Elixir Wizards is an interview-format podcast, focused on engineers who use the Elixir programming language. Initially launched in early 2019, each season focuses on a specific topic or topics, with each interview focusing on the guest's experience and opinions on the topic. Elixir Wizards is hosted by Eric Oestrich and Sundi Myint of SmartLogic, a dev shop that’s been building custom software since 2005 and running Elixir applications in production since 2015. Learn more about how SmartLogic uses Phoenix and Elixir. (https://smartlogic.io/phoenix-and-elixir?utm_source=podcast)
Creating the Castmagic AI-Powered Content Workflow Platform with Justin Tormey
Justin Tormey, co-founder of Castmagic, joins the Elixir Wizards to discuss building an AI-powered content creation app. Castmagic repurposes audio and video into social media posts, blog articles, newsletters, and more. The tech stack leverages OpenAI and Anthropic LLMs with Elixir as the coordination layer and Phoenix LiveView powering the front end.
Justin dives into the technical details of Castmagic, including the integration of JavaScript libraries like ProseMirror and TipTap through LiveSvelte, as well as enabling real-time collaboration with CRDTs and YDoc. He shares the benefits and challenges of using Elixir for rapid development, as well as the trade-offs between custom code and off-the-shelf solutions.
The conversation also covers Justin’s entrepreneurial journey, highlighting the advantages of bootstrapping over venture capital, the importance of acquiring early customers, and creative marketing strategies like affiliate programs and software marketplaces.
Whether you're an Elixirist exploring machine learning or an aspiring tech founder, tune in to learn more about AI with Elixir, navigating startup challenges, and turning ideas into impactful software.
Topics discussed in this episode:
- Building Castmagic to generate content from audio and video for creators
- Using AI services like OpenAI and Anthropic for transcription and workflows
- Elixir as the coordination layer for complex processes
- Rapid UI development with Phoenix LiveView
- Integrating rich text editing libraries through LiveSvelte
- Enabling collaborative editing with CRDTs and YDoc
- Balancing offline functionality with cloud-based AI tools
- Challenges of working with external AI services
- Exploring the future of multimodal AI in product development
- Bootstrapping vs. venture capital: benefits and challenges
- Strategies for finding distribution channels and early adopters
- Creative approaches to marketing, including affiliates and marketplaces
- Balancing engineering efforts with customer and business needs
- Practical advice for navigating the early stages of a startup
Links mentioned:
https://www.castmagic.io/
https://pragprog.com/titles/jaerlang2/programming-erlang-2nd-edition/
https://www.blockchain.com/
https://fly.io/
https://hexdocs.pm/live_svelte/readme.html
https://github.com/woutdp/live_svelte
https://prosemirror.net/
https://tiptap.dev/
https://docs.yjs.dev/api/y.doc
https://hexdocs.pm/polymorphic_embed/readme.html
https://github.com/elixir-nx/nx
https://github.com/elixir-nx/tokenizers
https://github.com/thmsmlr/instructor_ex
https://openai.com/
https://www.anthropic.com/
https://getoban.pro/
https://github.com/wojtekmach/req
https://ollama.com/
https://x.com/j_tormey
Special Guest: Justin Tormey.