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Podcast Awesome
On Podcast Awesome we talk to members of the Font Awesome team about icons, design, tech, business, and of course, nerdery.
🎙️ Podcast Awesome is your all-access pass into the creative engine behind Font Awesome — the web’s favorite icon toolkit. Join host Matt Johnson and the Font Awesome crew (and friends) for deep dives into icon design, front-end engineering, software development, healthy business culture, and a whole lot of lovingly-rendered nerdery.
From technical explorations of our open-source tooling, chats with web builders, icon designers, and content creators, with the occasional gleeful rants about early internet meme culture, we bring you stories and strategies from the trenches of building modern web software — with a healthy dose of 80s references and tech dad jokes.
🎧 Perfect for:
- Icon design and content-first thinking
- Creative process and collaborative design
- Work-life balance in tech
- Remote team culture and async collaboration
- Internet history, meme archaeology, and other nerd ephemera
🧠 Come for the design wisdom, stay for the deep meme cuts and beautifully crafted icons.
Podcast Awesome
Why 'Lifestyle Company' Is a Badge of Honor at Font Awesome
🎙 In this episode, Font Awesome founder Dave Gandy joins our host Matt Johnson for an honest, unfiltered convo about what it means to build a *lifestyle company* (and wear that badge proudly 💪). This isn’t your typical startup hustle. We’re diving into the “people-first” culture that makes Font Awesome a standout, from character-driven hiring to redefining what success means beyond growth on charts and graphs. 🏆💼
As Dave says, instead of climbing someone else’s ladder, Font Awesome is building its own way up, with purpose, transparency, and some solid work-life balance goals. Here’s why we believe that putting *people* over profit isn’t just good business — it’s just the way the work should be. 🌱💼
🔑 Key Takeaways:
Lifestyle Company, Proudly: We’re embracing the “lifestyle” label, focusing on growth, happiness, and well-being over sky-high returns. 📈💆♂️
Character > Skills: At Font Awesome, character-first hiring = trust, respect, and people who actually *want* to stick around. 🫶✨
VC Vibes Not Required: Font Awesome skips the “thousand-X-or-bust” mentality for a sustainable, fulfilling work culture. 👋💸
Life Outside Work Matters: The best parts of life are outside the office—so why not bring those values in? 🏠🌅
The Right Partner in Crime: Success means finding a partner who balances your quirks. 👯♂️ The perfect co-founder is a friend, critic, and cheerleader rolled into one.
Timestamp Summary
0:12 | 🌱 Building a Lifestyle Company Focused on Well-Being and Growth
6:52 | 💼 Creating a People-First Company Against Conventional Practices
12:04 | 🧑🤝🧑 Human-Centric Product Design and Company Culture
15:59 | 🤝 The Importance of Balanced Partnerships in Business
20:38 | 🫶 Embracing a People-First Culture at Font Awesome
Links and Resources:
- Podcast Awesome: https://www.podcastawesome.com/
- Font Awesome Hiring Philosophy: https://blog.fontawesome.com/company-culture/
- Twitter: @fontawesome
Credits:
- Theme music by Ronnie Martin: https://ronniemartin.org/
- Music interstitials by Zach Malm: https://muzach.bandcamp.com/
- Audio mastering by Chris Enns at Lemon Productions: https://www.lemonproductions.ca/
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