E202: How the Largest MLOps Community Was Built

In our latest episode, co-hosts Robby and Tim talk with Demetrios Brinkmann, founder of the MLOps Community, the leading community for MLOps with over 90K developers in it today. He's also a Member of the Non-Technical Staff at the Agentic AI Foundation which is an open foundation advancing adoption of leading open source AI projects.

This episode explores what it really takes to build a thriving community in a world where social media no longer provides the fast, meaningful feedback it once did. Drawing on lessons from growing the MLOps Community to tens of thousands of members, the conversation breaks down the difference between an audience and a true community, why consistency matters more than explosive growth, and why community-building is a marathon (not a sprint).

The episode also covers the role of content, events, personal connections, and storytelling; why community shouldn’t be treated as another marketing channel; and why fostering community needs to be a company-wide effort rather than the responsibility of one community hire. Plus, it touches on the rapid growth of AI and agent communities, including MCP, and what founders can learn from them.