editors note: this was recorded a few weeks before rauchg's real drama with his Israel tweet... we might get to that (subscribe!)Hank and Gonto break down a week of developer-world drama, from DHH’s RailsWorld keynote and his “Merchants of Complexity” crusade to Vercel’s Twitter battles with Cloudflare and Levels.io. They unpack why DHH’s mix of authenticity, conviction, and controversy still works, and how Guillermo Rauch (aka Triangle Man) handled public attacks with precision and class.
They also talk about what founders can learn from these fights: why picking public battles strategically builds attention, how to join trending topics without being toxic, and why attention—not content or outbound—is the new currency of marketing.
Finally, Gonto shares how he gained 10% more followers (and a ratio from Elizabeth Holmes) by embracing the attention game, while Hank argues that thoughtful controversy is now table stakes for any devtool founder.
Why ignoring best practices works, and why launches only matter if the product sticks.Paul Klein IV, CEO of Browserbase, on growing with launch videos, planes over OpenAI, no dark mode, and red CTA buttons.
What does a second-time founder consider ESSENTIAL for taking his product to market and running his startup, Browserbase?
Cloudflare vs Perplexity heats up, and Browserbase gets pulled into the fight. We dig into Perplexity’s shaky defense, the counter-positioning angle they missed, and why people don’t fully trust either side. Browserbase came out looking sharp, not just inserting themselves but being directly named in Perplexity’s reply. Then we shift to the influencer playbook, from OpenAI’s GPT-5 launch strategy to dark social tactics, and wrap with why bragging about Gartner wins usually backfires.
This week, we break down Cloudflare’s public callout of Perplexity and why it’s a perfect PR move for their new bot-charging feature. Hank recaps Laracon, from selling more tickets than ever to turning a golf course into a sponsor-speaker free-for-all with documentary crews, Lambo stress toys, and collectible jackets & patches. We wrap with the bizarre Astronomer saga and how a Chris Martin ex turned it into viral gold.
We unpack the shift toward solopreneurs, prosumers, and "builder" personas, and what it means for onboarding, support, and product strategy.
Then we break down Cluely, the Gen-Z startup with no clear product but a massive hype engine. Does marketing your marketing work? Should every startup build a hype team? And is Cluely the Fyre Festival of devtools?
Raycast got Sherlocked by Apple... or did they? We break down how they flipped the narrative from panic to power move with a killer mix of transparency, humor, and speed. Then we shift gears to talk about Accel’s video content strategy, including one about letting ScaleAI's founder live in a VC's basement. VCs are getting good at content and honestly who saw that coming?
You spent real money. The ad worked. They clicked. Now what?
In this episode, we break down how Vercel, Claude, and Statsig handled their Acquired podcast sponsorships and what happened after the click. From custom landing pages to mismatched CTAs, we dissect what worked and what didn’t.
Then we shift to launch videos. Cursor mailed it in. Sentry nailed the joke. And we explain why knowing the vibe of your product matters more than just production value.
Share with someone running ads or making a launch video.
Two agent platforms launched within 24 hours (Retool Agents and Superblocks’s "Clark"), but only one nailed the launch & positioning. We break down why naming your AI sucks, what Superblocks did right with counterpositioning, and how Retool missed the messaging mark despite a solid(?) product. Plus, a rant on why launch videos are now table stakes and what you need to do beyond them to stand out.
We explore how Clerk nailed its self-service, multi-product strategy without chasing enterprise customers. Hank breaks down why great second products should eclipse your first, while Gonto highlights Clerk’s clever integration with Stripe and strategic funding.
Plus, Bolt's "Unleash the Vibes" event sets the stage for their massive hackathon, and OpenAI’s leaked strategy reveals why Meta, not Google, is their biggest threat due to unmatched distribution.
In this episode Hank and Gonto dive into Hank's experience at React Miami, where online beefs turned surprisingly civil and a "Family Feud" parody stole the show. They also discuss Figma's head-scratching trademark battle over "DevMode," a move that ended up being less strategic genius, more meme fuel.
We share the wild projects, crazy constraints, and innovative pivots that turned panic into progress.
Every startup struggles with this—even the best founders and teams we’ve worked with. How do you actually hire great people, build trust, and scale without turning into a slow, bloated mess? In this episode, we share the hard-earned lessons that helped us grow high-performing teams at Auth0, Vercel, Laravel, and more.
Levels.io is turning vibe coding into a full-blown distribution engine—shipping fast, selling hats, running hackathons, and pulling others into his orbit. We break down what B2B founders can learn from his playbook, then dig into the Rippling vs. Deel spy scandal, Vercel’s drama with Cloudflare, and Supabase’s documentary on Bolt.new.
It's founder mode, for better or worse.
Gonto finally gets his chance to roast Hank's marketing launch at Laravel. How bad could it be?
Raycast just launched AI Extensions, and we break down why their approach to marketing and UX is what Apple Intelligence should have been.
Then crypto story time with Gonto as he talks about the biggest crypto hack in history—$1.4 billion stolen from Bybit—and why their response was a masterclass in crisis communication. We talk about speed, transparency, and how to turn disaster into brand strength.
Plus, some thoughts on owned media, launch strategy, and the rise of B2B video marketing.
We discuss why sales enablement is more powerful than sales collateral and how to get them to stop relying on PDFs and case studies and instead focus on understanding the product and delivering answers in real time.
We also discuss credit card gates on products. After gathering insights from DigitalOcean, MongoDB, and PlanetScale, we break down the trade-offs between frictionless sign-ups and filtering for serious users.
AI chatbots are driving more traffic than you think, and it’s happening fast. Hank and Gonto break down the latest data on AI-driven search, why it matters for businesses right now, and how companies should adapt. They also dive into a heated database debate between Neon, Planetscale, and Prisma, discussing how to handle trolls and bad benchmarks. Plus, a look at Laravel’s unconventional approach to conference pricing and a marketing experiment that had developers DMing their AWS bills.
In this episode ofCode to Market, Hank and Gonto break down thetrade-offs of fast follows—whyspeed gets you attention, but differentiation wins you customers. They explore the psychology of AI adoption (why the less people understand AI, the more they use it), and how devtool founders shouldsell the WOW first, then the HOW to drive real adoption.
They also dive into the rise ofAgent Experience (AX)—whyAI agents will soon be your biggest users, how SEO is shifting away from Google rankings, and whyyour API matters more than your UI in an AI-driven world.
Most devtool founders and marketers focus too much on launches and not enough on vision. In this episode, we break down Andrew Chen’s take on viral launches—are they a waste of time or always worth it? Hank defends the power of going big, while Gonto argues for a more targeted approach. We also dive into the real reason technical founders struggle with storytelling, why Elon Musk’s never-ending vision keeps people engaged, and how to craft a marketing narrative that actually works.
