Fireside with Voxgig

Today, we’re speaking to someone who’s been doing DevRel since before DevRel was a term anyone knew. Sébastien Blanc is the Developer Relation Engineer at Port IO, an internal developer portal that gives developers the opportunity to do all their engineering in one place. Sébastien speaks to us about his beginnings in DevRel, and the privileges of being given the steering wheel of a budding industry. We chat about the effectiveness of bringing in Dev influencers into the DevRel space - it turns out that many factors can determine if this is the right decision for your company. We touch on the impact of co-pilot on developing, AI tooling, internal developer portals and documentation! Reach out to Sébastien here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/s%C3%A9bastien-blanc-08a73b1/ Check out Port IO: https://www.port.io/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Richard Bray is our guest on the show today, and we are so excited to talk all about his role as Developer Advocate at BetterStack. BetterStack is a developer-first observability and incident management platform that combines incident management with uptime monitoring. Richard started down the DevRel path by creating his own content on social media, which quickly led to him receiving interest from companies looking to draw on skill for engaging people through video. Over time, he’s continued to build up his skills, increase his clients and expand into more areas of Developer Education. We learn from Richard about what it means to be developer-first or developer-plus, and why that model can work so well for the right companies. We also touch on the process and hiring for DevRel, and the Do’s and Don’t’s you’ll want to look out for during the process. Reach out to Richard here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richbray/ Check out BetterStack: https://betterstack.com/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Today we’re delighted to be talking outsourcing, distributed development, and empathy with Andy Hilliard, the CEO of Accelerance. Accelerance is a software outsourcing consultancy - in other words, they help other companies to build distributor teams and make them functional. Andy has ended up drawing on many of the traditional DevRel pillars, namely empathy, and we learn about how his time in the Peace Corps inspired his passion for global business, and piqued his interest in the myriad of different perspectives from the international community. He talks to us about how he tries to understand people on a human level, and empower them. In distributed development, it’s all about trying to create stickiness and common ground. He also put our minds at ease about AI - when no one truly knows what the future holds, there’s probably not much point in losing sleep over it. Reach out to Andy here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyhilliard/ Check out Accelerance: https://www.accelerance.com/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Today, we’re back with a new episode! We chatted to Lori Lorusso who is an open source advocate and the head of community at Percona. Percona is an organisation leading the way in open source database software, support, and services. We talk to Lori about how she’s made her way as a DevRel, and how her background as a community builder for Harley-Davidson helped her prepare for her work with developers. Lori is also a speaker, and she thrives on helping developers to share their knowledge! It was wonderful to have Lori on the podcast, and we can’t wait to see what she does in the future!

In this episode, we’re drilling more into the vocational aspect of DevRel, with our guest Thorsten Shaeff. Thor has recently become the Developer Experience Engineer at ElevenLabs, an AI Audio research and deployment company, and he’s based out of Singapore, having moved there with Stripe six years ago. Thor tells us that the common thread amongst his various roles has been the learning and teaching aspects, and he’s been lucky enough to be able to follow his interests for the majority of his career. We agree with him on the point that if you are driven by wanting to help and teach people, then DevRel is the place for you. We also talk about his multi-modal approach to publishing content. Not only do you need to be targeting all platforms, with both long and short form content, these channels all need to interact with each other as well, and present as a cohesive front. He leaves us with a lovely reminder of just how rewarding it can be to see someone create something great with a technology you taught them to use. Reach out to Thorsten here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thorwebdev/ Check out ElevenLabs: https://elevenlabs.io/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Some people spend their whole lives looking for their “superpower”, but if you’re a DevRel, you’ve probably already found yours. Today we’re speaking to Founder of Draft.dev, Karl Hughes about his path through the startup world, and the ever-changing landscape it operates in. Draft.dev is a developer focused content agency, and with Karl we learn about the epic highs and lows that he and the company have been through in this industry. Any small business owners or startup founders can relate to the realities of Karl’s journey - one day your cash is flowing, the next it’s a dead stop and only those with true skill and dedication can run a company that successfully traverses both eras. We discuss the effects that AI is having on DevRel, as well as the return to in-person events. Karl has been the very definition of hands-on with his projects, and it has allowed him to gain an extremely well rounded understanding of the technical aspects of running a company. Be sure to give it a listen! Reach out to Karl here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karllhughes/ Check out Draft.dev: https://draft.dev/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

