Scaling DevTools

Sunil Pai, now at Cloudflare after his startup PartyKit's acquisition and a former member of the React core team at Meta, dives into the fascinating world of AI agents. He discusses innovative applications in banking and the tech landscape's challenges, contrasting Cloudflare’s forward-thinking approach with traditional companies. Sunil also shares insights on reducing latency with Cloudflare workers, the impact of business automation, and how durable objects transform real-time app development, paving the way for a new wave of AI-driven tools.

Thomas Paul Mann, co-founder of Raycast, discusses the evolution of their productivity tool designed for developers. He shares insights from their unique Y Combinator journey, particularly how they adapted to challenges during the pandemic. The conversation dives into maintaining quality while rapidly shipping features and how user feedback shapes their development. Mann also explores the exciting integration of AI, highlighting innovative ways it enhances workflow and user interaction, making technology more accessible through voice commands.

Russ D’Sa, founder of LiveKit, shares insights from his journey in building a real-time audio and video tool that powers voice chat for ChatGPT. He discusses the science behind lightning and how it parallels startup challenges. Russ reveals his bold decision to turn down a $20M acquisition offer and explains the ups and downs of partnering with OpenAI. The conversation delves into the intricacies of scaling a startup, navigating streaming tech challenges, and the evolving role of AI in human-computer interaction.

Chris Evans and Pete Hamilton, cofounders of Incident.io, share their insights on creating effective incident management tools. They discuss the role of humor in branding, emphasizing how a light-hearted approach can build camaraderie and improve company culture. The pair also reflect on their initial choice to start on Heroku for quick shipping over perfect scalability. Additionally, they explore the integration of AI in streamlining incidents and the importance of designing tools for users like themselves.

David Cramer, co-founder of Sentry, dives into the world of mergers and acquisitions, arguing that startups often overlook this valuable strategy when facing challenges. He discusses the common pitfalls of ego in entrepreneurship and the importance of hiring talent through acqui-hiring. Cramer emphasizes branding as a pivotal tool for fostering trust and demand, drawing lessons from brands like Liquid Death. He also critiques the unrealistic expectations surrounding startup success and the shifting dynamics of corporate branding in tech.

Ramon, creator of Raylib, joins us to discuss his journey from building an educational tool to establishing one of the most popular open-source game engines. As of February 2025, Raylib is the second most popular open-source game engine behind Godot, boasting 25,000 GitHub stars, 13,000 Discord community members, and over 8,000 subreddit members. Ramon has transitioned from lecturing and consulting to focusing on his paid tools built around Raylib.We discuss:How Raylib started as a teaching project to help art students learn programming through simple and intuitive function naming.The active community behind Raylib and how Ramon personally engages with new members, contributing to the project's growth.Why simplicity and not making assumptions about prior knowledge can create a strong foundation for both beginners and experienced developers.The benefits of using a low-level library like Raylib versus higher-level game engines like Unity, particularly for small indie games.Ramon's approach to managing his workload as a solo developer, emphasizing organization, automation, and using his own tools to build tools.His method of testing new tools by quickly launching them, observing market response, and iterating on the most successful ones.The importance of enjoying the process of building an open-source project rather than focusing solely on commercial success.This episode is brought to you by WorkOS. If you're thinking about selling to enterprise customers, WorkOS can help you add enterprise features like Single Sign On and audit logs. https://workos.com/Links:Raylib (https://www.raylib.com/)Cat and Onion game (https://store.steampowered.com/app/2781210/CAT__ONION/)Raylib GitHub (https://github.com/raysan5/raylib)Raylib Discord (https://discord.gg/raylib)Raylib Subreddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/raylib/)Ramon's Tools (https://raylibtech.com/tools/)

Maxim Fateev and Samar Abbas from Temporal join us to discuss how their durable execution platform ensures processes complete reliably at scale.We discuss:How Temporal gained enterprise adoption with companies like Airbnb, HashiCorp, and Snapchat.Why Temporal compensates salespeople based on customer consumption.Temporal’s role in Snapchat’s story processing and Taco Bell’s Taco Tuesday scalability.How Temporal earns enterprise trust through security, reliability, and scalability.The structure of Temporal’s sales team and their focus on long-term customer success.Exciting trends in AI and low-code/no-code development.This episode is brought to you by WorkOS. If you're thinking about selling to enterprise customers, WorkOS can help you add enterprise features like Single Sign On and audit logs. Links: Temporal Temporal GitHub

Nikita Shamgunov is the founder of Neon, an open-source serverless Postgres company. Before Neon, Nikita co-founded MemSQL, now SingleStore, which is valued at over a billion dollars. He has also worked as a VC at Khosla Ventures and held engineering roles at Meta and Microsoft. Nikita is known for his strategic thinking and transparency about his decision-making process.We discuss:The importance of storytelling and providing a clear narrative for your companyWhen to introduce a sales team and how to build a sales and marketing "machine"Pricing strategies, including pricing for storage and compute in the data and analytics spaceThe evolution of revenue models in DevTools: from selling seats and storage/compute to selling tokensLessons learned from hiring MongoDB’s VP of Engineering, focusing on improving reliability and building strong team management processesThe benefits of using a high-quality recruiting firm and avoiding the pitfalls of bad hiresBalancing competitiveness with respect for competitors to maintain credibility, particularly in the developer tools marketThe idea of “developing your taste” in product development, inspired by Guillermo Rauch from VercelHow modern dev tools can monetize through seats, storage/compute, or tokens, with tokens currently being the most profitableWhy Nikita advises DevTools founders to understand the business model framework and align it with their strategyThis episode is brought to you by WorkOS. If you're thinking about selling to enterprise customers, WorkOS can help you add enterprise features like Single Sign On and audit logs. Links:NeonSingleStore Khosla Ventures Fusion Talent 

David Placek, founder of Lexicon Branding and the creative mind behind names like Vercel and Azure, shares his expertise on naming startups. He discusses common pitfalls when choosing names that simply describe products. Placek emphasizes the psychological impact of sound symbolism and how names can enhance brand perception. He outlines a rigorous naming process and advises early-stage founders to clarify their market goals, ensuring their name reflects a strategic vision. A great name, he argues, is key to standing out and driving success.

Mitchell Hashimoto - famously the founder of HashiCorp (creators of Terraform, Vault etc.) joins the show to discuss his latest open-source project, Ghostty, a modern terminal emulator. We discuss:Designing dev tools with a focus on human experience.Taking on large technical projects and breaking them down into achievable steps.Open source sustainability and the role of financial support.The impossible goal of building a perfect human experience with software.Passion and hiring—why obsession with a topic often leads to the best hires.Using AI as a developer and why Mitchell considers AI tooling essential.The motivation behind Ghostty and the idea of "technical philanthropy."The vision for libghostty as a reusable terminal core for other applications.This episode is brought to you by WorkOS. If you're thinking about selling to enterprise customers, WorkOS can help you add enterprise features like Single Sign On and audit logs. https://workos.com/Links:Ghostty (https://ghostty.org/)Mitchell Hashimoto on Twitter (https://twitter.com/mitchellh)Mitchell’s blog (https://mitchellh.com/)