Elixir Mentor

Hosted by Jacob Luetzow

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Oct 2026

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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.

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October 16, 2026Episode 941 hr 31 min

Nathan Hessler on ExMex and Conferences

Nathan Hessler, organizer of ExMex and RBQ Conf, is back four weeks out from ExMex 2026 in Austin. We cover MCing Rails World, how he picks speakers and keynotes for a single track, what running a Ruby conference taught him, and the free CFP he built on Google Sheets that's turning into an agent friendly event harness. Then we get into TUIOS and agents that talk to each other, why PR review still matters, bootstrapping vs VC, and why conferences beat job boards for landing your next role. Use code MentoredFriends for $50 off your ExMex ticket (enter it in the promo code field on the site, not the checkout pop-up). 00:00 - Introduction 01:38 - MCing Rails World and introducing DHH 05:45 - Picking speakers for a single track 08:26 - What makes a great keynote 10:41 - Why he doesn't curate topics 14:01 - Four weeks out: hurry up and wait 16:14 - How RBQ Conf went 18:42 - Scheduling a single track 19:50 - Using AI for conference marketing 21:58 - Privacy and what agents can see 25:36 - A free CFP built on Google Sheets 32:30 - An agent friendly event harness 38:52 - TUIOS and agents that talk to each other 43:23 - Why PR review still matters with agents 45:03 - MCP, skills, and usage rules 51:23 - Building is the easy part 56:30 - Bootstrapping vs VC 59:01 - ExMex promo code and swag 1:06:47 - Why go to conferences 1:09:00 - Hiring, AI slop, and referrals 1:14:02 - Do conferences make money? 1:18:27 - MicroConf comes to Austin 1:23:33 - Remote work still needs in person 1:27:07 - Free community tickets Resources Mentioned: - ExMex: https://exmexconf.com/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - ExMex community tickets: https://exmexconf.com/community-tickets?utm_source=elixir-mentor - RBQ Conf: https://rbqconf.com/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - KinSwitch: https://kinswitch.app/?utm_source=elixir-mentor Connect with Nathan: - X: https://x.com/spune?utm_source=elixir-mentor - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhessler/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Hessler Consulting: https://hesslerconsulting.com/?utm_source=elixir-mentor Sponsors: - BEAMOps: https://beamops.co.uk/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Paraxial.io: https://paraxial.io/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Jido: https://agentjido.xyz/discord?utm_source=elixir-mentor SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com/?utm_source=elixir-mentor #ElixirLang #MyElixirStatus #ElixirMentor

October 10, 2026Episode 931 hr 38 min

Alex Koutmos on Nerves and Finance

Alex Koutmos, CTO of EagleMMS and author of Elixir Patterns, is back with two books in beta: Programming Nerves, which gets web developers building hardware from Livebook, and Elixir For Finance, written with his brother Dimitri on real market and Federal Reserve data. Then we ask whether anyone still buys technical books, and get into running on one server, what canceled trials teach you, and a laid off engineer with 1,000 applications. 00:00 - Introduction 02:41 - Programming Nerves: from Etch A Sketch to joystick 05:36 - The Patio Defender 07:40 - Why the book starts in Livebook 13:12 - Is anyone still buying technical books? 14:40 - DHH's Campfire rewrite and knowing your tools 18:00 - Shipping without a staging environment 20:42 - Cold outreach and email reputation 28:27 - Elixir For Finance: Yahoo Finance and FRED data 33:57 - Info products after AI 38:51 - Start on a single server 43:05 - Lessons from a failed two sided marketplace 47:04 - Splitting EagleMMS with his brother 51:55 - What canceled trials taught me 58:03 - Putting your work out there and ignoring trolls 1:04:45 - Laid off, 1,000 applications, and the death of software engineering 1:10:10 - Standing out in a tough job market 1:15:37 - Niche SaaS for the trades 1:20:21 - Grok Bots for clips and cold email 1:23:21 - AI pricing and platform risk 1:28:08 - Writing books without AI, and where books go next 1:30:18 - AI training and the authors' class action 1:35:24 - Where to find Alex 1:37:24 - What to buy for Programming Nerves Resources Mentioned: - Programming Nerves: https://www.programmingnerves.dev/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Elixir For Finance: https://www.financialelixir.dev/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Nerves Livebook: https://github.com/nerves-livebook/nerves_livebook?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Killswitch: https://killswitch.app/?utm_source=elixir-mentor Connect with Alex: - X: https://x.com/akoutmos?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/akoutmos.bsky.social?utm_source=elixir-mentor - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-koutmos-b8b2bb93?utm_source=elixir-mentor Sponsors: - BEAMOps: https://beamops.co.uk/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Paraxial.io: https://paraxial.io/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Jido: https://agentjido.xyz/discord?utm_source=elixir-mentor SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com/?utm_source=elixir-mentor #ElixirLang #MyElixirStatus #ElixirMentor

