Kit#8 Jack Slingerland

First name: | Jack |
Last name: | Slingerland |
Country: | United States |
Occupation: | Software Engineer and entrepreneur |
Where to find Jack online:
Jack, what do you do?
I’m the founder of Kernl.us, a WordPress development platform that provides private updates for plugins and themes. We also have license management, feature flags, and analytics.
What is your background?
By day I’m a Senior Software Engineer at an education technology company in Raleigh, NC. By night, I work on Kernl.us with the goal of eventually working on it full-time.
Your favorite tools to help you with your work?
I use Trello to keep my work with Kernl straight and organized. When you aren’t able to work on something full-time, knowing exactly what you will be doing next is super helpful. Trello helps me accomplish that.
Compose is used to host and manage Kernl’s MongoDB database. I NEVER have to worry about it, which has been a fantastic experience. I’ll never manage my own database again.
Stripe is Kernl’s payment processor. It makes managing subscriptions, plans, and payments extremely easy. Even if a cheaper processor came along I don’t think I’d switch away. It’s just that easy to use.
Digital Ocean is where Kernl is hosted. The combination of value and affordability is really great and their NYC3 data center has been solid for us. We’ve run 7 servers for the past few years there. When there have been issues, support is always right on top of things.
Your favorite tools on a personal level?
As much as I use Trello for managing Kernl, Trello and it’s Kanban board is actually really good for organizing life. My wife and I share a board, organize it, and use it as a to-do list.
Your life needs a soundtrack. Spotify provides it.
I use reddit to stay up to date on news and niches that I care about. So. Many. Sub-reddits.
Your absolute favorite tool in one sentence?
If you never want to manage a database again, try out Compose.