We’re back from our break this week with an excellent chat about the world of Fintech! Carolina Paradas is the Vice President of growth at Fidel API, a classic aggregation API that lets you act on payments in real time. And with code on the homepage, we already know that they’ve got an outlook we can get on board with. Carolina’s role is focused largely, as she tells us, on enabling people to do the best work they can. She monitors sales, customer success and marketing, and ensures that anything client-facing represents the company correctly. As you can imagine, this type of work requires much in the way of collaboration and people skills, something Carolina brings to the table in droves. One thing to pay attention to in this episode is Carolina’s focus on developing synergy with others in her field. Through a mutual exchange of ideas, goals and everything down to contract details, it seems that Devrels in Fintech are doing an excellent job. Reach out to Carolina here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolina-p-693b418a/ Check out Fidel: https://fidelapi.com/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Today, we’re sitting down for an in-depth technical discussion with Juan Cruz Viotti, the Founder of Sourcemeta, a top provider of JSON Schema tooling and services. Juan has been working in the space for a long time, so we’re delighted to be getting his insight into this field. A lot of people have a love/hate relationship with JSON Schema, and much of that originates from the fact that, despite what people may think, it is a constraint language, not a modelling one. Juan explains to us that one of the reasons people can find it so painful is that the language is extremely powerful and expressive. Through his work, he is determined to help people learn and get to grips with it, so it doesn’t seem so intimidating. Finally, he tells us about what Sourcemeta is currently working on, and how they are continuing to evangelise and promote JSON Schema. They are diving head first into the conference space, and will soon have a desktop app to further aid people in their understanding of the language and how it works. Reach out to Juan here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jviotti/ Check out Sourcemeta: https://www.sourcemeta.com/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Today we’re sitting down for a chat with Alex Rattray, founder of Stainless, to talk about what they do, and how AI could be shaking up the SDK space in a big way. Stainless is an SDK generator that helps create high quality SDKs for rest APIs. Alex’s reason for starting the company is simple. He wanted to serve developers in a million different ways. That could be why the Stainless website homepage features a wall of code - they know who their audience is. With every programming language carrying its own nuances, SDK generation can be a mammoth task, especially developing them to the standard that Stainless holds itself to. It was a pleasure speaking to Alex, not least because it’s so clear that, for him, the value of developer experience comes first and foremost. Reach out to Alex here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexrattray/ Check out Stainless: https://www.stainless.com/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Today, we have a very wonderful unreleased episode from last year. It’s a dynamic duo on the pod today, as we’re joined by Raúl Jiménez Ortega and Courtney Yatteau from the Developer Experience Team at Esri. We talk about the experience of DevRel in a large organisation, and how internal DevRel compares to external. When you grow to a certain size, the question broadens from ‘how do I engage new people?’ to ‘how do I engage my own people?’ Esri is a leading geospatial tech company helping big and small organisations to make the most out of their data. Courtney compares for us the practice of teaching in a classroom vs teaching developers. Raúl takes us through his DevRel journey and the current role he plays on Esri’s Developer Experience Team. It was such a delight to have Courtney and Raúl on the podcast, and we hope you enjoy listening! ‍ Check out Courtney’s Medium: https://medium.com/@c_yatteau Reach out to Courtney here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtneyyatteau/ Reach out to Raúl here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimenezortegaraul/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Today we’re speaking to the wonderful Abhishek Mishra of Tune AI, a Gen AI stack, that focuses on fine-tuning and deploying generative AI models. With two products under their belt, they’ve had their hands full and Abhishek joins us to tell us all about it. In this episode we discuss the topic of playgrounds, and the vital role they play. Something not always considered, is that not everyone has the capability to test if an LLM will work for them or their product, so playgrounds that allow for experimentation are essential for reaching those people. We also get onto the topic of DevRel backgrounds, and how Abhishek believes every DevRel should work as a developer, not just to know the pain points, but to have a fully rounded understanding of how to advocate for them. ‍ Reach out to Abhishek here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stalwartcoder/ Check out Tune AI here: https://tunehq.ai/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Trey Botard joins the ranks of our guests with an unconventional entry into DevRel. He’s the Head of Developer Relations at Atomic, a digital financial connectivity platform that manages online payroll transactions. His origin story begins with wine, and helping a team of waiters understand how to sell it to customers. Sounds like a familiar setup… With this background, and an interest in tech, it’s not surprising that Trey found his way to DevRel. The importance of making customers feel special and heard is something he emphasises, as well as building trust by not just telling, but showing. As are many people, Trey is stuck in an ever growing pile of Slack channels. So of course, this has inspired his current desire to find a better way to manage information distribution in a way that is efficient but not overbearing. We’re very excited to hear his update on this in a few years, but for now, you’ll have to enjoy hearing about all the other great work he’s doing! ‍ Reach out to Trey here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/treybotard/ Check out Atomic here: https://atomic.financial/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Today we’re speaking to someone who could definitely give us all a few tips on how to make high quality, engaging DevRel content. We’re talking about Martyn Davies, the Developer Relations Leader at Zuplo, who joins us to talk APIs, developer experience and the wider world’s understanding of DevRel. Zuplo is an API management platform offering a better, more supportive experience to developers. As Martyn explains, this space has been dominated by a few big players for a long time, and they’re excited to continue shaking things up and offering something new to people. Martyn is leading the charge on Zuplo’s developer content, namely in the form of their wonderful Youtube channel, which has a distinctly friendly atmosphere. By focusing on the wider API world, as well as the benefits of using Zuplo, they’ve created something that stands apart in the sea of DevRel resources. Check out Zuplo: https://zuplo.com/ Check out Zuplo’s Youtube Channel: https://youtube.com/@zuplo?si=THBY-5wLJ4IgRdLl Reach out to Martyn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martynrdavies/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

