Science & Technology

Tom Preston-Werner with Chris Dixon: Building Companies and Developer Communities

Published

6 years ago

June 10, 2020

In a virtual fireside chat, a16z General Partner Chris Dixon and GitHub and Chatterbug Cofounder Tom Preston-Werner discuss “Building Companies and Developer Communities.” Preston-Werner explains how the open-source ethos is a great way to build social virality among developers, and how the clean, developer-focused interface of GitHub led to its wide adoption and caused developers to demand it within their own organizations. He also offers marketing lessons from the early days of GitHub, when the company used informal methods of building community, such as hosting “drink-ups” at local bars in a bid to create “superfans.” He urges founders to view a company’s brand as an expression of its core beliefs, with a focus on how it helps its users succeed. The reason people would put a sticker on their laptop or wear a company tee-shirt is because of “what they believe they are communicating to others with that sticker or shirt … it’s a shortcut for communicating values.”

Andreessen Horowitz’s Crypto Startup School brought together 45 participants from around the U.S. and overseas in a seven-week course to learn how to build crypto companies. Andreessen Horowitz is partnering with TechCrunch to release the online version of the course over the next few weeks.

Find more Crypto Startup School videos plus additional reading and info:

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Robert Leshner and Jesse Walden: Deep Dive on Decentralization

5 Comments

HeyItsMe

June 10, 2020 at 7:56 pm

Nice video keep it up V7qY

Reply
SocialBounty Make Money App

June 10, 2020 at 7:56 pm

Nice video keep it up V7qY

Reply
greyes11

June 10, 2020 at 8:38 pm

this guy completely missed the crypto layup on the financing open source question….. biases are crazy

Reply
- greyes11
  
  June 10, 2020 at 8:55 pm
  
  The talk he references as a great way to build products highlights how we will ignore
  new methods for actions/decisions we have already mastered because relearning the new action is too cognitively taxing
  
  Reply
kaan bingöl

June 13, 2020 at 5:26 pm

We are currently trying to build for Architects in Istanbul . I am ready to answer your questions.

Reply

CNET

I Was in AWE of This Techie Art Exhibit (Ministry of Awe)

Scott Stein takes you inside the Ministry of Awe, Philadelphia’s immersive six story art experience. Go on a journey with him as he explores how technology and art meet in this space. Hear from the founders of Spatial Pixel, who explain what inspires them to combine AI with this physical art experience. 0:00 Entering the…

Published

14 hours ago

April 4, 2026

CYBER TECH TV

Scott Stein takes you inside the Ministry of Awe, Philadelphia’s immersive six story art experience. Go on a journey with him as he explores how technology and art meet in this space.
Hear from the founders of Spatial Pixel, who explain what inspires them to combine AI with this physical art experience.

0:00 Entering the Vault
0:13 The Concept
1:07 Programmable Space
1:41 Interacting with AI
3:12 The Future of Immersive Tech

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#MinistryOfAwe #ImmersiveArt #PhiladelphiaEvents #SpatialAI #FutureOfTech #CNET #InteractiveArt #SpatialPixel #OldCityPhilly

Science & Technology

Why Taskrabbit’s Founder Prioritizes Diversity Early │ Build Mode Podcast

As a founder or any team builder, diversity is best built at the start. As Taskrabbit founder Leah Solivan learned, procrastination leads to weaker teams and a harder effort later. We dive into all of her expert tips for builders and founders in the latest episode of our podcast Build Mode right here:

Published

1 day ago

April 3, 2026

CYBER TECH TV

As a founder or any team builder, diversity is best built at the start. As Taskrabbit founder Leah Solivan learned, procrastination leads to weaker teams and a harder effort later.

We dive into all of her expert tips for builders and founders in the latest episode of our podcast Build Mode right here:

Science & Technology

Are orbital data centers all hype, or an actual AI infrastructure solution? l Equity Podcast

Tech companies are racing to build data centers in space, pitching orbital compute as the next frontier for AI infrastructure, even as the technical and economic realities remain far from clear. Add in OpenAI’s massive $122 billion round and Bluesky’s latest AI backlash, and the message is clear: The future of AI is being shaped…

Published

1 day ago

April 3, 2026

CYBER TECH TV

On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O’Kane unpack these massive capital bets, user backlash, and off-world compute plans along with Whoop’s major valuation and the literal downfall of robot Olaf.

Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:20 A humanoid Olaf robot collapses at Disneyland Paris
03:30 OpenAI raises $122B at an $852B valuation
11:30 Whoop lands $575M and bets big on wearable data
18:50 The risks (and value) of personal health data
23:00 Bluesky’s AI feed builder sparks backlash
30:00 Can Bluesky keep growing — and compete with X?
36:30 The race to build data centers in space
44:30 SpaceX, Starlink, and the business of orbital compute
49:30 Outro