
Scaling DevTools
We investigate what it takes to grow developer tools and AI DevTools.
Jack Bridger · Scaling DevTools
Show overview
Scaling DevTools has been publishing since 2022, and across the 4 years since has built a catalogue of 193 episodes, alongside 1 trailer or bonus episode. That works out to roughly 120 hours of audio in total. Releases follow a weekly cadence.
Episodes typically run thirty-five to sixty minutes — most land between 27 min and 46 min — though episode length varies meaningfully from one episode to the next. None of the episodes are flagged explicit by the publisher. It is catalogued as a EN-language Business show.
The show is actively publishing — the most recent episode landed 1 months ago, with 23 episodes already out so far this year.
From the publisher
We investigate what it takes to grow developer tools and AI DevTools. Topics include developer marketing, DevRel, developer advocacy and developer experience. Featuring founders and key people from the likes of Vercel, ElevenLabs and OpenAI. Scaling DevTools is sponsored by WorkOS.
Latest Episodes
View all 193 episodesRobby Russell on Oh My Zsh, Developer Experience, and Open Source
Swyx and Louis Knight-Webb @ AI Engineer Europe: DevTools, code mode, and the future of AI engineering
Acquiring a startup: what to do AFTER the deal closes - with Dan Moore from FusionAuth
Joel Griffith from browserless: from GitHub issue to bootstrapped business
Cloudflare devs @ AI Engineers Europe (Sunil Pai, Matt Carey & Thomas Ankcorn)
Making AI multiplayer with Maggie Appleton from GitHub Next @ AIE Europe
AI broke traditional infra - with Kyle from Depot.dev @ AIE Europe
Nick and Zack from WorkOS @ AIE: building real-world AI tools & running conference workshops
What’s Working in DevTools Marketing Right Now? with Karl Hughes from Draft.dev
Charity Majors on AI, Observability, and the Future of Software
Jakub Czakon - founder of Developer Markepear and former CMO of Neptune.ai (acquired by OpenAI)
Matt Aitken from Trigger.dev @ AIE
Lawrence Jones from Incident.io @ AIE Europe: building an AI SRE
Ep 179Finding your first 10 customers, with Andy Lee from DeepTrace
Andy is the cofounder of DeepTrace, an AI reliability platform that helps engineering teams investigate incidents and fix problems in production. In this conversation, Andy shares how a team of technical founders learned sales, got their first 10 customers, and approached go-to-market with the same mindset they used for engineering. We discuss outbound volume, messaging, targeting, sales tooling, paid ads, sales calls, pricing, trials, and the thinking behind DeepTraceLinks:Andy's LinkedinDeeptrace
Ep 178DatoCMS: bootstrapping to €6.5M ARR
Stefano Verna and Matteo Giaccone from DatoCMS share how their side project in a web agency turned into a €6.5M ARR company with a 13-person remote team. We talk about building sustainable, bootstrapped businesses, instead of the all-or-nothing VC approach, and about their 6-week shipping cycles, prioritizing simplicity, and building trust with customers.Links: •. Dato CMS •. Matteo's Linkedin •. Stefano's X
Ep 177Ahmad Sadeddin, founder of Corgea: you don't need to raise (much) to find PMF
Ahmad Sadeddin is the founder and CEO of Corgea. Corgea provides the security tools to find, triage, and fix insecure code. Ahmad shares:- Why you don't need to raise much to find PMF - stay lean: you should surprise people with how few people you are.- What is a small amount to raise? And what team size do you need? - Pivoting during YC and how Corgea found their first customers and the signs of Product Market Fit- The journey to Product Market Fit never stops- How Corgea worked towards Product Market FitThis 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:Ahmad Sadeddin https://www.linkedin.com/in/asadeddin/Corgea https://corgea.com/The Fatal Pinch by Paul Graham https://paulgraham.com/pinch.html
Ep 176Retool founder David Hsu: AI, future of DevTools & how Retool got their first customers
David Hsu is the founder of Retool, the low-code platform for building internal tools used by companies like Amazon, Airbnb, and the US Army. David recounts building Retool's first version in weeks with just three components, early outreach failures, shifting to "tomorrow's developers," and LLM use cases.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: • Retool • David's Linkedin
Ep 175Louis from Vibe Kanban - 20,000 GitHub stars and walking away from 6-figure deals
Louis Knight-Webb is the co-founder of Vibe Kanban, an open-source tool for orchestrating AI coding agents. After years of building for enterprise legacy code, Louis pivoted and saw his new project explode to over 20,000 GitHub stars in just a few months. We talk about the "startup university" of the last five years, why he walked away from 6-figure enterprise deals to find true founder-market fit, and why he thinks most people are wrong about AI-generated pull requests.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: • Vibe Kanban • Louis' Linkedin
Ep 174The Roadmap to PMF (Jason Cohen's essay)
This episode breaks down an article by Jason Cohen, founder of WP Engine and SmartBear, outlining his step-by-step roadmap from idea to product-market fit (PMF) for startups, especially DevTools. His 8 step roadmap provides insights on personal fit, market validation, customer interviews, building an SLC (simple, lovable, complete) MVP, sales focus, retention, prioritization, and founder psychology, drawing from Cohen's unicorn success and pitfalls to avoid.Links: • Jason Cohen • WP Engine • Smart Bear • Jason Cohen's articleThis 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.
Ep 173Product Market Fit - the only thing that matters
This episode breaks down Marc Andreessen's 2007 article on why market matters most in startups, plus some great wisdom from Michael Seibel on spotting real PMF through explosive growth and customer pull.Links: • Marc Andreessen's article • Michael Seibel's post • Product Market Fit collapseThis 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.