What is rails?

If you're looking for Ruby folks, go where they go - local meetups. Second would be online but you will need to mine Stackoverflow, Github and similar sites and realize that they get approached regularly so start engaging early (at least 3 months before projected start date.)

Books. http://www.sandimetz.com/products

At this stage there are lots of decent web tutorials but I find Ryan Bates Railscasts some of the best for learning the technology. However if you want to just become better at Ruby and Javascript there is no substitute for good books. I've just been reading Avdi Grimm's Confident Ruby and I think it's an amazing book for showcasing good use of Ruby and patterns of Ruby code and API design. I wish I had suggestions for Javascript that were equally good, but I honestly have not read much in the Javascript space. I'd also suggest listening to some podcasts like Ruby Rogues and Javascript Jabber where they often review books and concepts that you can then go read. The Ruby Rogues mailing list is also a good place to discuss Ruby issues. For tutoring I can just suggest joining a solid experienced team as a junior developer and learning from them.

Hosting: Heroku: Great for small applications and getting off the ground as fast as possible. It's easy to manage and your team can focus on features instead of worrying about maintaining operations. Cloud (AWS, Rackspace, Azure): Great if you're expecting growth. You can start up instances easily and shut others down if you don't need them anymore. You still need to manage your servers, but as you grow to several servers, it'll be worth it. Inhouse: If you don't expect growth, or you have enough money to hire a few people to take care of the equipment, this is the cheapest option for computing power. I wouldn't recommend it for a new company since it takes so much maintenance. Deployment: This depends on which environment you work on. Ruby has Capistrano, Python has fabric, etc. Heroku also has their own deployment method and some other cloud providers also do. A quick google search will most likely lead you to the most popular method for your technology. Chat: My favourite is Hipchat (http://hipchat.com/). There's also Campfire (https://campfirenow.com/) and several other providers. Hipchat has a native client for each platform (even mobile) that gets really handy. Error monitoring: This is also a field with many competitors. My favourite by far would be Sentry (http://getsentry.com). There's also Airbrake (http://airbrake.io/) and HoneyBadger (https://www.honeybadger.io/). System Monitoring: This depends on what you want to monitor. The most popular in the ruby world is NewRelic (http://newrelic.com/). It monitors application and database performance. If you just want to monitor your server (cpu, memory, uptime), you can try out Server Density (http://www.serverdensity.com/).

This list of gadgets that many full stack Ruby developers find useful in their work: 1) A mechanical keyboard offers a satisfying typing experience and can reduce strain during long coding sessions 2)Noise-canceling headphones or high-quality earphones help developers focus and block out distractions in noisy environments 3)An ergonomic mouse or trackball can provide comfort and prevent repetitive strain injuries 4)A portable hard drive or SSD is useful for backups, storing project files, and transferring data between different machines. Remember, the gadgets you find most useful may depend on your personal preferences and work style.