October 2, 2026Episode 921 hr 28 min

Mike Hostetler on Jido v3

Mike Hostetler, creator of Jido and ReqLLM, is back for round three. Jido 2.0 hit the top of Hacker News and took his docs server down with it, and Jido v3 betas are already on Hex. We get into agentic back pressure, why models write better declarative Elixir, why most actors don't need an LLM at all, durable workflows with Jido Flow, and the multiplayer harness he's building on OTP. Plus Grok Bots and personal agents, reverse engineering bad IoT apps, and live questions from chat. 00:00 - Introduction 02:56 - The Jido 2.0 launch and a Hacker News hug of death 06:27 - Lessons from Ralph Wiggum loops 08:51 - Why models write better Elixir 11:44 - Agentic back pressure 14:22 - Jido v3's Spark DSL 20:48 - When do you need 10,000 agents? 26:28 - Q&A: A public actor mesh? 27:59 - Actors vs agents: Jido without an LLM 30:38 - Halo 2 NPCs and classical AI 33:36 - What's new in Jido v3 35:03 - Durable workflows with Runic and Jido Flow 39:34 - Property and fuzz testing with agents 42:27 - Who's building on Jido 44:27 - Q&A: TermUI and the Jido harness 48:28 - DASP, the Durable Actor Session Protocol 50:39 - Q&A: Pods, topologies, and the signal bus 55:01 - Grok Bots, Dots, and personal agents 57:20 - Reverse engineering IoT apps with an LLM 1:06:24 - LLMDB and LLM Catalog 1:07:51 - 600 PRs a month and vibe coded PRs 1:12:12 - The Founder Playbook skills repo 1:14:37 - Teaching and community after LLMs 1:17:31 - Will AI replace engineers? 1:22:57 - A hard lesson migrating Killswitch data 1:25:01 - What's next for Jido and the harness Resources Mentioned: - Jido: https://jido.run/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Runic: https://github.com/zblanco/runic?utm_source=elixir-mentor - LLM Catalog: https://llmcatalog.dev/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Founder Playbook: https://github.com/getagentseal/founder-playbook?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Killswitch: https://killswitch.app/?utm_source=elixir-mentor Connect with Mike: - X: https://x.com/mikehostetler?utm_source=elixir-mentor - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikehostetler?utm_source=elixir-mentor Sponsors: - BEAMOps: https://beamops.co.uk/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Paraxial.io: https://paraxial.io/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Jido: https://agentjido.xyz/discord?utm_source=elixir-mentor SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com/?utm_source=elixir-mentor #ElixirLang #MyElixirStatus #ElixirMentor

