MicroConf US25 - NOLA - Day 1 (Part 2)
Ah. Where were we? Oh yes… the actual MicroConf.
Day 1 of the conference started out with me running a little behind, largely missing the morning coffee and breakfast portion. But I found another familiar (newly made) internet friend, Zach Stevens, and snagged the last chair at his table. Turns out, I was sitting right next to a fellow Rails developer who had actually reached out on LinkedIn before the conference started: Jordan Trevino. So already, I was among familiar faces (ones I didn’t know existed merely 2 weeks earlier).
Rob Walling did an initial welcome and introduction of host, Lianna Patch, who got things kicked on.
First up was Dr. Sherry Walling, with Rob tagging along for additional commentary. Their quip-y and playful dynamic was quite funny and a good reminder about differing presentation styles. Their talk was super interesting and expanded on their recently published book, The Exit Strategy. A copy was available to all attendees and I’m looking forward to digging into it when I get a chance. My biggest takeaway from their talk was about how money stories (our histories and experiences relating to money and finances) can often shape and even sour how we drive our businesses (as well as any exit). One of the action items was to take the recommended money profile to help better identify my own biases (I suspect in far too rigid and hesitant than I should be with my spending).
Second up was fellow Rails developer and newly made IRL friend, Adrian Marin. His talk was largely geared toward non-technical folk and talked about the ways that groups could still get their products made. Despite not being the target, I still found it a very useful talk, as it helped me think through some of the ways I could talk about these topics and routes with my own clients.
After Adrian’s talk was probably my favorite of the entire conference: Anthony Pierri’s Ultimate Guide to Homepage Positioning. I won’t get into his talk too much, but when he came out to pop-punk intro music, I knew he was my people. Even better, it was his own band, Good Hangs. Anthony and his partner, Rob, help companies (especially startups) nail their positioning and ensure their homepage is directly addressing their ICP and their problems. His talk overall was one of the most thorough examples of how exactly to do that (along with examples of how other companies like Loom or Notion have done it). The biggest takeaway for me personally was when Anthony showed that narrowing your ICP by demographics too early in the process doesn’t really work. You have to focus first on the workflow. This is how you can start with a smaller vertical and then expand once you notice how others in different roles or industries, but with similar workflows, can also benefit from your solutions.
At this point, we broke for lunch. I met up with Adrian and we had a very lovely chat while we enjoyed the surprisingly delicious catering. Once we finished, it was time to go on our excursions. I had originally signed up for the Beignets and Donuts tour, but due to the St Patrick’s Day parade, we had to switch to a more general food tour. I went down to the lobby and while waiting, met Chris Bui, who was also from Chicago and had actually reached out to me for some advice a few years ago. We caught up a bit and then got on the bus with everyone else (almost 40 of us).
I was excited to walk around the French Quarter some more and get to taste more of the local food. Our guide was an elderly man who came to New Orleans with his wife on vacation about 12 years ago and loved it so much that they just never left. He took us to a bunch of well-known spots and we got to have a lot of staples like gumbo, jambalaya, red beans and rice, and alligator. Then we ended with some beignets.
The best part of the excursion was definitely getting separated from the people I knew and getting to meet some new folks. Getting to chat with Alex McQuade and learn more about him was awesome. It was also amazing to meet so many other amazing founders as we visited the local restaurants and chatted between bites. It was fun getting to share my obviously incorrect theories on dinosaurs and how they related to birds (and was amazing having a birder actually tell me that it wasn’t too far off when it came to birds).
After the tour and a bit of a cluster ending, I ended up getting a beignet and walking back with JD Huntington. It was fun to walk back and hear about his experience with TinySeed and growing his business.
Once we got back to the hotel, I took a couple of minutes to gather myself and then, despite being completely exhausted from a long day of socializing and trying to absorb as much as I could, went up to the rooftop bar for the day’s reception party.
While there, I saw some friends, but the highlight of the evening for me was getting to meet and chat with Anthony Pierri and his business partner, Rob. Getting to hear them meet and gush over Olly (the original motivation for their business) was a really honest and fun moment, but it was also extremely insightful to hear them each compare motivations and details about their processes.
It also gave me a chance to learn more about Anthony’s band: Good Hangs. Turns out, he’s also from Chicago and at a similar point in life (his LinkedIn title literally says “Elder Emo”), so it was great to connect and chat for the time we did.
At that point, we got kicked out of the rooftop bar and this is where I made the most glaring mistake of the week: I went back to my room instead of going out to eat with the group. My justification was that I was tired and needed to recharge (true), but I immediately regretted it as soon as I got back to my room. Lesson learned: always say yes. Because you tend to regret the things you didn’t do more than the things you did do.