#9 - Dax Raad: Local-First SaaS

The guest of this episode is Dax Raad, who is using local-first in multiple projects including the serverless deployment tool SST.dev, a healthcare app and an upcoming personal finance app. This conversation will explore how local-first simplifies app development, the UX and data patterns he used on and how self-hosting could empower local-first apps.
00:00 Intro
02:12 Local-first motivation and projects overview
11:28 A slower initial page load is worth it
18:19 Local-first makes app development simpler
23:45 Local-first data patterns
34:39 Self hosting
48:50 Updating a local-first app
52:25 New challenges with local-first
57:46 Advice for builders
01:02:14 Outro
Mentioned in podcast
Dax Raad: x.com/thdxr + thdxr.com
SST.dev: sst.dev
Rethinking the startup MVP: Building a competitive product: linear.app/blog/rethinking-th...
Links:
Website: localfirst.fm
X/Twitter: x.com/localfirstfm
Local-First Conf 2024: www.localfirstconf.com
Thank you to expo.dev/ and crabnebula.dev/ for supporting the podcast

[@wesleycoder]

I'm glad I live in the same timeline as guys like you both, y'all rock, thank you so much for the knowledge shared! ❤

[@havokgames8297]

Great podcast. Have followed Dax for a while, but first time seeing the host. The host really knows his stuff and he held the interview very well. Exciting topic too!

[@localfirstfm]

Thank you very much!

[@BenMargolius]

Man I really found this fascinating. I'm someone who cares about the little things, like as soon as I tried Linear for the first time, I was in love, but also slightly confused as to why I was so passionate about a Task tracking app 😅😂Really helps to have these ideas that lived unrealized in the back of my head, put into words. Wonderful job by both of you! This is especially pertinent because I'm building a project tracking web app for work, that sort of has a lot of overlap in terms of structure of the "patient tracking app" that Dax was talking about. Really gonna have to put some time into what optimizations we can make to start transitioning to some local first. I feel like a free "easy win" is optimistic updates since those are way easier to implement, vs an entire caching solution.

[@additionaddict5524]

Raad & Schickling sounds like a surfboard shop. Totally raaaad dude did you see my schickling on the half pipe?

[@scpresearcherssite1054]

Dax wife and the terminals. Was my first thought when the video was recommended