Scaling DevTools 01 Sep 2024 One of the things I get asked a lot is "How do open source projects make money"? And 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 Open Source companies. Vlad and I How do Open Source companies make money? Here are the main ways I've seen: SaaS/cloud - like any other SaaS, they sell a hosted version of their software. Within this there might be parts of the product...
3 months ago • 4 min read
Scaling DevTools 21 Jan 2024 This is my first newsletter for a while, hello! I just interviewed DevCycle - they made a huge pivot even though they had a big set of customers. What I admire most about them is that they are doing fewer things but doing them well. Also, I've released a new tools directory (more details below). The DevCycle pivot For most founders, landing Fortune 500 customers like GrubHub, Warby Parker & RBC Royal Bank is the definition of success. Imagine then, telling these...
10 months ago • 2 min read
Josh Twist - the founder of Zuplo, an API Management tool aiming to give you a Stripe-like API experience out-the-box. The API Management tools space is pretty interesting, so this week we're covering the industry and Zuplo's place within it - pulling from Josh's appearance on Scaling DevTools. API Management is growing rapidly Valued at $2.1 billion in 2021 and projected to reach $41.5 billion by 2031 according to Allied Market Research. Note that Banking, Financial Services and Insurance is...
over 1 year ago • 4 min read
Josh Twist - the founder of Zuplo, an API Management tool aiming to give you a Stripe-like API experience out-the-box. The API Management tools space is pretty interesting, so this week we're covering the industry and Zuplo's place within it - pulling from Josh's appearance on Scaling DevTools. API Management is growing rapidly Valued at $2.1 billion in 2021 and projected to reach $41.5 billion by 2031 according to Allied Market Research. Note that Banking, Financial Services and Insurance is...
over 1 year ago • 4 min read
Scaling DevTools Feb 4th, 2023 Consensus kills, busy work kills, flip-flopping kills Last year I set a goal to "build non-time-dependent product & hit $5k MRR" I finished on $0 MRR. To call it a f**k up would be far too generous. A f**k up requires you to actually leave the starting blocks. But in 2023, I promise things will be different. In the past month I've changed a lot of things and I want to share. My goal this year is to build a DevTool with MRR and I want to share what I've learned...
almost 2 years ago • 5 min read
In the last edition, I promised you Developer Marketing lessons from my trip to Japan - you'll find this at the end. We also have: An update on a DevTool launch and some thoughts on validation Takeaways from four Scaling DevTools episodes, including Ramiro from Supabase! Summaries of two great talks I watched this month from swyx and Phil Leggetter. Validating my DevTool idea I am working on validating a DevTool idea for a problem I encountered in my last job as a mobile developer. The...
almost 2 years ago • 5 min read
This will be a shorter email as I'm packing for a holiday! This month, I learned from Sean that developer tools are always doing developer relations. Even if there is no DevRel team yet. I also learned from Zivit that it takes effort and intent to understand the language developers use to describe their problems. And finally from Colin, I got an insight into a market I thought was very mature (auth) but actually still has a long, long way to go. Sean Falconer - Head of Developer Relations &...
about 2 years ago • 3 min read
This month we had a very interesting set of guests on Scaling DevTools. I personally learned a lot. For instance, I don't spend nearly enough time on content distribution. I'm correcting this. Warning - this email is longer than previous editions James Hawkins - CEO & Co-founder of PostHog PostHog is kind of like open source mixpanel. I first heard James speak on Open Source Startups podcast so wanted to chat. Their blog is great and I've previously shared their Hacker News pre- mortem post....
about 2 years ago • 4 min read
This week I put together a list of five creative marketing campaigns. Of the five examples, GitLab got the most interest from readers - I think because it isn't really marketing. GitLab operate from an open company handbook that spills almost every secret on how they operate. It's a very convincing way to share that GitLab cares a great deal about openness - a pretty useful message to developers. Five creative marketing examples Atom 1.0 from GitHub launch video - the dollar shave club video...
about 2 years ago • 2 min read
