Your Software Should Be Fantastic. The Artisan of the Day Is Marc Beinder.
Marc Beinder describes his start in Laravel as “late to the game.” He first started using Laravel around version 10.14, only a couple of years ago. Yet in this short period, he has gone from writing procedural PHP to building more robust, well-architected systems and rediscovered the joy of coding.
He works out of St. Louis, Missouri, where he helps lead the PHPxSTL meetup community along with [Skyler Katz](https://x.com/skylerkatz].
On nights and weekends, he builds software, including a content management system designed for churches. He believes that in that space, the options tend to feel disjointed, built “good enough” rather than built for excellence. His goal is to raise the bar: code should be excellent, built with care. “If you’re going to build this software, it should be fantastic.”
How Laravel Changed the Way Marc Builds
Marc was self-taught. He built a podcast hosting application in raw procedural PHP. “What I was able to accomplish with only doing procedural PHP is nothing in comparison to what I’m able to accomplish with Laravel over the last two years.”
After adopting Laravel, he also started using Filament. Among his open source contributions is the Filament Helpers package under his company Encore Digital Group, a library of reusable Filament UI components to avoid rebuilding common elements in multiple resources.
Marc also shares his knowledge with others, whether on his blog or podcast, Rough Cut Developer.
Community, Meetups, and the Drive for Excellence
Marc attended Laracon US in Nashville via livestream before he committed to traveling. A turning point came when he drove 12 hours to Dallas to attend in person. He met Taylor Otwell, shared his enthusiasm for Laravel socks, traded ideas, and got energized by the culture: humble, open, and generous.
Back in St. Louis, Marc co-organizes PHPxSTL. He shares gists, talks through ideas with others, and builds relationships with people in the community. His local work with churches through his CMS has already reached some congregations. For Marc, an excellent product begins with how you write the code. It is about structure, maintainability, and clarity rather than quick hacks. Using modern tools like Laravel and Filament matters to him because they empower that level of craftsmanship: clean architecture and reusable components.
Laravel enabled him to deliver more in less time. He says that without Laravel, many of the features he delivers to clients would not exist.
He does this while balancing his day job (where he writes C#) with personal projects. For his day job, Marc works on studio applications like music and advertisement scheduling, radio automation, and playout for RCS, a division of iHeartMedia. “A large portion of the worldwide broadcast companies (radio and TV) use this software daily,” he says.
What started out as a hobby led to his dream job: “My hobby is building an online radio station. Over the last 10 years, creating that station and writing custom software for it has led me to my dream job.”
Your Story Belongs Here
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