It can be a hard pill for DevRels to swallow, that not everyone loves learning as much as we do - but at the end of the day, this itself becomes a problem that we can spend time learning to solve! Too meta? Today’s guest is Ed Shee, the CTO of Ignitus, where they’re working on individualised AI powered mentors that eliminate the need for constant training and retraining of employees. What they discovered is that most people are at least a little resistant to learning new things, especially if they have to sign up for something, or create an account or disrupt their current task. So Ignitus incorporates this mentoring directly into the flow, creating a seamless transition. Ed speaks to us about what he’s taken from his DevRel history into this new role - for example, the incomparable power of on-demand learning tools being what sets AI powered tools apart from documentation as a singular resource. So while Ed may have stepped out of the DevRel world on paper, the ethos and ideas have continued to inform and bolster his new work. Be sure to listen for specific insight on Ed’s approach and how he goes about his work. Reach out to Ed here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edshee/ Check out Ignitus: https://www.ignitus.app/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

You may have heard of something called a “can-do” attitude. Well for today’s guest, Nuno Job, it’s more of a “will-do” attitude, as he seems to breeze past industry neurotics and red tape with admirable ease. Nuno is the Co-Founder of Decipad and was one of the organisers of the LXJS conference series. He’s here giving a little inspiration to those wanting to shake up the way things are done. Decipad is an interactive notebook that seeks to challenge the spreadsheet’s claim to mathematical dominance. Their strategy is unique, letting their community come to them as they continue to focus most of their energy on creating the best product they can. Nuno speaks to us about the power in surrendering - putting your energy into the world and accepting what it returns to you, rather than letting the rewards you seek dictate the way you live your life. It’s a refreshing break from the narrative we’re used to putting stock into, and the ethos seems to be rewarding Nuno in many ways besides monetary. This was a great chat on conferences, product building and opening your mind to creative solutions. Reach out to Nuno here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nunojob/ Check out Decipad: https://www.decipad.com/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

