, the challenge of marketing when you'd rather be coding, and plans for a Steam release and version 1.0 launch. We also discuss the potential for LLM-powered NPC personalities, why minimal dependencies matter, and how game design psychology from board games applies to digital experiences. Connect with Mikh: - X: https://x.com/SWARMMOOFFICIAL - SWARMMO: https://swarmmo.games/?lang=en SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com/?utm_source=elixir-mentor

    1h 20m
  4. George Guimarães on Forecasting

    21/12/2025

    George Guimarães on Forecasting

    In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I chat with George Guimarães about Soothsayer, his time series forecasting library inspired by NeuralProphet and built on Axon and NX for business data analysis. We explore how Soothsayer decomposes business data into seasonal components, handles holidays as special events, and uses neural networks to model nonlinear patterns. George explains why Elixir's ecosystem with NX, Axon, and Bumblebee provides unique advantages for machine learning workflows, allowing you to run models directly in your supervision tree without external infrastructure. The conversation expands into why Elixir is particularly well-suited for AI agent development. George shares insights from his current work building agentic commerce solutions, where the BEAM's actor model, fault tolerance, and message passing provide battle-tested patterns that other ecosystems are now trying to replicate for LLM workflows. We also discuss AEO (Agent Engine Optimization) as the new SEO, and how websites will evolve to serve both human and agent visitors. Whether you're interested in time series forecasting, building AI-powered applications in Elixir, or understanding why the BEAM's concurrency model is perfect for the agentic future, this conversation offers valuable perspective from an Elixir community OG. Resources Mentioned: - Soothsayer: https://github.com/georgeguimaraes/soothsayer Connect with George: - X: https://x.com/georgeguimaraes - Website: https://georgeguimaraes.com SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com/?utm_source=elixir-mentor

    1h 34m
  5. Isaak Tsalicoglou on REST API Design

    13/12/2025

    Isaak Tsalicoglou on REST API Design

    In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I chat with Isaak Tsalicoglou, author of Elixir Software Engineering. Isaak shares hard-won lessons from building production Elixir API clients, covering validation strategies, error handling approaches, authentication flows, and architectural patterns that actually work in the real world. We explore Isaak's journey back into programming through building internal tools for his family's industrial equipment business, and how that led to writing a comprehensive guide on REST API client development. He explains his approach to request validation, why he ultimately decided against using Ecto schemas for API responses, and the importance of resisting unnecessary complexity in software architecture. The conversation covers practical API design topics including how to structure clean RESTful routes, avoiding tight coupling between APIs and UIs, and finding the right balance between over-serving and under-serving data. Isaak also shares his thoughts on LLM-assisted development, explaining why he prefers using AI as a code reviewer rather than fully automated coding, and discusses his self-hosting infrastructure setup for privacy-conscious applications. This episode offers valuable insights for anyone building API clients in Elixir or thinking critically about software architecture decisions and their long-term implications. Resources Mentioned: - Elixir Software Engineering: https://leanpub.com/elixir-software-engineering Connect with Isaak: - X: https://x.com/realMrLaminar - LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/tisaakx SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com/?utm_source=elixir-mentor

    2h 5m
  6. José Valim on Tidewave

    06/12/2025

    José Valim on Tidewave

    In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I chat with Elixir creator José Valim about Tidewave, the AI coding agent that lives inside your web framework. José shares the journey from falling in love with MCP to discovering its limitations, and how Tidewave solves the copy-paste problem that plagues AI-assisted development. We explore how Tidewave integrates directly with your browser to eliminate tedious workflows, automatically detecting exceptions and validating changes without manual intervention. José explains why the tool now supports Phoenix, Rails, Django, FastAPI, Flask, and Next.js, and how building one feature benefits all frameworks simultaneously. The conversation covers prompting strategies, context management, and the unique challenges of building Tidewave with Tidewave. José offers candid insights on why MCP has fundamental limitations for user experience, the security concerns around AI agents, and why Elixir's message-passing architecture makes it ideal for building agentic systems. We discuss the evolving type system in Elixir, code review workflows with AI, and the upcoming Tidewave features including multi-element inspection and symbol search. The episode concludes with José's perspective on transitioning from open source maintainer to product owner, collecting user feedback through Discord, and exciting developments with Tauri for building desktop applications with Elixir. This conversation provides valuable insights for developers interested in AI-powered tooling and the future of web development. Resources Mentioned: - Code Benchmark: https://github.com/Tencent-Hunyuan/AutoCodeBenchmark Connect with José: - X: https://x.com/josevalim - Tidewave: https://tidewave.ai - Dashbit: https://dashbit.co SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com