September 25, 2026Episode 911 hr 28 min

Michael Lubas on the State of Security

Michael Lubas, CEO of Paraxial.io and the first guest ever on this podcast, is back to check in on the state of security. We get into Microsoft's record Patch Tuesday, why AI keeps lowering the bar for attackers, the OpenAI sandbox escape story, and whether the AI labs are overstating the risk. Michael shares why cheap foundational checks still beat a frontier model, why small companies should skip bug bounties, and why Elixir gets no credit for its security. Plus live questions from chat. 00:00 - Introduction 02:34 - ElixirConf US and the Hex pentest talk 06:20 - Microsoft's record Patch Tuesday 13:50 - Engineers who stopped reading their code 14:54 - LLMs as offensive security engineers 17:40 - Sandbox escapes and the OpenAI incident 23:00 - Are the AI labs overstating the risk? 26:09 - The open weights debate 29:32 - Developer anxiety and the Rails World keynote 35:00 - Why it's getting worse for defenders 38:30 - Run grep before a frontier model 41:11 - Why Elixir has an edge right now 45:21 - Patch windows in the AI era 47:11 - Can a startup stop a nation state? 50:06 - Securing your Elixir app with AI 57:17 - Letting AI patch production live 1:01:38 - Learning security as a developer 1:03:42 - Why small companies should skip bug bounties 1:04:54 - Insecure MCPs and AI assistants 1:10:14 - Verifying beneficiaries in Killswitch 1:12:36 - Q&A: Simulating catastrophic events 1:13:25 - Q&A: Learning ethical hacking with AI 1:16:22 - Kids, social media, and regulation 1:23:17 - Q&A: Are garbage collected languages safer? 1:27:26 - Where to find Michael Resources Mentioned: - Securing Hex: https://paraxial.io/blog/hex-pentest?utm_source=elixir-mentor - PortSwigger Web Security Academy: https://portswigger.net/web-security?utm_source=elixir-mentor - The Web Application Hacker's Handbook (2nd ed.) - Killswitch: https://killswitch.app/?utm_source=elixir-mentor Connect with Michael: - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaellubas?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Paraxial.io on X: https://x.com/paraxialio?utm_source=elixir-mentor Sponsors: - BEAMOps: https://beamops.co.uk/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Paraxial.io: https://paraxial.io/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Jido: https://agentjido.xyz/discord?utm_source=elixir-mentor SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com/?utm_source=elixir-mentor #ElixirLang #MyElixirStatus #ElixirMentor

September 24, 2026Episode 901 hr 29 min

Adam Gusky on Getting Recommended by AI

Adam Gusky, solo founder of Blawgy, on how businesses get recommended by ChatGPT and other AI tools, and what technical founders get wrong about marketing. Adam went from a college wrestling meme page and 30 side projects to quitting his job, selling Blawgy as a hand-built service, watching it churn, and rebuilding it into a product agencies now run for their clients. We get into SEO vs AEO, whether a post every day still works, and why most people will buy software instead of vibe coding it. I share how customers are finding Killswitch through AI answers, the Grok Bot team behind its marketing, and the partner program I'm building with attorneys and financial advisors. 00:00 - Introduction 02:19 - A college meme page and 30 side projects 04:05 - What Blawgy does 04:51 - Is SEO dead? SEO vs AEO and GEO 07:18 - How long before it works 10:34 - FoodBuddy and the menu item calorie play 12:21 - Agent readiness and llms.txt 15:23 - Customers finding Killswitch through AI 18:35 - Quitting the job to build Blawgy 22:12 - From hand-built service to real product 24:26 - Guardrails and multi-pass quality checks 26:17 - The Blawgy pixel and refreshing old posts 33:30 - Why people buy software instead of vibe coding it 38:37 - Handoff plans for solo founders 45:23 - Blawgy's stack, AI coding tools, and Tmux 54:06 - Marketing Killswitch with Grok Bots 56:31 - CAPTCHAs, bots, and AI slop on social 58:48 - A partner program for attorneys and advisors 1:01:09 - Local cold outreach that gets replies 1:03:02 - Why Blawgy sells to agencies 1:09:50 - Tiered pricing and finding agencies with Apollo 1:13:23 - SEO agencies, backlinks, and a cold email experiment 1:16:34 - Is a post every day overkill? 1:19:08 - Building an AI podcast producer 1:27:42 - Where to find Adam Resources Mentioned: - Blawgy: https://blawgy.com/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - MyFoodBuddy: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/myfoodbuddy/id6505124191?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Is It Agent Ready: https://isitagentready.com/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Killswitch: https://killswitch.app/?utm_source=elixir-mentor Connect with Adam: - X/Twitter: https://x.com/adamc0dez?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Blawgy on X: https://x.com/blawgyseo?utm_source=elixir-mentor Sponsors: - BEAMOps: https://beamops.co.uk/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Paraxial.io: https://paraxial.io/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Jido: https://agentjido.xyz/discord?utm_source=elixir-mentor SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com/?utm_source=elixir-mentor #ElixirLang #MyElixirStatus #ElixirMentor

