José Valim on feeding desire to learn, healthy Elixir ecosystem and the future of AI tooling
José Valim, creator of Elixir and founder of Dashbit, shares how he built one of the most loved programming languages by following curiosity over market trends.Key insights for devtool founders:- Build for yourself first - José's "selfish" approach of creating tools he actually wants to use led to authentic adoption and marketing. When you can explain genuine technical trade-offs instead of chasing trends, developers listen.- Decentralize early - Without Google/Apple-level resources, Elixir succeeded by empowering the community to own different domains (web, ML, embedded) rather than centralizing control.- Make pivotal technical bets - Targeting the battle-tested Erlang VM and enabling the Phoenix framework were key architectural decisions that paid off long-term.- Marketing = explaining trade-offs - Skip the sales pitch. Show developers exactly what they get and what they give up. José's rule: "If all we have is opinions, I prefer mine."- Enable ecosystem growth - Dashbit's consulting reveals adoption friction points, which feed back into language improvements and new open-source projects.Current focus: José is building Tidewave, exploring higher-level AI development tools that understand web frameworks, not just code.Companies using Elixir: Discord, Remote, Supabase, Fly.io, Apple, Toyota, BBC, PepsiCo, MozillaEvil Martians is the go-to agency for early-stage developer tools startups: https://evilmartians.com/devtoolsLinks:- Elixir: https://elixir-lang.org/- Tidewave: https://tidewave.ai/- Livebook: https://livebook.dev/- José Valim on X: https://x.com/josevalim- Evil Martians on X: https://x.com/evilmartians- Victoria Melnikova on X: https://x.com/vmelnikova_en
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Adam Wenchel, CEO at Arthur AI, on building AI guardrails, the last mile problem, and coaching code bots
Adam Wenchel has been building AI infrastructure since before it was cool. As CEO and co-founder of Arthur AI, he's spent six years solving the "last mile problem" - getting AI from impressive demos to reliable production systems. In this conversation, we dive deep into why Adam open sources million-dollar tools, how his enterprise experience at Capital One shaped his approach to developer empathy, and his provocative prediction that we'll soon need fewer developers but better "code bot coaches."What we cover:- Why the gap between 90% demo accuracy and 99% production reliability is make-or-break for AI adoption- The strategic decision to open source Arthur Shield and Bench instead of keeping them proprietary- How working inside a 50,000-person company taught him to build better developer tools- Whether AI will eliminate junior developers (and why the answer isn't what you think)- The future of software development: from 50-person teams to 5 expert coaches- What makes the perfect developer tool (hint: simplicity + a sprinkle of cleverness)Adam's journey from acquiring a 5-person startup to Capital One to building Arthur offers rare insights into both enterprise AI deployment and the evolving landscape of developer productivity. If you're building AI tools, selling to enterprises, or wondering how to future-proof your development career, this conversation is packed with actionable wisdom.Links:- Website: https://www.arthur.ai/- GitHub: https://github.com/arthur-ai/arthur-engine- Adam Wenchel on X: https://x.com/apwenchel- Evil Martians on X: https://x.com/evilmartians- Victoria Melnikova on X: https://x.com/vmelnikova_en
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Sam Bhagwat on Gatsby and Mastra, YC and tapping into your inner child
In this episode of Dev Propulsion Labs, we sit down with Sam Bhagwat, the dev tools visionary who co-founded Gatsby and is now transforming AI development with Mastra - the TypeScript framework that's rapidly gaining adoption among serious AI developers.After selling Gatsby to Netlify, Sam identified a critical gap in AI tooling that was forcing developers to build complex infrastructure themselves. Now, his YC-backed framework is helping startups and enterprises build production-grade AI agents with far less overhead.You'll discover:- The pivotal moment Sam realized existing AI tools weren't solving the right problems- Strategic insights from his YC Winter 2025 experience that accelerated Mastra's growth- Why TypeScript-first is the right approach for building maintainable AI applications- The thoughtful licensing strategy that balances open-source principles with business sustainability- What current AI frameworks are missing and how Mastra addresses these limitationsFor founders and technical leaders building in the AI space, this conversation offers valuable perspective on navigating the rapidly evolving agent ecosystem while creating a sustainable developer tools business.Links:- Dev Propulsion Labs podcast: https://evilmartians.com/devpropulsionlabs- Try Mastra: npm create mastra@latest- Website: https://mastra.ai- GitHub: https://github.com/mastra-ai/mastra- Book: "Principles of Building AI Agents" on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Building-Agents-Sam-Bhagwat/dp/B0DYH5GHDD- Sam Bhagwat Twitter: https://twitter.com/calcsam- Victoria Melnikova Twitter: https://twitter.com/vmelnikova_enBest comment on YouTube will be rewarded with a free copy of Sam's book
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Jono Bacon, former Director of Community at GitHub & Ubuntu, author of “People Powered”
Your dev tool needs to harness the power of community — whether you’re building your own or connecting to larger forums. The new episode of the Dev Propulsion Labs podcast is packed with Jono Bacon’s insights on building relationships with your audience: he has built over 300(!) open source communities, including GitHub and Ubuntu, and he still backs many of them on their continued path to sustainability as part of the Community Leadership Core accelerator.Evil Martians transform growth-stage startups into unicorns, build developer tools, and create open source products. The podcast is hosted by Irina Nazarova.
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Alice Chen, CTO & Co-Founder at OpenContext
We’re blasting off the third season of our podcast with a new host, Irina Nazarova, CEO at Evil Martians, and a new guest—Alice Chen, CTO & Co-Founder at OpenContext, a platform that drives clarity of context across the organization. Prior to co-founding OpenContext in 2021, Alice rose up in the ranks of massive companies like HP and Informatica. In our conversation, we dug into her strategies to sell open source to enterprise giants—to help you accomplish your next big sell.Evil Martians transform growth-stage startups into unicorns, build developer tools, and create open source products.
Dev Propulsion Labs is a podcast about building successful developer tool companies. Hosts from the Evil Martians team interview prominent dev tools founders with the goal of sharing knowledge in the maturing developer tool and commercial open source industry.
New Zealand