Founder Real Talk

In this episode of Founder Real Talk, host Glenn Solomon, Managing Partner at Notable Capital, sits down with LocalStack’s co-founders, Gerta Sheganaku and Waldemar Hummer, to discuss how LocalStack is revolutionizing the developer experience. LocalStack enables developers to emulate cloud environments on their local machines, drastically reducing testing times and costs while accelerating product development.

Listen as Gerta and Waldemar share the journey behind LocalStack, from its humble beginnings as an open-source project to its growth into a full-fledged business with over 900 paying customers, including Fortune 100 companies. They dive into the unique challenges of cloud-based development, how LocalStack provides a faster alternative, and why speed in the development cycle—what they call “product velocity”—is crucial for innovation in tech.

Glenn also explores why Notable Capital led LocalStack’s Series A funding and what makes LocalStack stand out in the crowded cloud development space.

Key Topics Discussed:

• How LocalStack’s local cloud emulation tool saves time and cost for developers
• LocalStack’s journey from an open-source project to an enterprise-grade product
• Gerta and Waldemar’s backgrounds and what led them to build LocalStack
• The future of cloud development and how LocalStack plans to expand and innovate

RESOURCES

Learn more about Notable Capital: www.notablecap.com

Learn more about LocalStack: www.localstack.cloud

CONNECT

Connect with Glenn Solomon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/glennsolomon/ 

Follow Glenn Solomon on X: https://x.com/glennsolomon

Connect with Gerta Sheganaku on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerta-sheganaku/

Follow Gerta Sheganaku on X: https://x.com/Sheg_Ge

Connect with Waldemar Hummer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/whummer/

Follow Waldemar Hummer on X: https://x.com/w_hummer

Produced by Notable Capital

Music by Gus Culpo

In this episode of Founder Real Talk, Glenn Solomon and Hans Tung welcome the Founder and CEO of Jam, Dani Grant. Jam is helping 150k builders fix bugs faster, trusted by 32 of the Fortune 100. The conversation explores Dani's journey from being a product manager at Cloudflare to founding Jam, the challenges of being a first-time CEO, and the role of AI in shaping the future of software development. They also discuss how to approach developers as a customer and the launch of Dev Starter Pack, a multi-company initiative aimed at supporting aspiring founders by making it easier to get started.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

1. Fostering Efficient Collaboration: Jam accelerates communication between product and engineering teams, drawing inspiration from Dani Grant's experience at Cloudflare, while AI integration is a focus for future tools.
2. Empathy and Community in Leadership: Dani emphasizes empathy in product development, highlights the importance of community in developer-focused companies, and leads by empowering her team while balancing control and trust.
3. How Users Inform the Product Roadmap: How patience and user feedback are critical to reaching product-market-fit and how users can inspire your next great product idea. 

CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction to Jam and Its Impact

02:25 Dani Grant's Journey and the Birth of Jam

05:47 The Dev Starter Pack: A Collaborative Initiative

08:41 AI's Role in Shaping Software Development

10:18 Building a Developer Community

15:54 Challenges of Being a First-Time CEO

19:56 Finding Product-Market Fit

21:36 Leadership Style and Team Dynamics

33:45 Commercialization Plans and Future Directions

RESOURCES

Learn more about Notable Capital: www.notablecap.com

Learn more about Jam: https://jam.dev/ 

CONNECT

Connect with Glenn Solomon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/glennsolomon/ 

Follow Glenn Solomon on Twitter: https://x.com/glennsolomon

Connect with Hans Tung on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hans-tung/ 

Follow Hans Tung on Twitter: https://x.com/hanstung 

Connect with Dani Grant on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danigrant/ 

Follow Dani Grant on Twitter: https://x.com/thedanigrant 

Produced by Saschi Productions

Music by Gus Culpo

In a world where enterprises are moving faster than ever to adopt generative AI solutions, Patronus AI offers solutions to scalably and reliably catch mistakes and evaluate the performance of large language models (LLMs). 

In this episode of Founder Real Talk, host Glenn Solomon and guest host Dan Cahana sit down with AI visionaries and Patronus AI co-founders Anand Kannappan and Rebecca Qian to explore their journey from CS students at the University of Chicago to AI leadership roles at Meta and the reasons they felt compelled to start Patronus after recognizing the need for robust evaluation tools following the release of ChatGPT in late 2022.

