Scaling DevTools

Hosted by Jack Bridger

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Episodes

198

Latest episode

Aug 2026

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About the show

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.

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60 recent

August 20, 2026Episode 19712 min

Dave Fletcher from LeadDev: what engineering leaders want from AI

In this episode, Dave Fletcher, cofounder of LeadDev, joins us at LDX3 London. Dave shares what LeadDev is seeing from thousands of engineering leaders, including what tools they are buying, how AI coding tools are changing downstream needs, and why observability, CI/CD, testing, reliability, and security are rising up the priority list. We also talk about how DevTools companies should message AI without triggering engineers’ bullshit detectors, why specificity beats hype, and why in-person events are becoming more important as digital channels get crowded. Links: Dave Fletcher’s LinkedIn LeadDev LDX3 London LeadDev events

August 17, 2026Episode 19618 min

Dennis Pilarinos from Unblocked: context for AI coding agents

In this episode, Dennis Pilarinos , founder and CEO of Unblocked , joins us at LeadDev in London. Dennis explains why AI coding agents are only as good as the context they can access, and why every new agent is like a developer on their first day at a company. We talk about organizational context, token savings, MCP, stale documentation, knowledge graphs, permissions, identity across systems, and why the next big infrastructure layer for AI development may be the context layer . Links Dennis Pilarinos on LinkedIn Dennis Pilarinos on X Unblocked Unblocked Blog Context Engineering LeadDev LDX3 London

August 6, 2026Episode 19510 min

Ian Coe from Tonic.ai: synthetic data, AI training, and enterprise fine-tuning

In this episode, Ian Coe , Co-founder and CEO of Tonic.ai , joins us at Heavybit DevGuild . Ian explains how Tonic started by helping developers create safe, realistic data for testing and development, and how that has expanded into AI model training, de-identification, and synthetic datasets for reinforcement learning. We discuss structured vs. unstructured data, healthcare and financial services use cases, Tonic Fabricate , Tonic Textual , fine-tuning, RL environments, and why enterprises are becoming more interested in training models on their own data. Links Ian Coe's LinkedIn Tonic.ai Tonic Fabricate Tonic Textual Tonic Blog Heavybit DevGuild

July 28, 2026Episode 19415 min

AI agents need cheaper sandboxes | Alex Jung from Unikraft (Heavybit DevGuild)

In this episode, Alex Jung, cofounder and CPO of Unikraft, joins us at Heavybit DevGuild. Alex explains how Unikraft went from an academic unikernel project to a cloud platform for running highly efficient workloads. We talk about why unikernels can make applications faster, cheaper, and more secure, how AI agents are driving demand for sandboxed compute, and why the next wave of software generation may require a much more efficient cloud infrastructure layer. Links: • Alex Jung’s LinkedIn • Alex Jung on X • Unikraft • Unikraft on GitHub • Unikraft open source project

July 10, 2026Episode 19348 min

Kim Maida on the DevRel Flywheel, AI, and Measuring What Matters

In this episode, Kim Maida joins the podcast to talk about DevRel, AI, developer experience, and measuring what actually matters. We also dive into her developer empowerment flywheel and how Keycard is approaching identity and access for AI agents. Links: • Kim Maida • Keycard • Kim Maida on LinkedIn • Kim Maida on X

June 24, 2026Episode 19246 min

Robby Russell on Oh My Zsh, Developer Experience, and Open Source

In this episode, Robby Russell joins to talk about how Oh My Zsh went from a tool for a few coworkers to one of the most popular open source developer tools in the world. They cover developer experience, open source maintenance, AI-assisted pull requests, and how AI could reshape software consulting. Links: • Robby Russell • Oh My Zsh • Maintainable podcast • Ruby on Rails Podcast • Planet Argon

June 16, 2026Episode 19153 min

Swyx and Louis Knight-Webb @ AI Engineer Europe: DevTools, code mode, and the future of AI engineering

In this episode, Swyx , founder of AI Engineer , joins us live from AI Engineer Europe in London, alongside Louis Knight-Webb . We cover how AI Engineer grew from a single San Francisco conference into a global community, why industry AI work needs better venues for sharing, and what is changing in AI DevTools, code execution, research, PLG, enterprise sales, and human-written content in the age of AI. Links: • Swyx's LinkedIn • Swyx on X • Louis Knight-Webb's LinkedIn • Louis Knight-Webb on X • AI Engineer • AI Engineer Europe • AI Engineer YouTube • AI Engineer on X

June 10, 2026Episode 19041 min

Acquiring a startup: what to do AFTER the deal closes - with Dan Moore from FusionAuth

In this episode, Dan Moore from FusionAuth breaks down how the company integrated Permify after the acquisition. We talk about customer communication, pricing and packaging, migration planning, internal enablement, and the practical work that turns an acquisition into a successful product integration. Links: • FusionAuth • Permify • Dan Moore on Bluesky

May 28, 2026Episode 18944 min

Joel Griffith from browserless: from GitHub issue to bootstrapped business

In this episode, Joel Griffith, founder of browserless, shares how he built browserless from a painful browser automation problem into a profitable, bootstrapped DevTools company. We cover the first customer, content-led growth, selling to developers, and the realities of building a durable software business. Links: • Joel's LinkedIn • browserless • Browserless' YouTube • Browserless' blog • Browserless' Linkedin

May 27, 2026Episode 18816 min

Cloudflare devs @ AI Engineers Europe (Sunil Pai, Matt Carey & Thomas Ankcorn)

In this episode, some of Cloudflare's dev team - Sunil Pai, Matt Carey, and Thomas Ankcorn join us from AI Engineers Europe to discuss code mode, radical simplicity and Pi. Links: - Cloudflare - Sunil Pai - Matt Carey - Thomas Ankcorn