September 18, 2026Episode 891 hr 44 min

Brice Ayres on Fractional Engineering

Brice Ayres, founder of Axio Intelligence, on fractional engineering and what changes when one senior engineer can run a team of AI agents. Brice went from the Army and a 3.7 million follower Facebook cause to finding Elixir at Topgolf, leading engineering orgs, and going out on his own. We get into managing agents like an engineering org, whether you still need to read every line, and why Ash keeps LLMs on the rails. I share how a team of Grok Bots handles marketing, support, and QA for Killswitch, and we close with Brice's playbook for cutting cloud costs. 00:00 - Introduction 02:51 - Web dev class, the Army, and a viral nonprofit 08:38 - Finding Elixir at Topgolf 13:00 - What is fractional engineering? 16:10 - Vibe coding and why engineers still matter 24:03 - Think like an engineering manager 26:32 - Reviewing AI code, Ash, and established patterns 29:55 - Offmic, a live AI podcast producer 35:18 - Running agents like an engineering org 40:51 - Read-only agents in prod and self-healing infra 42:05 - A Polymarket bot with agent consensus 47:06 - Marketing Killswitch with Grok Bots 52:06 - Lighthouse scores and agentic browsing 56:13 - Getting found by LLMs 59:27 - Order with Surf: agentic food ordering 1:02:48 - Agent QA and local testing with K3s and Floci 1:05:40 - Data labeling, synthetic data, and edge AI 1:08:55 - Nerves, Peridio, and Avocado OS 1:11:47 - Bot traffic, analytics, and self-hosting 1:16:00 - Hardware stories and real-world edge cases 1:26:24 - When engineers ship faster than you can plan 1:29:10 - Monoliths, Postgres scaling, and ETS 1:36:40 - Where to find Brice 1:37:44 - Cutting cloud costs: logging and AZ traffic Resources Mentioned: - Axio Intelligence: https://axiointelligence.com/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Grok Bot: https://x.ai/news/introducing-grok-bot?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Killswitch: https://killswitch.app/?utm_source=elixir-mentor Connect with Brice: - X/Twitter: https://x.com/briceayres?utm_source=elixir-mentor - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/briceayres/?utm_source=elixir-mentor Sponsors: - BEAMOps: https://beamops.co.uk/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Paraxial.io : https://paraxial.io/?utm_source=elixir-mentor - Jido: https://agentjido.xyz/discord?utm_source=elixir-mentor SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com/?utm_source=elixir-mentor #ElixirLang #MyElixirStatus #ElixirMentor

March 14, 2026Episode 771 hr 35 min

Leandro Pereira on MDEx

Leandro Pereira is back on the Elixir Mentor Podcast — this time to dive deep into MDEx, his Rust-powered Markdown library for Elixir. MDEx is built on the Comrak Rust crate, runs 31x faster, and uses 3,500x less memory than existing Elixir alternatives. We also get into Lumis, his standalone syntax highlighting engine powered by tree-sitter and Neovim themes. Leandro walks through why he chose a Rust NIF over a pure Elixir implementation, what it took to ship Lumis as its own project, and the surprisingly hard technical challenge at the heart of MDEx: streaming Markdown for AI applications. We discuss how MDEx handles incomplete Markdown fragments in real time, what the upcoming Components feature unlocks for Phoenix/LiveView developers, and how the HEEx parser integration works under the hood. We also cover the human side of maintaining two solo open source projects: how Leandro prioritizes, uses AI to chip away at the backlog, and thinks about monetization. The conversation goes deeper into how the AI era has changed Markdown's role in the ecosystem, the pitfalls of vibe coding, and what it really takes to get an open source project noticed — including the uncomfortable truth that marketing matters more than most developers want to admit. The episode closes with a wide-ranging conversation on developer growth — the Dunning-Krueger curve, making the mental shift from OOP to functional programming, and why Elixir feels easier once it finally clicks. A great listen for anyone building libraries, wrestling with Rust NIFs, or navigating open source in the Elixir ecosystem. Resources Mentioned: - MDEx: https://mdelixir.dev - MDEx on Hex: https://hex.pm/packages/mdex - Lumis: https://lumis.sh - Lumis on Hex: https://hex.pm/packages/lumis Connect with Leandro: - X/Twitter: https://x.com/leandrocesquini - GitHub: https://github.com/leandrocp/mdex SPONSORS - Paraxial.io: https://paraxial.io - Jido (Elixir AI Collective Discord): https://agentjido.xyz/discord SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com

