Startup Tech Stacks: Make Your Product Stand Out & Get Used w/ Joseph Ruscio

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Aug 25, 2025

Joseph Ruscio, a General Partner at Heavybit and former CTO of Librato, shares over 20 years of experience in systems and infrastructure. He discusses how bottom-up adoption often surpasses enterprise sales for tech startups. Joseph emphasizes the role of open source in building trust and securing distribution, along with the risks of being too closely tied to founders' experiences. He also explores how AI is transforming developer workflows, urging founders to be pragmatic in their tech stack choices while maintaining core startup principles.

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INSIGHT

Infrastructure Multiplies Builder Leverage

Infrastructure products give builders leverage by letting them build more with fewer people.
Great infrastructure enables faster creation and better end-user outcomes.

ADVICE

Build For Bottom-Up Adoption

Pursue a bottom-up go-to-market when developers can adopt your product organically.
Use that motion to capture enterprise revenue while farming top-of-funnel growth.

ADVICE

Don't Kill The Grassroots Channel

Protect and keep your product-led motion even after landing big enterprise deals.
Avoid shutting down grassroots adoption when hiring sales to prevent lead loss.

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What makes a great tech infrastructure startup? And how do the best ones successfully navigate, and stand out from, the overcrowded market?

In this episode, Yaniv is joined by Joseph Ruscio, General Partner at Heavybit and former CTO of Vibrato, to unpack the dos and don'ts of tech infrastructure startups, how open source fuels growth, and why AI is changing the way software is built.

With over 20 years in system software and a portfolio including LaunchDarkly, Netlify, and PagerDuty, Joe brings a front-row perspective to the future of startup building. The conversation dives into bottom-up growth, developer adoption, and the open source strategies that give founders leverage—and how AI agents are reshaping the role of the software engineer.

In this episode, you will:

Understand why bottom-up adoption often beats enterprise sales for startup growth
Learn how AWS scaled from startups to Fortune 500s—and what founders can copy
Discover the power of open source as a go-to-market strategy (and its pitfalls)
See why giving away your product can actually accelerate growth and community adoption
Explore how AI is changing developer workflows and the future role of engineers
Identify the risks of being “too close to your own pain” as a technical founder
Apply practical guidelines for choosing your startup’s tech stack without overthinking

DevGuild Open Source: http://heavybit.com/devguild/open-source

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