Trailblazing

I recently read a discussion on Hacker News about whether people should still choose Ruby on Rails in 2025. It made me reflect on my path as a solo founder building a business on Rails — not just as a personal preference, but as a deliberate competitive advantage.

When I started Keygen, I entered an industry full of enterprise … what I would call "slop" — ugly, slow software, designed by committee. These products were bloated, ruled by companies whose hands were in too many pots, and all of which required endless sales calls just to get access to their terrible docs.

I took a different approach. No sales calls, no scattered focus — just one product, solving one problem well, with a strong focus on DX and good design, both visually and technically.

Rails has made that possible. It lets me ship fast, iterate constantly, and stay focused on product instead of plumbing. A batteries-included framework means I write less boilerplate. Strong third-party support means I don't reinvent wheels I don't have to. Convention-over-configuration means I don't waste time on decisions that don't matter. Ruby means I do all that in less time, with less code.

Speed compounds. If a customer requests a feature and I like it, I build it. If an idea is worth exploring, I try it. If a bug appears, I fix it in minutes, not weeks. That kind of velocity turns you into a trailblazer.

Trailblazers set the pace. Competitors follow. They watch, copy, and react. But copycats don't normally innovate. If they do innovate, I can iterate on top of them faster than they can establish an advantage.

The ability to move quickly determines who leads and who follows. Rails helps me stay ahead. No distractions, no unnecessary complexity. While others get stuck debating architecture or navigating internal bureaucracy bureaucrazy and red-tape, I ship.

Trailblazing is about making deliberate choices that keep you moving, both technically and culturally. The companies that win aren't the ones with the most resources or the largest head count — they're the ones that don't slow down, and the ones that don't die.

Rails gets out of my way and gives me the tools to get things done. I don't have to worry about micro-services, or micro-packages, or whatever else the latest fad is today or tomorrow or next week.

At the end of the day, I trust that Rails will provide what I need, because it's a framework built on the real world — on real problems.

For me, Rails is still the one-person framework.