January 24, 2026Episode 701 hr 31 min

Enrique Leigh on Prende

In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I chat with Enrique Leigh, founder of Prende Café in Chile. We explore how he built a specialty coffee subscription business using Phoenix LiveView, his journey from marketing and ad tech to becoming an Elixir developer, and why he chose custom e-commerce over platforms like Shopify. Enrique shares the WordPress crash during a Chile vs Brazil match that sparked his interest in Elixir, and how building his own coffee business became the perfect way to finally learn the language. We discuss UX principles from "Don't Make Me Think," marketing frameworks like Jobs to Be Done, and the counterintuitive lesson that adding more checkout steps can actually increase conversions. He also explains the specialty coffee value chain, from sourcing beans in Brazil to roasting and running a physical café alongside the e-commerce platform. Our conversation covers practical entrepreneurship topics including MVP philosophy, building subscription and coupon systems with Mercado Pago, using Oban for job scheduling, and content marketing strategies that work. Enrique shares insights on balancing Iron Man training with running a family business, productivity techniques from the Flow Research Collective, and the evolving landscape of ad tech after GDPR. We also discuss his future goals of learning Nerves to build IoT coffee machines and the growing Elixir community in Chile. The episode wraps up with advice for aspiring entrepreneurs: just launch it. Enrique emphasizes that the cost of inaction is often greater than the cost of action, and with tools like LLMs that work remarkably well with Elixir, there's never been a better time to build your own products. Resources Mentioned: - Don't Make Me Think: https://sensible.com/dont-make-me-think/ - Oban: https://getoban.pro/ - Jido: https://agentjido.xyz/discord Connect with Enrique: - Website: https://www.prendecafe.cl - X/Twitter: https://x.com/EnriqueLeigh - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/enriqueleigh/ Sponsors: - Paraxial.io: https://paraxial.io - Jido: https://agentjido.xyz/discord SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com

November 22, 2025Episode 621 hr 33 min

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

February 14, 2026Episode 731 hr 29 min

Dave Lucia on Building TV Labs

In this episode of the Elixir Mentor Podcast, I chat with Dave Lucia, CTO and Co-Founder of TV Labs. Dave returns to the podcast to talk about building an AI-powered smart TV testing platform that lets media companies test streaming apps on hundreds of real physical devices through the cloud — all built primarily in Elixir. Dave walks through the founding of TV Labs, from meeting his co-founder at Bloomberg over a decade ago to building an MVP with WebRTC during the pandemic. He covers the technical challenges of managing a massive device lab — procurement, warm-up processes, security isolation, session management, and keeping hundreds of TVs, Rokus, Fire TVs, and Apple TVs healthy and available for enterprise clients. The platform uses a custom KQL query engine for real-time device matching and a licensing system built on Elixir GenServers sharded across the cluster. We get into Dave's 10-year history with Elixir in production, starting at Bloomberg and carrying through to TV Labs. He explains why Elixir was the right fit for orchestrating physical devices at scale, from its standard library minimizing dependencies to building Apple device communication libraries and even a Lua 5.3 interpreter directly in Elixir. Dave also shares how TV Labs uses OpenTelemetry for observability and runs multi-region infrastructure with session recording capabilities. The conversation shifts to AI, where Dave describes using Claude and other LLMs to accelerate development, automate operations like vendor management and support emails, and build AI agents for QA testing. We wrap up with a candid discussion on whether AI will replace developers and how these tools are fundamentally changing what's possible for small teams. Connect with Dave: - Website: https://davelucia.com - X/Twitter: https://x.com/davydog187 - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-lucia-a395441b/ Sponsors: - BEAMOps: https://beamops.co.uk - Paraxial.io: https://paraxial.io - Jido: https://agentjido.xyz/discord SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR - Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com