I got a text from Chris Mahl, an advisor and investor I hadn't seen in 15 years.
"Hey, we haven't seen each other in 15 years. Let's find a time to catch up. I'm in San Francisco all the time."
Turns out he was at the Omni, so I headed over to see him.
We started catching up, talking about what we're both working on and all the changes we're seeing in technology.
Then he said:
"I love Netlify. I've built 61 apps on it."
61 apps.
He's building them from his phone. Walking around. Sitting in his hot tub. Whenever he has an idea, he can just build it.
Then he said, "By the way, if you're into fitness, check out my app. It's also got motivational quotes. I think you could use one."
This is the part I keep coming back to. Chris isn't waiting for a sprint, a repo, or anyone's handoff. The distance between having an idea and having it live on the internet is now about as long as the thought itself.
15 years since we'd seen each other.
Within an hour, we were talking about a world where someone can have an idea, pull out their phone, build an application, and ship it on Netlify.
That isn't a roadmap slide. It's a guy in a hot tub with 61 apps in production.
And apparently some much-needed motivational advice along the way.