Episode 10. Open-source is like all eyes looking at it, with Cam Saul, Metabase

About this episode

Cam Saul discusses the role of Clojure in Metabase's development and the benefits of open-source collaboration.

Welcome to the 10th episode of our podcast, "Clojure in product. Would you do it again?", where Artem Barmin and Vadym Kostiuk speak with Cam Saul, Chief Architect at Metabase, an open-source business intelligence platform. In his role, Cam wears multiple hats, including reviewing architectural documents, managing developer tasks, and writing custom linters to ensure code quality. We discuss the integral role of Clojure in Metabase's development and how transitioning from Python allowed the team to ship features much faster. Cam also shares insights into the blend of Clojure and JavaScript developers, highlighting the advantages of Clojure's stability, which enables the team to build upon existing work without the frequent changes seen in other programming environments. The open-source foundation of Metabase has fostered a collaborative culture that attracts external contributors, some of whom joined the team after submitting valuable requests. Cam reflects on the journey of hiring Clojure developers, emphasizing the learning opportunities it provides. We conclude with Cam's thoughts on the Clojure community and his response to a question from our previous guest, Alexander…

People in this episode

Hosts: Artem Barmin, Vadym Kostiuk

Guest: Cam Saul

Topics covered

• Clojure
• open-source
• business intelligence
• software development
• collaboration
• developer culture

Keywords

• Clojure
• Metabase
• open-source
• software development
• business intelligence
• developer culture
• Python
• JavaScript
• code quality

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Metabase, Freshcode, JustOn

More episodes of Clojure in Product. Would you do it again?

• Episode 12: It allows a small team to achieve really great goals, with Marcin Maicki, Dentons · January 28, 2026 · 56 min
• Episode 11. Clojure still gives the biggest performance boost, with Jeremiah Via, NYT · November 28, 2025 · 44 min
• Episode 9. You need boundaries to do a meaningful work, with Alexander Johannes, JustOn · February 10, 2025 · 1h 8m
• Episode 8. ClojureScript is a Clojure killer app, with Jereme Corrado, Mobot · February 3, 2025 · 1h 9m
• Episode 7. And until you get to that point, you should be living in pain, right?, with Nathan Marz, Red Planet Labs · January 27, 2025 · 1h 6m
• Episode 6. I truly discovered the enlightenment with Clojure, with Yehonathan, CyCognito · January 20, 2025 · 58 min