If you’ve ever been tasked with public speaking, then you’ve probably found yourself amongst the large majority of people who consider it to be one of the scariest things a person can do. And if that’s the case, you might be interested to hear from today’s guest, Pat Dwyer. Pat revisits us on the podcast, to discuss how he uses his nerves and adrenaline to inform what he does onstage, treating them as a boost, rather than a hindrance. We talk to Pat about what it’s like to feel a sense of “home” on the stage, and why it is that so many speakers find it much easier to talk to a crowd of a hundred people than to have a one-on-one conversation with a single new person in the conference room. One thing he draws our attention to is that talks, like products, require testing. How much humour, how much information, when to speed up or slow down? It all needs to be tested and tested again. Ultimately, what you’re there to do is serve your audience and give them the best experience. According to Pat, the moment a speaker starts thinking about their own stakes, the quality of their speaking tends to go off the rails. If there’s anyone in the speaking world to take advice from, it’s Pat. Reach out to Pat here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pat-dwyer/ Check out Pat’s website: https://www.patdwyerwastaken.com/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

We’re continuing to kick off the new year with Allan Knabe, the CEO and Co-Founder of apiable.io, an API portal that’s helping to smooth out the creation process. Building an API is harder than it looks, but it doesn’t always have to be such a difficult task. One of Apiable’s key priorities is seamless onboarding for developers, which sets them apart from other similar products. It’s the kind of thing that becomes important to you when you, like Allan and Richard, have encountered enough API portals that are simply repackaged swag documentation. Allan refers to this as part of his overall strategy of going back to basics. Let’s not forget to ask ourselves - what is project management? Are certain features helpful, or just impressive? Is what we’re creating practical? Sometimes the most obvious things are what get forgotten in the startup chaos, and we were delighted for Allan to remind us of them. Reach out to Allan here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allan-knabe/ Check out apiable.io Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Welcome back! We’re bringing in 2025 (and with it a new, exciting lineup of guests) with an oldie but a goldie - Eoin Boylan. Eoin first visited us fireside in 2022, and we are delighted to have him back for an update on all he’s been up to since our first chat. SDK strategy can be divisive, with some business strategies being to avoid the topic altogether - but Eoin, who’s currently working as the Head Engineer at Evervault, finds them to be worth their salt as an investment. Evervault is a data security platform focusing on the payment space, serving as a one-stop-shop for developers. At their core, they remain developer first, retaining the knowledge from their early days, but now applying it to a more specific group of buyers. While we have time, we may touch on the current state of developer knowledge, and how, as useful as it may be, how ChatGPT may be influencing our bidding developers for the worst. Check out Evervault: https://evervault.com/ Reach out to Eoin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eoin-boylan/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Today, we're revisiting this New Year's episode from 2024. Our guest was Andrew MacLean, the developer relations manager at DevCycle, a feature flag management platform for developers. If you’ve never heard of feature flag management, that’s probably because it’s a relatively new space, despite feature flags having been around forever. If you’re not familiar with the ins and outs of feature flags, one of their main benefits is allowing you to update your platform without having to deploy so many versions that you lose the ability to maintain quality. As with many of the people we feature on Fireside, this service could have been a game changer in some of the startups Richard has worked on over the years. Andrew dives into the history of feature flags, and what launched them into the mainstream. From Github devs, to articles, to implementation by major SaaS companies, word of mouth popularisation has made feature flags the staple they now are. Andrew also gives us some insight into his history. It’s a typical DevRel story, of falling into the industry somewhat by accident, but in Andrew’s case his starting point was studying for a career in forensic science. With a background almost as interesting as the work he does now, Andrew makes for a fascinating interviewee. Reach out to Andrew here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewdmaclean/ Check out DevCycle: https://devcycle.com/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Top tip: if you’re thinking of getting into DevRel, just know that you will hate boxes of t-shirts for the rest of your life. Or at least that’s how today’s guest, Phil Leggetter feels about them. Merch getting stuck in customs is a minor issue for sure, but it’s one of the pitfalls of DevRel we get into in this episode. Phil is the Head of DevRel and Developer Marketing at Hookdeck, an event gateway that strives to be a backbone for event driven applications. We talk to Phil about the utility of SDKs, and where their detractors tend to miss out on their ultimate purpose. We speak about the connection to revenue, and the key to demonstrating it, if you have higher ambitions for DevRel. We also ask the question - is there an advantage for DevRel to stand apart from marketing, or does this cause us to miss out on another community that we might gel well with? Reach out to Phil here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leggetter/ Check out Hookdeck: https://hookdeck.com/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com