
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
David Cramer is the co-founder of Sentry, the leading open-source error monitoring tool used by over 90,000 companies. A self-taught engineer, he went from 9th grade high school dropout and Burger King manager to building one of the most widely adopted developer tools in the world — by working hard and rejecting conventional wisdom. As of 2022, Sentry is valued at over $3 billion. David now serves as Chief Product Officer, after previously holding roles as CEO and CTO.
In this episode, we discuss:
Referenced:
Where to find David:
Where to find Brett:
Where to find First Round Capital:
Timestamps:
(4:01) Learning to code through gaming
(6:31) Dropping out of high school
(9:47) Building infrastructure at Disqus
(10:20) “Software is not that hard”
(12:45) Early interest in open source
(15:45) The birth of Sentry
(23:37) Two common founder mistakes
(27:13) David’s unwavering focus
(28:17) Sentry’s journey to venture backing
(36:43) Finding conviction in decisions
(41:11) How Sentry found PMF
(46:34) More confidence, less ego
(48:08) Is sales valuable?
(51:31) David’s personal philosophy
(1:01:17) Money is not the hardest problem
(1:06:27) Marketing won’t fix a bad product
(1:10:34) What makes Sentry’s market unique
(1:16:24) “You’re gonna mess up”
(1:22:08) Why brand will always matter
(1:30:51) Eliminating all competition
4.8
5757 ratings
David Cramer is the co-founder of Sentry, the leading open-source error monitoring tool used by over 90,000 companies. A self-taught engineer, he went from 9th grade high school dropout and Burger King manager to building one of the most widely adopted developer tools in the world — by working hard and rejecting conventional wisdom. As of 2022, Sentry is valued at over $3 billion. David now serves as Chief Product Officer, after previously holding roles as CEO and CTO.
In this episode, we discuss:
Referenced:
Where to find David:
Where to find Brett:
Where to find First Round Capital:
Timestamps:
(4:01) Learning to code through gaming
(6:31) Dropping out of high school
(9:47) Building infrastructure at Disqus
(10:20) “Software is not that hard”
(12:45) Early interest in open source
(15:45) The birth of Sentry
(23:37) Two common founder mistakes
(27:13) David’s unwavering focus
(28:17) Sentry’s journey to venture backing
(36:43) Finding conviction in decisions
(41:11) How Sentry found PMF
(46:34) More confidence, less ego
(48:08) Is sales valuable?
(51:31) David’s personal philosophy
(1:01:17) Money is not the hardest problem
(1:06:27) Marketing won’t fix a bad product
(1:10:34) What makes Sentry’s market unique
(1:16:24) “You’re gonna mess up”
(1:22:08) Why brand will always matter
(1:30:51) Eliminating all competition
1,276 Listeners
1,058 Listeners
523 Listeners
175 Listeners
2,286 Listeners
3,991 Listeners
226 Listeners
187 Listeners
187 Listeners
127 Listeners
70 Listeners
30 Listeners
32 Listeners
20 Listeners
43 Listeners