Why AI Companies are investing into DevRel [Finance Fridays]
The rise of Developer Relations in AI and why Startups are hungry for them.
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Recently, I’ve noticed a very interesting trend in the messages I get on LinkedIn. A lot of the recent messages I get from recruiters come from people looking to hire me in an AI Relations Role-
The ratio of people who reach out to me for AIRel vs ML roles has gone up significantly over the last 2–3 months. AIRel is a very new idea, being itself a spin-off from the relatively new Developer Relations (DevRel) title. For those of you looking to either pivot, or break into AI- it might be an interesting alternative to the traditional Engineer, PM, or Researcher roles. In this piece, I will give you more detail on AI Relations role- including its background, why it’s so valuable to startups, and how you can break in. I think the relations path is worth exploring b/c it is very valuable across the board, and you will often find startups aggressively hiring for it. This can help you a lot in uncertain economic times.
To understand AIRel, we first need to understand its parent role- DevRel. Let’s talk about that first.
What is Developer Relations
Developer Relations (DevRel) is a strategic function that focuses on building and nurturing relationships between a company and the developer community. The goal is to serve as a bridge b/w the developers who build the product and the technical users who utilize it, eventually increasing the adoption of the product in the developer community. Thus you will usually see DevRels hanging around companies that offer some kind of a platform (even if it’s for a specific usecase, as is the case with Database companies).
Day to day, DevRel encompasses a wide range of activities, including:
Community Building: Creating and fostering online and offline spaces where developers can connect, learn, and collaborate. Community is one of the most profitable plays for a company, so you’d be wise not to underestimate its potential. A not-so-major conference in a powerful niche can net close to (and even over) 6 figures in a few days (I speak from experience). And that’s in direct returns, not counting any potential leads from presenting/networking in the conference.
Advocacy: DevRels are advocates for the company’s products or services through education, resources, and support. You’ll often see them in podcasts, courses, and other platforms pitching their products and bringing brand awareness.
Technical Evangelism: Showcasing the technical capabilities and value proposition of a company’s offerings through demonstrations, workshops, and presentations. This goes hand in hand with the previous role.
Feedback Gathering: Actively listening to developer feedback and incorporating it into product development. This is one of the major reasons that DevRels are expected to have some technical skills- to ensure that any feedback is communicated effectively.
You’ve been engaging with Developer Relations without realizing it. Companies like Google, AWS, etc don’t share detailed technical blogs/free courses out of the goodness of their hearts. These blogs are a way to get people on their platforms, which allows them to corner market share and increase revenue. The investment from writing blogs and creating videos is returned many times over when we look at the increased demand from these channels.
There are multiple kinds of DevRel, as we can see from here-
Each DevRel focus brings its own advantages, which is where different companies might choose different candidates. But largely, companies look for similar end goals. Understanding this is key to understanding the market. So let’s talk about the ways DevRel pays off for organizations.
Before we proceed, try to come up with a list and see how many you get right. This is a good way to engage your critical thinking.
Why do Companies Invest in Developer Relations?
The investment in DevRel yields numerous benefits for companies, including:
Increased Adoption: DevRel programs drive product adoption by educating developers, building trust, and addressing concerns. The best way to have more adoption from your users is to ensure that your product is easier to use than your competitors. People are more than happy to pay for convenience (for proof look no further than your favorite food delivery app or Amazon account. You had something delivered in the last few days didn’t you). In the case of DevRel, this means creating better tutorials and courses that then encourage other users to work on their platform.
Improved Product Quality: Feedback from the developer community helps identify bugs, usability issues, and areas for improvement. This is similar to why companies invest in Open Source- the constant (and free) feedback allows for much faster iteration and better product quality. As a side benefit, if your customers feel heard- they are more likely to stay when they inevitably run into problems with your offering.
Enhanced Brand Reputation: A strong DevRel program positions a company as a thought leader and a developer-friendly organization. Better reputation improves top of mind recall, ensuring that potential users are biased towards using your solution.
Talent Acquisition: Engaging with the developer community can attract top talent to a company. It also makes training much cheaper. Since developers rush to get AWS certifications, Amazon can easily find architects to work on their solutions.
DevRel (especially in AI) is especially important to startups and new players since that can be their only way to fight against the more established big names. AIRel in particular is very important for AI-based startups since a lot of AI products don’t have any meaningful differentiation (this includes major LLMs). When everyone is selling interchangeable mediocrities, the best way to win is through-
cheaper prices (which reduces your profit margins)
leveraging preexisting partnerships (which startups don’t have)
a significantly better experience using the product (which is hard to accomplish and competitors can generally copy any innovative features you build)
or a better lead generation/retention funnel through high-quality information and an active community. This is also hard, but it is a differentiator, since different Rel Teams will express themselves differently, and succeed in different ways. To quote the immortal words of “The Real Slim Shady”
And there’s a million of us just like me
Who cuss like me, who just don’t give a fuck like me
Who dress like me, walk, talk and act like me
And just might be the next best thing, but not quite me
So how do you break into DevRel? Let’s close on that.
How to get a DevRel job
One of the coolest things about DevRel is that you can start doing it right away, w/o any backers. Creating content and building online communities is completely free, and you can prove your success with hard numbers.
It’s important to understand what kind of a DevRel profile you’d like to target, and base your success metrics accordingly. Here are some numbers you can consider for each of the 3 types of DevRel we talked about earlier-
Unless you’re an exceptional communicator, you will need at least some level of technical knowledge to attract and crack DevRel interviews. That’s where finding high-quality sources can be very helpful. I have compiled a free set of resources here (I’ve been meaning to add links for a while, haven’t had the time- if one of you would like to help). When it comes to Tech, we have a pretty good set of Newsletter recommendations both on this newsletter, and our sister publication AI Made Simple. That should provide a good base to help you learn constantly.
Once you start creating content regularly, optimize your LinkedIn profile to get recruiters reaching out to you according to this guide, and make yourself a presence in the online communities- the rest should fall into place. As always- my number one recommendation is to not put too much pressure on yourself and take things easy. Some consistency and lots of time will beat any growth hack, all-nighters, or ‘the grind’ that the people with no real hobbies love to romanticize. Stick to it, and if you’re any good at it, you’ll see the results eventually. In my case- I got more new readers over this May (~15K just on Medium) than I did in my first 2.5 years of writing ~10K.
We’ll be doing a deep dive into my assessment of the different platforms you can use to grow your audience soon. Keep your eyes peeled, and I’ll catch y’all soon. Hope you have a very fun weekend.
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As a DevRel professional that has spent the last year focusing more and more of my efforts around our AI offerings and community of users, this article really resonated with me! I’ve also noticed an uptick of recruiters reaching out to me for AI-related DevRel roles, though I’ve never seen it called AI Rel before (I like it).