For Daniel Petrica, Laravel was the missing piece that made programming feel natural. His career began inside a company that used a custom PHP framework, something that never aligned with how he thought about software.
When he discovered Laravel, everything clicked. The syntax made sense, the structure felt intuitive, and development became something to enjoy rather than endure.
Laravel as a Career Anchor
Daniel’s professional path evolved across companies and sectors, but Laravel remained his foundation. “While I've switched jobs, Laravel has always been the key, allowing me to improve the ecosystem of the teams I've worked in.”
He used the framework to ship products across varied industries, from tax portals to real estate platforms, proving that Laravel adapts well to complex business contexts.
Building SaaS and Tools for Developers
Daniel is now working on coz.jp, a link shortener SaaS built entirely with Laravel. Alongside this, he developed, LaraPlugins.io, a portal dedicated to helping developers discover plugins with more visibility and insight into the plugin health. His goal is to create something useful for others rather than keep solutions buried in private repos.
To build the website, he ran a questionnaire among fellow Laravel developers, collecting nearly 200 responses about Laravel plugins. His goal is to create something useful for others rather than keep solutions buried in private repos.
Open Source and Knowledge Sharing
Giving back is a theme that runs through Daniel’s work. “Open source and giving back have always been something close to my heart. In the past, when using a library for my job and finding bugs in it, I always pushed my edits back to the source so others could use it, and I am proud to have helped others,” he says.
He also shares technical experiments through articles, including setups with Traefik, FrankenPHP, and Docker Compose. These write-ups reflect his desire to document, teach, and help others navigate the tools he has learned to master.
Freelance With a Full Stack Perspective
Years with Laravel shaped Daniel beyond backend techniques. He expanded into DevOps, monitoring, frontend tooling, and now brings this broad skill set to freelance clients. The combination of practical project experience and curiosity-driven learning makes his work grounded and adaptable.
Laravel was Daniel’s professional turning point. It continues to be the framework through which he builds, experiments, and contributes to the community he learned from.
Your Story Belongs Here
You don't need to have a course, a talk, or a big launch. If Laravel has been part of your journey (a pivot, a side project, a moment of growth), we'd love to hear about it!
Answer Taylor's questions at laravel.com/stories.
We're always looking to feature developers from every corner of the community. Beginners, builders, behind-the-scenes folks. If Laravel helped you do something you're proud of, that's a story worth telling.