Anand and Rebecca illuminate the challenges enterprises face in adopting AI and the ways they’ve built Patronus to mitigate challenges like hallucinations and brand alignment. Against the backdrop of rapid AI adoption at large companies, the founders share their vision for creating the enterprise standard for unbiased, independent evaluations.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. AI Visionaries: Anand and Rebecca's extensive experience in AI and machine learning, including their time at Meta and the University of Chicago, laid the foundation for Patronus.
2. Day -1 for AI: The founders see AI adoption as still being in the very early stages, describing it as "Day -1." Large companies are moving faster than ever to adopt AI technologies but face challenges in navigating the rapidly evolving landscape.
3. Solving Critical AI Issues: Patronus addresses the challenges of LLMs, such as hallucinations, unexpected behavior, and brand misalignments, making AI deployment safer and more reliable for enterprises.
4. API-First Approach: Patronus's API-first solution allows for seamless integration into various parts of the tech stack, offering flexibility and scalability for real-time and offline use cases.
5. Enterprise Adoption: The rapid adoption of AI by enterprises, driven by the need for reliability and safety, highlights the importance and urgency of Patronus's solutions.
6. Future of AI: Patronus describes “Scalable oversight" and how humans will learn to supervise increasingly intelligent AI systems

RESOURCES

• Learn more about Notable Capital: www.notablecap.com

• Learn more about Patronus AI: https://www.patronus.ai/ 

CONNECT

• Connect with Glenn Solomon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/glennsolomon/ 

• Follow Glenn Solomon on Twitter: https://x.com/glennsolomon

• Connect with Dan Cahana on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dancahana/ 

• Follow Dan Cahana on Twitter: https://x.com/dan_cahana 

• Connect with Anand Kannappan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anandnkannappan/ 

• Follow Anand Kannappan on Twitter: https://x.com/anandnk24 

• Connect with Rebecca Qian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccaqian/ 

• Follow Rebecca Qian on Twitter: https://x.com/rebeccatqian 

Produced by Saschi Productions

Music by Gus Culpo

CHAPTERS

00:00 Intro and Introductions 

5:00 What does Patronus do? 

6:55 What’s been some of the surprises in AI?

10:00 The Patronus Product

12:15 How are customers using Patronus?

15:27 Why is an API-first approach important? 

16:45 How did you know this was the right place to focus?

19:40 Large companies of the world are moving faster than ever

26:40 Into the Future: What will you look for to know that AI has been successful?

29:00 How do customers plan to deploy this type of technology?

32:00 AI Predictions 

35:00 What motivates the Patronus founders?

36:40 What advice would you give to founders looking to start a company in the AI field? 

In this episode of Founder Real Talk, Glenn Solomon welcomes the team from Coder, including CEO Rob Whiteley and technical co-founders Ammar Bandukwala and Kyle Carberry. They discuss Coder’s journey from its inception, the company’s product pivots, and its growth trajectory. Listeners will gain insights into how Coder enables developers to write code directly in the cloud, enhancing productivity and security. They’ll also learn about the strategic decisions behind Coder's open-source approach, the challenges faced, and the recent successful $35 million funding round.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. Shift to Cloud Development: Coder allows developers to write code natively in the cloud, improving productivity and security. This shift is akin to moving from old-school word processors to modern office suites.
2. Open Source Evolution: The company pivoted from a consumer-focused SaaS application to an open-source project, resulting in the popular Code Server and later the Coder platform, which supports team-based remote development.
3. Product Market Fit and Customer Adoption: Coder has achieved significant traction with large enterprises and tech companies by providing a product that enhances developer productivity while maintaining security.
4. Strategic Leadership Changes: Bringing in Rob Whiteley as CEO and Josh Epstein as CRO helped Coder focus on large enterprises, leveraging their expertise in go-to-market strategies.
5. Future Growth and Vision: Coder's recent $35 million funding round will support further development and expansion. The company aims to capitalize on opportunities in both the VDI market and the emerging generative AI tools sector.

Tune in to hear how Coder's innovative approach is reshaping software development and their plans for the future.

RESOURCES

Learn more about Notable Capital: www.notablecap.com

Learn more about Coder: www.coder.com

CONNECT

Connect with Glenn Solomon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/glennsolomon/

Follow Glenn Solomon on Twitter: https://x.com/glennsolomon

Produced by Saschi Productions

Music by Gus Culpo

CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction to Coder and its Founders

02:54 Evolution of Coder's Product and Business Model

05:07 The Decision to Build Coder as an Open Source Company

08:14 Building Code Server and Transitioning to Coder

10:23 The Role of Open Source in Coder's Growth

13:16 Justification for Coder in Different Customer Segments

15:20 Bringing in a CEO and Building a Strong Culture

20:43 Building the Go-to-Market Team and Strategy

22:28 Future Opportunities in the Cloud Development Market

26:40 Recent Fundraise and Milestones for Coder

29:20 Critical Milestones and Innovations for Coder

31:30 Rob's Biggest Learning as a First-Time CEO