LIB #3: Developer-Led Landscape, Star Atlas & Company Building

Welcome to Edition #3!

I came across some great articles & twitter threads I wanted to write some commentary around. We have a mix of blockchain gaming, company building and developer experiences.

Let’s get into it!

The Developer-Led Landscape:

I enjoyed reading this newsletter (I’m a recent subscriber, so I plan to check out the past editions of the landscape report) from the thoughtful Tyler Jewell.

In 2021 we saw developer-led companies collectively raise $16B, while obtaining $35B in market capitalization - the market has been gaining momentum for a while and Tyler’s 2022 predictions are to be noted.

A few that stood out to me (with my thoughts):

1. Fewer Developer-Led companies will be started in 2022 vs 2021:

   1. As a hyper-competitive landscape forms, more companies are competing for the same amount of real estate: there are more companies competing for a finite developer labor pool, so $ rewards go up, while demand is fixed. Also, the “end of the second wave of software industrialization” will cause leading platform providers (GitLab, CloudBees, NewRelic etc) to assert their dominance while taking a larger piece of the pie.

   2. My take: 50% agree/disagree - with the advent of web3, I can see a lot of room for more companies to enter the space and build developer tools that help companies release web3 apps.

2. We’ll see evidence of “Peak DevOps”

   1. Due to limited liquidity for developer-led businesses and greater consolidation from platform providers, we’ll see less VC available for developer businesses.

   2. My take: Disagree - while more companies may enter the space, we may see the reduction in high-quality/successful companies due to the highly-competitive nature of the DevOps space. I think we still have a way to go before we reach “Peak DevOps”.

3. Machine Learning For Dev Tasks Will Be Popularized But Not Mainstream

   1. We’ll start to see discussions of ML capabilities becoming mainstream but companies will ease themselves into this, especially those that are overly cautious.

   2. My take: Strongly agree - we’re already seeing this with companies we work closely with around their QA and development processes.

4. Emergence of DevOps Intelligence & Governance

   1. The desire & growth of ‘data governance’ has meant that software development will likely follow suit with Service Governance.

   2. My take: I’m by no means an expert in this area, but this sounds like something that’s going to be needed (essentially stakeholders will need insights on how their software was created, so anything that increases visibility & confidence, I’m game 👍🏽).

5. Gas Fees will lower to make dApp Dev Experimentation Viable; Though the Market will still be searching for good use casesFor a more in-depth read of the other predictions, you can read Tyler’s post here and see his thread below:

   1. This is the one I’m most interested in going down the rabbit hole on (so I’m jumping straight into my take).

   2. Gas Fees are ridiculously high on certain blockchains (e.g. Ethereum) However, this has led to the rise of at-L1s and L2 scaling solutions (via rollups) to maintain a decentralized architecture while increasing security (and keeping costs low).

   3. There are a lot more challenges around tooling & infrastructure - from identity management through wallets, bridging off-chain data and blockchain querying.

   4. I think mainstream use cases will show themselves in 2022 - even if not, we’ll continue to see more and more weird & wacky projects that will build upon each other.

Is Star Atlas the next evolution in blockchain gaming?

In Messari’s Jan 10th newsletter, Star Atlas was highlighted as an example of a Play-To-Earn game to watch.

Star Atlas aims to be the next-gen gaming metaverse emerging from integrating blockchain, real-time graphics, multiplayer video games, and decentralized financial technologies.

Star Atlas aspires to be the first blockchain Triple-A (AAA) Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO) game.

It sounds epic, so it’s a P2E game I’m definitely going to be watching. I’ll aim to do a P2E deep-dive in the coming months.

Twitter Threads Of the Week

On Company Building (1):

We all need people who understand what we’re going through. Peter found peers through YC to help him understand how different yet similar business models operate & getting objective views on employees that just aren’t working out.

On Company Building (2):

Great thread on the few things to remember when starting a company.

TLDR:

1. Define a crystal clear north star

2. Hire uncomfortable good people

3. Create a culture of urgency

4. Make sure no one gets blocked

5. Occasionally take big swings

6. Nail the attitude - “enthusiasm, hard work, care for each other. Culture establishes the traits that define how people operate”.

On Execution:

• How to execute well:

  • Define north star metric

  • Standardize measurement

  • Collect ideas relentlessly

  • Prioritize by potential payoff

  • Get to work, urgently

  • Reprioritize based on early signals

  • Get back to work

• Pitfalls:

  • Long-term payoffs

  • Perfectionism

  • Idea attachment

Fun stuff:

Wholesome tweet! Probably why I like learning about new tools that empower others

Whenever I look at the bear case for DAOs (because I’m generally bullish), this is what I think of - are many of them just learning why we have corporations set up the way we do?

That’s all for this week!

- Fahim