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I interviewed 100 DevTools founders and this is what I learned

I interviewed 100 DevTools founders and this is what I learned.

How do Open Source companies make money?

One of the things I get asked a lot is "How do open source projects make money"? This week I chatted with Vlad Matsiiako from Infisical - an open source secrets management tool. So I decided to delve into the how's and why's of

How to be a (good) podcast guest

I host a small podcast that has had 70+ guests so far. This is my guide on how to 1) be on podcasts as a guest and 2) be a good guest (from a host’s perspective). One thing before I start: this is not a discussion of whether you

Who Dares Wins

At 8 years old I remember reading the SAS motto “Who Dares Wins” on the wall of my Scout hut. Almost 24 years later, I’m finally beginning to understand its significance. Fear rules my life. My achievements come from overcoming fear. My inadequacies come from avoiding scary things. Who

OpenAI want to build the best developer product ever

Logan Kilpatrick is a member of OpenAI’s developer advocacy team. Logan has sometimes been described as OpenAI’s first DevRel. This is a summary of Logan's interview on Scaling DevTools What growth challenges do you have when OpenAI already has so much attention? It’s a great

Pivoting after 10 years with DevCycle

For most founders, landing Fortune 500 customers like GrubHub, Warby Parker & RBC Royal Bank is the definition of success. Imagine then, telling these customers that you're deprecating your successful product to focus on something new. But that's exactly what Jonathan did - deprecating Taplytics and

Be the firebase of AI

Traditional software engineers are now building AI applications. But the tools used for building CRUD apps may not work for reasons such as: * GPUs for training/inference * Libraries can be BIG * Long-running, intensive jobs (e.g. processing files with ffmpeg) I recently interviewed Erik from Modal Labs. They provide tools

Notes from Radiating Circles of DevX by swyx

This talk from Shawn Wang (aka swyx) provides mental models on how to think about Developer Experience. I'm writing non-exhaustive notes for this talk so I can remember some of my favourite ideas but I recommend starting with the original. You can also find Shawn's slides

The AAARRRP DevRel framework with Phil Leggetter

I enjoyed this talk, where Phil Leggetter shares a framework for a DevRel funnel. Below are some summarised notes of what I took from this talk. Base funnel * Acquisition - signs up * Activation - using your product, e.g. first API call * Retention - continues to use product * Referral -

Code as Marketing: an OpenAI experiment

Here's how some code led to 60+ GitHub stars, 30+ retweets and 150 likes in 24 hours. I love Awesome lists like Awesome Python, Awesome iOS and Awesome Swift. And I'm not alone. Awesome iOS has more than 40k GitHub stars. With my friend Nick, I

Reflecting on 20 podcast episodes

It was an unremarkable April evening as I jogged through a nondescript suburban neighbourhood. I was lost in thought. Nodding along to HAIM’s Women in Music Pt. III album. The only sound to be heard was my pounding feet and the muffled sounds of the Californian sisters emanating from

In developer marketing, start with what

Nimrod Kramer, CEO of Daily.dev, was recently interviewed on the Scaling DevTools podcast. In the interview, Nimrod shares his insights on developer marketing, and how Daily.dev has scaled quickly to over 150,000 users. Start with what Nimrod emphasises the importance of 'starting with what' in

Why Wait for Success?

Overnight success is rare. Quite rare. Many variables must line up to become successful. It usually takes longer to gain traction with customers than anyone would like. Let's look at what may delay your DevTool success. We’ll also touch on Michael Christofides’ story. Christofides is a developer

Five creative examples of DevTool marketing

Below are five of my favourite examples of developer-focused companies creatively marketing to developers. Atom 1.0 from GitHub This video from GitHub might just be the Dollar Shave Club of the developer world and kicked off the Atom code editor in a big way. It's a hilarious