MarsBased podcast - Life on Mars
MarsBased podcast - Life on Mars is your go-to space for technology, entrepreneurship, and innovation.
Brought to you by MarsBased, a high-end development consultancy specializing in Ruby, JavaScript, and Python. If you are a software engineer, you can expect deep dives into tech, but we go far beyond the code. We share our first-hand expertise on remote work, company culture, management, and digital transformation based on our journey building a successful lifestyle business.
Every two weeks, we sit down with the best founders, investors, experts, and celebrities from across the galaxy to hear their stories.
After years of investing heavily in the startup and tech communities in Barcelona and worldwide, we are bringing that same value to you through this channel.
Follow us to join our journey! 🚀
Episodes
113 episodes
100x faster every 6 months: Linus Ekenstam on the future of AI
The tech landscape is shifting under our feet. In this episode of Life on Mars, our CEO Ă€lex RodrĂguez Bacardit sits down with Linus Ekenstam to discuss the 100x era, a world where technology becomes 100x faster and cheaper every 6 to 12 months...
Is your NDA a rookie mistake? Lessons from 12 years in tech - Building MarsBased #7
Signing a non-disclosure agreement just to have an initial coffee or hear a pitch is often the ultimate "tell" that you’re a rookie in this industry. In this episode of Building MarsBased, our CEO Àlex Rodriguez Bacardit breaks dow...
Troy Hunt: 12 years of Have I Been Pwned & the truth about AI scams
We sit down with Troy Hunt, the creator of Have I Been Pwned (HIBP), to discuss the evolution of cybersecurity over the last 12 years. We explore whether AI is truly changing the nature of data breaches, why the banking industry is still stuck ...
Agency Q&A: Recruiting "Champions" and optimizing for answer engines (AEO) Building MarsBased #6
How do you find employees who care as much as the founders? And in an AI-driven world, should you stick to traditional SEO or pivot to Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)?In this episode of Building MarsBased, CEO Alex Rodriguez Bacardit a...
Scaling a remote team: Lessons on trust, productivity, and firing | Building MarsBased #5
In this fifth episode of Building MarsBased, Àlex Rodriguez Bacardit reflects on nearly 12 years of operating as a remote-first company since 2014. Inspired by the 37signals philosophy, MarsBased was designed as a "hard remote" entity to optimi...
Generalist or specialist? Inside our biggest business debate: Building MarsBased #4
In this episode of Building MarsBased, Alex RodrĂguez Bacardit, CEO and founder, discusses the internal debate of whether the company should operate as a generalist vs specialist. This conversation offers key business tips for how to start a bu...
Silicon Valley’s longest-standing CEO: 37 Years leading Micrel
In the volatile world of Silicon Valley, where the average CEO tenure is often less than five years and startups burn out as quickly as they rise, Ray Zinn stands as a monumental exception. For 37 years, Zinn served as the CEO of Micrel, the se...
Working with friends? Building MarsBased #3
There is a recurring piece of advice in the startup world that says you should never mix friendship with business. However, after 12 years of profitability and organic growth at MarsBased, reality has taught us that working with friends is not ...
Road to CTO: From Mafia Wars to Amazon, 35 years of tech leadership wisdom
Welcome to another episode of Road to CTO, our series where we sit down with some of the most experienced and influential technology leaders in the world.In this episode, we talk with Dorion Carroll, a veteran with 35 years of tech lead...
When is the right time to start your company? Building MarsBased #2
When is the right time to start your company?In this second episode of Building MarsBased, we answer a listener’s question that every aspiring founder wrestles with: Should I launch while keeping my day job, or go all in?We unpack t...
How to come up with your first business idea: Building MarsBased
Starting a business begins with one powerful idea, but how do you come up with your first one? In this episode of Building MarsBased, we share the real story behind our company’s early days and how a simple concept evolved into a long-lasting, ...
We finally bring an expert on company culture / Aaron Schmookler
What really makes company culture crack as you scale from 10 to 30+ people? In this candid conversation, Aaron Schmookler (co-founder of The Yes Works) sits down with Ă€lex RodrĂguez Bacardit (CEO, MarsBased) to unpack the patterns they have see...
New series: How to build an agency | Life on Mars
We’re launching a new Life on Mars series: How to Build an Agency, a practical, transparent guide for freelancers, micro-agencies, and growing studios. We’ll cover everything from picking a name and services, getting your first client, contract...
The CEO who made herself “irrelevant” (and scaled to millions ARR) / Laura Urquizu
What does it really take to scale a SaaS from a tiny Barcelona startup to a global leader protecting brands like major clubs and top electronics companies? In this candid conversation, Laura Urquizu (CEO, Red Points) shares hard-won lessons on ...
Halfway through 2025: How MarsBased is evolving, growing, and staying true to its values
In this new episode of Life on Mars, we take you behind the scenes at MarsBased to share how the first half of 2025 has unfolded for us as a team and company.This year has marked the beginning of a new chapter, one shaped by growth, cla...
10 years without shortcuts or investors: the MarsBased keynote reveal
After 10 years building MarsBased as a fully remote, bootstrapped, and values-driven tech company, we’re finally sharing the full story. This keynote, recorded for our 10th anniversary, is a reflection on everything we've learned about building...
When does company culture break? with Greg Scown (TextExpander)
What happens when your company outgrows the culture that once defined it? In this episode of the MarsBased Podcast, Ă€lex RodrĂguez Bacardit sits down with Greg from TextExpander to discuss how growing to 30+ employees forced them to ...
Top 10 podcast moments that shocked, cracked us up, or both!
10 moments. 10 guests. Total unpredictability on Life on Mars.This isn’t your average “best of” episode. it’s a chaotic, hilarious, insightful rollercoaster through the most unforgettable english-language moments from life on mars, the ...
Beyond the AI demo: Turning prototypes into real businesses
Turn your AI demo into a real business. In this episode of Life on Mars, real founders share their experiences, strategies, lessons, and mistakes behind building scalable AI startups and growing products beyond the demo phas...
Road to CTO #1: From economist to coder: why Charles Chase never went back to corporate
In this episode of Road to CTO, we sit down with Charles Chase, a serial entrepreneur and investor, who shares his journey from aspiring accountant to building multiple successful companies, including Velocify. Charles reveals how a pi...
Prompt engineering vs. Spaghetti prompting
Are your ChatGPT prompts messy and inconsistent? You might be falling into the trap of spaghetti prompting, random, unstructured inputs that lead to weak responses.In this episode, we break down the difference between spaghetti promptin...
Quantum computing: The future is closer than you think - Corporate Innovation Summit
Quantum computing is no longer just a futuristic concept, it’s quickly becoming a practical reality. In this must-watch panel discussion, three quantum pioneers dive deep into the real progress being made and what’s coming in the next few years...
Corporate Innovation Summit: How AI is moving from obedience to autonomy
What happens when AI stops just following commands and starts making decisions on its own? At the Corporate Innovation Summit, industry leaders dive into the world of agentic AI—intelligent systems capable of autonomous action. Thi...
How punk rock influences Simone van Neerven's innovation strategy on reBel.la
In this exciting episode of Life on Mars, Alex have a great conversation with Simone van Neerven, founder of reBel.la, to explore how challenging the status quo can drive creativity and change. With a career that began at...
The Future of Agency Work: Navigating AI and Growth Strategies with Szymon Boniecki
Are you ready to explore the dynamics of running a successful consultancy in today’s fast-evolving tech landscape? Join us as we sit down with Szymon Boniecki, co-founder of Monterail, a pioneering Ruby on Rails agency. In this engaging episode...