How Salesforce Leverages Heroku
Code[ish]
Robbie Birbeck, VP of Digital Enterprise Technology at Salesforce, joins Julián Duque to talk about how Salesforce leverages Heroku. Filmed at the Palace Hotel in downtown San Francisco, the big star of this episode is Agentforce, which helps Salesforce employees with IT and HR questions, among others.
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Building Agentic Apps with RubyLLM
Code[ish]
Vestmark manages more than 1.7 trillion in assets, and its CTO, Freedom Dumlao, joins Julián Duque to discuss how AI is helping its advisors in their day-to-day work. Filmed at the Palace Hotel in downtown San Francisco, the pair discuss the role of AI in development and why all its new products are being built using Ruby.
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Engineering Excellence and AI Productivity
Code[ish]
In our second video special from the Palace Hotel, Julián Duque is joined by Shiva Nimmagadda, Vice President of Excellence, True AI and Analytics at Salesforce. Together, the pair discuss the various ways his team is using AI to improve developer efficiency, productivity, and output.
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AI Workflows for Support Ticket Integration
Code[ish]
Filmed at the Palace Hotel in downtown San Francisco, this week’s episode of Code[ish] is the first in a short series of video specials! To kick things off, Julián Duque is joined by Keegan Bakker, CEO of audience engagement platform Audata, to explore how Heroku helped the app grow from a hobby idea to a powerful tool for major organizations across the globe.
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AI Agents and Open Source
Code[ish]
This week on Code[ish], host Julián Duque connects with Rizel Scarlett from Block, Inc., to discuss how agentic AI is changing the FinTech landscape. Block, Inc. is the parent company behind popular services like Square, Cash App, and many more.
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Getting to the Heart of Twelve-Factor Apps
Code[ish]
On this week’s episode of Code[ish], Vish Abrams joins Jon Dodson to talk about the role of AI, the ways Twelve-Factor aids developers, and how science fiction shaped a little of their own history.
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Introducing Heroku Vibes
Code[ish]
This week’s episode is an exciting one because we’re talking about our brand-new release, Heroku Vibes! Mauricio Gomes joins Jon Dodson to go over what Heroku Vibes is, what it’s capable of, and how it could be a game-changer for developers and non-developers alike. Join the pilot by visiting
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Talking Traces and OpenTelemetry
Code[ish]
Jon Dodson has an 11-year Heroku veteran with him on the podcast this week, Principal Member of Technical Staff Alex Arnell. Together they talk through the native integration of OpenTelemetry in Heroku Fir, the benefits of traces over traditional logs, how they assist debugging, and what’s next for observability in modern development.
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Heroku in the Wild: Vanshiv on Using the Right Tools
Code[ish]
You won’t find too many developers with more experience in the Salesforce ecosystem than our guest this week! Not only is Gaurav Kheterpal a Salesforce MVP and Trailblazer, he also still uses his original Salesforce org from 2007. He joined Julián Duque to discuss how Vanshiv Technologies delivers client work with Heroku, the importance of embracing AI, and why it’s vital for developers to keep an open mind in choosing the right tool for the job.
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What’s Possible with Heroku AppLink
Code[ish]
This week we’re taking a deeply technical dive into our newest feature: Heroku AppLink! Jon Dodson is joined by Chris Wall, Salesforce Architect and creator of AppLink, to explore what AppLink offers developers and how it brings Heroku and Salesforce closer together.
info_outlineKaran Gupta, Senior Vice President of Engineering, Shift Technologies joins host Marcus Blankenship, Senior Manager Software Engineering, Heroku in this week's episode.
Karan shared his career trajectory, which includes founding aliceapp.ai, a fast, privacy-first recording and transcription service for investigative journalism, and acting as an advisor for various companies, including Alphy, a platform for women's career advancement.
A concept important to Karan is pragmatic engineering. Pragmatic engineering is about having "an oversized impact on the business by applying the right technology at the right time". It's about the technology, the process of creating that technology, and its impact on the underlying business. For example, building an electric car is cool, but producing a version in which people feel safe? That's engineering that changes the world forever.
According to Karan, these are the key things that matter in development:
Fast-ness (speed) Function (capabilities provided) Form (how it looks and feels) Fabrication (how it is built on the inside)
He recalls the value of the snake game on 404 pages. And the value of intentionality, saying "once you add a feature, it's probably going to be there forever. It's probably going to need maintenance and love and care forever. So do we really want to put it in?"
He talks about design and the balance between form versus function, such as designing something aesthetically pleasing versus easy to use. Then, there's fabrication: "How well can we make it? Can we deliver it quickly? And can others maintain it?" Sometimes using off-the-shelf software and well-proven frameworks are the most effective, and "Perfect is the enemy of good enough."
Karan stresses the importance of being a learning organization. "Be open to picking up what's out there to help make more informed choices, especially if the choice is to stick with the tried and tested." Good engineers are always open to learning about what new things are coming out and open to different opinions, frameworks, and ways of thinking.