I created Laravel to build web applications faster, not with the intention of making it a popular open-source framework.

When I first released Laravel, I was very involved in community forums, answering questions and asking for feedback on new features to create a welcoming environment.

I launched Laravel Forge in 2014, and within a month, it was making more money than my regular job, leading me to work on Laravel full-time.

Our core mission remains to build awesome developer tools and nurture a great community through events like Laracon and Laravel meetups.

I ran Airbnb like a hardware startup, focusing on efficiency and discipline. This approach has proven beneficial for software development, as it encourages thoughtful decision-making and accountability.

The expectations for developer tools have risen significantly since 2011, and if we wanted to take Laravel to the next level, it required ambitious projects and a larger team.

For the first three years, I made no money on Laravel; it was completely open source.

Working at a small startup helped me discover my passion for software, as I found it rewarding to build something that could change how people work.

The underdog mentality in web development motivated me to prove that PHP could be a great way to build applications quickly.