[MUSIC PLAYING]
DOUG STEVENSON: Hey.
Welcome back.
We're here with Michael Bleigh from the Firebase team.
We're picking up the second half of his interview right now.
Michael, how did you end up on the Firebase team?
MICHAEL BLEIGH: Back in 2012, I actually
founded a startup called Divshot.
And I had been working in sort of the open source
world for a while and trying to build things for developers.
And I wanted to see if I could do more there.
So the first thing we built was sort of a drag and drop tool
for building bootstrap HTML.
Unlike other WYSIWYG tools, the idea
was this would export sort of clean, usable HTML.
And as we were building that out,
we were looking for a place to host the static content--
so just the HTML, JavaScript, and CSS--
that would talk to the various APIs that we used.
And there wasn't really anything there.
So we kind of pivoted the company
towards static hosting for developers,
which as it turns out was very similar to Firebase hosting.
And so the opportunity sort of came along for me
to join the Firebase team with Divshot,
merge the two products together, and make
something more ambitious.
Because Firebase obviously isn't just hosting.
It's this entire development platform.
And so I've been working in the developer tool
space for a long time.
And it's just been really exciting
seeing how everything has developed.
DOUG STEVENSON: I was in a similar situation.
So I was at a startup called Pulse.io,
and we were making mobile application performance
monitoring tools.
And then my startup--
I didn't cofound it, but my startup was acquired.
And that became what is known today as Firebase Performance
Monitoring.
So we had actually very similar paths into the Firebase world.
So it's a pleasure to have someone
who's shared that sort of developer
focused prior product experience.
MICHAEL BLEIGH: Very cool.
DOUG STEVENSON: So, Michael, what are
you watching on TV these days?
MICHAEL BLEIGH: I mean I watch a lot of stuff.
I'm really pumped for the new season of "Westworld."
DOUG STEVENSON: Yeah.
I watched "Westworld."
Loved it.
I heard they're doing something different this year.
It's not just "Westworld," but they're adding
another new world or something.
Is that--?
MICHAEL BLEIGH: Yeah.
I don't know.
I mean lots of myst--
I think that they can't say too much,
or they're giving away the mystery.
DOUG STEVENSON: Yeah.
MICHAEL BLEIGH: It's real interesting
because the first season is just sort
of this really encapsulated, meticulously crafted thing.
And then it's going to be really interesting to see
where they take it from here.
DOUG STEVENSON: And it is itself kind of a game, right?
I mean one of the characters treats it
like a-- not like an escape room type game.
But it has game-ish qualities to it.
MICHAEL BLEIGH: Yeah, definitely.
DOUG STEVENSON: The other thing about that
show is it also kind of puts a spotlight on what
happens when you have really sophisticated AI.
There's always that, what's going to happen
with very sophisticated AI?
Are the robots going to take over?
They're going to think for themselves.
I think it touches on that just a little bit.
MICHAEL BLEIGH: Yeah.
DOUG STEVENSON: Now I remember you tweeted
about "Halt and Catch Fire."
MICHAEL BLEIGH: Yeah.
That's a great show too.
DOUG STEVENSON: I love that.
And I think it really captured the spirit of computing
in the '80s.
MICHAEL BLEIGH: Yeah.
That show, I think-- for one thing,
I was really surprised it just got better
from season to season, which doesn't always happen with TV.
One of the things that I thought rang really true
about it is the way that, even though this
is set over a period of decades, these people sort of keep
looping back and running into each other.
And I've found that to really be true in my career.
It's sort of you meet certain people.
And you really click with them, or you
do something that is important to you together.
And then those people are there throughout your career.
There are people who work at Google
who also worked at Intridea, the first job
that I got just out of college.
And it's just weird how everything sort of converges.
And it feels like a very small world.
DOUG STEVENSON: Yeah.
I've noticed that.
Some of my prior colleagues would look me up on Google
and say, hey.
You remember me?
And I'm like, of course I do.
Welcome to Google.
It is kind of a small world.
And a lot does converge here, I think.
How did you end up getting into computers?
I'm very curious.
MICHAEL BLEIGH: I mean I've been fascinated
by them my whole life.
My parents tell me--
I don't remember.
But I was two years old, and climbing up onto the desk,
and trying to put floppy disks into an IBM XT.
Like a lot of kids, I got super into video games.
And how do they work?
How can you make them?
And over time, I started picking up programming from that.
I wanted to really be able to do a lot just by myself.
And that's sort of how I got into the web
and programming for the web.
Because I felt like one person could do so much.
DOUG STEVENSON: Well, that's kind of similar to how
I picked up computing, although I don't think I was two.
There were no floppy disks when I was two.
But there were certainly floppy disks when I was six or seven.
And yeah, I played around with Apple II computers
at school and at the library.
MICHAEL BLEIGH: "Oregon Trail?"
DOUG STEVENSON: Yes.
I've watched interviews by the people
who created it, talking about their story of creating it.
And I just found that fascinating.
MICHAEL BLEIGH: Yeah.
DOUG STEVENSON: Love that game.
Well, Michael, thanks so much for being on the show.
MICHAEL BLEIGH: Yeah.
My pleasure.
DOUG STEVENSON: It was a pleasure
to finally meet you and talk about video games and TV
and stuff.
And thank you for tuning in.
Hope you enjoyed this interview.
Be sure to subscribe right here to the Firebase channel
on YouTube to get more great video content like this.
I'll see you next time.
SPEAKER 1: [INAUDIBLE]
DOUG STEVENSON: Is my code safe?
It's a yes or no question, Michael.
Yes or no?
MICHAEL BLEIGH: Look, man, I told you
I wasn't going to answer this question.
DOUG STEVENSON: Just a yes or a no.
That's all I want.
That actually gets asked.