John Bentley is the Founder of Artisan Coding, which is committed to building SaaS platforms and their teams with the focus and attention of a craftsperson.

John began building software at age 10, learning to build software with his father on a TRS-80 color computer, followed by an early IBM PC XT.  Through his own journey, John expanded his focus on building from the software itself to the organizations that create software.
His passion in life is working with SaaS startups as a co-founder, CTO, advisor, consultant, and coach.

In this episode:

1. John shares his experience in a variety of companies as a mentor and coach.  He talks about how company culture and team dynamics impact software development.  This led him to start Artisan Coding.

2. Artisan Coding focuses on artisenry or the quality of work you are producing when developing software.  John discusses how software development processes are different for early stage startups.  By focusing on the customer and the idea, getting it well understood and bridging the gap between the business and the product is very important in launching a successful product.

3. John describes the startup journey which consists of 2 phases:  Idea to Market and Scale for Growth.  Each phase has a different focus.  During the Idea to Market phase, you want to learn as much as possible from the customer.  During the Scale for Growth phase, John describes the progression of people to hire.   As you scale, you need role players that are good at what they do.

4. John shares his lessons learned for other founders:  First, planning and being intentional about the people you hire is important.  Second, recognize that culture creates the product and the team organization dictates the product and customer experience.

5. Some of the trends John sees include AI and machine learning.  Also tools for SaaS are starting to niche down.  Many products are being developed to find the smallest niche possible to operate in which means more SaaS platforms are goign after smaller, more segmented markete places.

...and much more!

You can reach John Bentley on LinkedIn to learn more about him and Artisan Coding.