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

Science & Technology

The Nurse Who Can Smell Parkinson’s | Joy Milne | TED

What does Parkinson’s smell like? Ask nurse Joy Milne. Born with a hypersensitive nose, she spent a lifetime learning to recognize diseases through their scents. When she smelled Parkinson’s on her husband years before his diagnosis, she decided to put her gift to the test. Today, her extraordinary nose has been translated into a non-invasive…

Published

22 hours ago

May 3, 2026

CYBER TECH TV

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CNET

This Robot Looks Right Out of Star Wars

The $25,000 Tron 1 from LimX Dynamics looks like a mini AT-ST from Star Wars: here’s what it actually can do. 00:00 – Introducing the Star Wars-inspired Tron 00:11 – Durability and Speed Testing 00:34 – Real-World Applications: Deliveries and Inspections 01:15 – Autonomous Tours and Human Interaction 01:32 – Photobot: Autonomous Photography 01:55 –…

Published

1 day ago

May 3, 2026

CYBER TECH TV

The $25,000 Tron 1 from LimX Dynamics looks like a mini AT-ST from Star Wars: here’s what it actually can do.

00:00 – Introducing the Star Wars-inspired Tron
00:11 – Durability and Speed Testing
00:34 – Real-World Applications: Deliveries and Inspections
01:15 – Autonomous Tours and Human Interaction
01:32 – Photobot: Autonomous Photography
01:55 – Pricing and Future Outlook

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CNET

The Latest Folding iPhone Reports – April 30, 2026

There’s still a lot of rumor, speculation, and alleged leaks around the possibility of Apple releasing a foldable phone, but who would this be for, anyway? One guess: it could be for people who miss the iPad Mini, if the apps can just work. #ipad #iphone #iphoneultra #iphonefold Add CNET as a trusted news source…

Published

2 days ago

May 2, 2026

CYBER TECH TV