    2h 4m
  7. Alex Koutmos on EagleMMS

    29/11/2025

    Alex Koutmos on EagleMMS

    In this episode, I chat with Alex Koutmos, author of Elixir Patterns and creator of numerous open source libraries, about building EagleMMS—a SaaS platform helping collision repair shops accurately calculate consumable costs for vehicle repairs. Alex shares his journey from two failed startups to building a profitable business with nearly a thousand customers. We discuss the outdated methods insurance companies use to calculate repair costs, the brutal reality of door-to-door sales, and how Alex's brother (a licensed auto body technician and appraiser) became his co-founder and sales partner. Alex explains why customer support load is heavier than expected when dealing with insurance company pushback and how they coach shops through negotiations. On the technical side, Alex walks through his evolution from a Vue SPA to a full LiveView application, building PWAs that work seamlessly on mobile, and why Elixir has never been a bottleneck for his business needs. We cover ETS caching strategies for performance, database backup lessons learned the hard way, and why he refuses to do standups. Alex also previews his upcoming books on financial analytics with Explorer and Scholar, plus a Nerves book entering beta soon. Connect with Alex: - X: https://x.com/akoutmos - Books: https://akoutmos.com/top/books/ - EagleMMS: https://eaglemms.com/ SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com

    1h 35m
  8. Nathan Hessler on ExMex & engineering culture

    22/11/2025

    Nathan Hessler on ExMex & engineering culture

    In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I chat with Nathan Hessler, an Elixir developer and organizer of the ExMex conference in Austin. Nathan shares his experience launching a successful regional conference just two weeks prior, offering invaluable insights for anyone considering organizing their own tech event. We explore the intricate logistics of conference planning, from choosing the perfect venue to managing sponsorships and hidden costs. Nathan reveals why he opted for a single-track format at Capital Factory, how he approached speaker selection to promote new voices in the community, and the creative process behind ExMex's clever Texas-themed naming convention. Our conversation shifts to Nathan's decade of experience in engineering leadership, where he shares wisdom on building healthy engineering cultures. We discuss the critical soft skills needed for technical management, strategies for creating trust and respect within teams, and how to foster environments where constructive debate thrives. Nathan emphasizes that the best engineering teams aren't built on shared hobbies but on mutual respect and the ability to engage in productive disagreement. The episode concludes with practical advice for aspiring conference organizers, including the importance of talking to other organizers, loving your speakers, and celebrating the unique character of your location. Nathan also reveals plans for RBQ, his upcoming Ruby conference scheduled for March 2025, continuing his mission to strengthen the Austin tech community through meaningful in-person connections. Resources Mentioned: - ExMex Conference: https://exmexconf.com/ - RBQ Conference: Upcoming Ruby conference in Austin (March 2025) - Capital Factory: Conference venue in Austin Connect with Nathan: - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhessler/ - Website: https://hesslerconsulting.com/ - ExMex: https://exmexconf.com/ SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Discord: https://elixirmentor.com/discord

    1h 34m
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About

Welcome to the Elixir Mentor Podcast, your go-to source for All Things Elixir. This show digs into the heart of the Elixir community, featuring interviews with enthusiasts and pioneers who share their stories and innovative projects that define our ecosystem. Each episode explores groundbreaking libraries and boundary-pushing applications shaping Elixir's future. We discuss best practices, emerging trends, and the latest tools and techniques. Perfect for developers at any stage of their Elixir journey, providing insights and inspiration. Join me as we explore the world of Elixir together.

Information

  • Creator
    Jacob Luetzow
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    69
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Jacob Luetzow
  • Show Website
    Elixir Mentor
  • Provider

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