DevTools Brew #14: How Sentry Built Their Open Source Solution, 5 Things I Learned Building Snowpack to 20k Stars, Devtools Funding Rounds of The Week...
Dear friends, welcome to DevTools Brew #14!
My name is Morgan Perry, co-founder of Qovery, and this is DevTools Brew newsletter, a weekly roundup of the remarkable stories and insights in the infrastructure and devtools world.
There are no ads in my newsletter. All I ask is you subscribe, share and enjoy!
In this Issue #14:
📈 Founder Stories: How Sentry Built Their Open Source Solution
💻 5 Things I Learned Building Snowpack to 20,000 Stars
⭐ Star History Weekly Pick
💸 Devtools Funding Rounds of The Week
I hope you will enjoy this sneak peek.
Let's dive in!
📈 Founder Stories: How Sentry Built Their Open Source Solution
Today, let’s dive into the fascinating journey of Sentry, the ‘unicorn’ open-source monitoring service that has become a trusted tool for developers worldwide. Let’s unravel the stories behind Sentry's founding, its growth, and its unique approach to building an open-source service.
Key Highlights:
Sentry-Origins
David and Chris met through a mutual friend while working on a project called LifeStream.
Their collaboration continued with an open-source project, leading them to join Disqus together.
Open source has been a common theme in their work and played a role in their journey to Disqus.
Embracing the Power of Open Source
Sentry fully embraces open source, distinguishing itself from other services.
Founders David, and Chris, value the freedom and ability to play multiple roles within an open-source project.
The community has been invaluable, contributing to the project and making it better for all users.
Early Versions of Sentry
The initial version of Sentry was a drop-in Django application that improved error management for Django users.
It gained popularity among developers for its ability to group exceptions and provide better error notifications.
Chris contributed to making the interface more user-friendly, improving its design and usability.
Transition to a Hosted Service
Craig Kerstiens from Heroku suggested turning Sentry into an add-on and monetizing it.
Heroku's requirement for a hosted service led to the development of true multi-platform support.
The integration of Stripe payments and early customer sign-ups laid the foundation for the hosted version.
Steady Growth and Customer Adoption
Sentry experienced steady growth, initially driven by organic adoption within the Python community.
Increasing subscription prices and the community's contributions helped sustain the service.
The community's active involvement, including submitting pull requests, shaped the development of Sentry.
Empowering Users and Leveraging Open Source
Sentry's open-source nature allows users to contribute, maintain libraries, and fix issues.
Customers have the power to shape Sentry through their feedback and contributions.
The founders prioritize addressing frequent questions and valuable features that align with their vision.
Open Source as the Driving Force
Sentry was open-sourced with the intention of providing a useful tool rather than solely pursuing profit.
Open source has been instrumental in building Sentry alongside its customers.
The founders acknowledge the value of community support and collaboration in the project's success.
David Cramer advises founders and startup people to approach their business like a consumer product and believe in their vision. They should also recognize their strengths and weaknesses and bring in others who can fill the gaps.
—> Read the full Sentry CTO interview published by StackShare
💻 5 Things I Learned Building Snowpack to 20,000 Stars
Thrilled to present to you the captivating journey of Fred, the creator of Snowpack, who shared valuable lessons learned about growing Snowpack to an impressive 20,000 GitHub stars and over 1,000,000+ downloads.
So let’s dive into Fred's key lessons about building Snowpack to 20k Github stars.
Key Highlights:
Start with a personal frustration
Snowpack began as a tool to convert npm packages to a single JavaScript file for browser execution.
This unlocked "Unbundled Web Development," enabling instant reloads and near-instant startup time.
Snowpack aimed to solve the problem of using npm packages in the browser without bundling the entire website.
Move fast, stay small
Embrace fast, messy coding when starting a new project.
Snowpack leveraged Rollup internally, saving development time.
Focus on one core feature initially and keep the project scope small.
Tests can be skipped initially to confirm usefulness before investing time in writing them.
Fix fast
Prioritize fixing bug reports promptly in the early stages of the project.
Swift bug fixes build user trust and excitement.
Prioritizing user issues becomes challenging as the project grows.
Practice good storytelling
Share your project with friends or colleagues for early feedback.
Consider telling your project's story in small, visual pieces over time.
Creative approaches like video announcements or blog posts can generate attention and engagement.
Ignore your haters, listen to your users
Expect criticism when your project gains attention.
Differentiate between ignorant and constructive feedback.
Ignore haters but value constructive criticism and use it to improve documentation and communication.
Support your early users
Focus on making your first 10 users happy and engaged.
Supporting early users is crucial for building a meaningful open-source project.
Remember that open-source software should be fun, and building for a smaller audience is valid.
—> Check out the full article on Dev.to.
⭐ Star History Weekly Pick
The Star History Weekly Pick is:
Pixie: “Instant Kubernetes-Native Application Observability”
⭐️ 4.6k stars reached
💸 Devtools Funding Rounds of The Week
Escape, a cybersecurity startup that dynamically scans APIs to find security flaws, has raised a $3.9M funding round shortly after ending Y Combinator’s winter 2023 cohort.
Cortex raised $35M Series B for its internal developer portal.
Platformatic, a Back-end development platform, raised $3.5M in Seed funding.
Ariga, an open-source solution that helps developers define database schema as code, announced a $15 million Series A.
It’s already over! If you have any comments or feedback, Let’s talk about this together on LinkedIn or on Twitter.
Thanks for reading,
Morgan
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