Kit#19 Matthias Naus
| First name: | Matthias |
| Last name: | Naus |
| Country: | Netherlands (based in Thailand) |
| Occupation: | Startup founder |
Where to find Matthias online:
Matthias, what do you do?
I am the founder and director of a software company named Chilly Orange. Our flag-ship product is called Pagestead: a self-hosted, 100% white-label DIY website builder.
What is your background?
I have studied both business and CI in university. Dropped out and moved to Thailand in my early 20’s. Worked as a programmer/generic IT dude for a travel company in Thailand for a few years before venturing out on my own. I have started more projects/businesses/products than I can count in the past decade.
Your favorite tools to help you with your work?
Slack is pretty much our virtual HQ. We use it internally for communication. Mostly using the chat feature, however we also use the call and screen sharing functionality. It’s great to have a single place where each of us know they can connect with other team members when they need to.
We use Airtable mainly as our internal bug/issue tracking system. We have tried most, if not all, of the available bug tracking tools out there but nothing fitted the bill. That was, until running into Airtable. It being a spreadsheet – database hybrid, the flexibility is virtually unlimited making it an awesome tool for stuff like bug and issue tracking.
We use Github to host our all source code repositories.
We use TimeDoctor to handle time tracking for our team members. I love it because it gets the job done without any headaches. Major bonus is that it integrates with payroll as well, allowing you to fully automate payroll.
We use Gumroad to sell and distribute our flag-ship product. It’s awesome because it’s super easy to setup. You can start selling stuff literally within minutes. We also use this tool to distribute the code and manage updates.
We use Mailchimp to manage our mailing list subscribers and send out emails.
Only recently started using this, however we love it! It has allowed to make huge improvements to our automated QA and pick up bugs before distributing new features and fixes to our customers.
Your favorite tools on a personal level?
Not exactly a digital tool in the conventional sense, however it’s been very important to my personal productivity. Whenever I am in a rut, feeling down or unmotivated, watching one or two inspiring interviews get me going again!
Keeping tracking of my crypto swings ;)
This is one of my personal favorite apps; it uses AI to create sounds and music to help you focus, relax and/or sleep. It works very very well for me!
I (as well as our team at Chilly Orange) use Treehouse to keep our coding chops up to date and pick up new skills when needed.
Your absolute favorite tool in one sentence?
Focus, relax or sleep on demand.