Founder Fundamentals

Behind every new startup is a decision point, and before that point are (possibly) days, weeks, or months of uncertainty. This session breaks down how real technical-founders moved from “maybe someday” to “I’m doing this now.” We’ll explore the build of confidence, the role of timing, expertise, and network, and how internal conviction and external pull align to help founders decide to make the leap. You’ll leave with real insights that can help you better understand where you are in your own journey, and what might come next.

Plenty of startups struggle not because the idea was bad, but because the founding team couldn’t stay aligned. In this candid, tactical session, PostHog cofounders James Hawkins and Tim Glaser share how they’ve maintained a strong, resilient partnership through years of growth, pivots, and pressure. They’ll cover how they handle conflict, split responsibilities, and stay synced as co-CEOs without letting ego or burnout get in the way. Attendees will leave with practical frameworks and habits for building a healthy cofounder relationship, one that can survive the chaos of startup life and actually make the company stronger.

Many early‑stage founders arm themselves with hand‑me‑down playbooks: “go enterprise first,” “slow down for compliance,” “step away from the code.” In a candid talk, Sourcegraph co‑founder & CEO Quinn Slack shreds those axioms. Drawing on hard‑won experience with deals lost to speedier upstarts, pivots from top‑down sales to bottom‑up adoption, and the reality that today no one has a moat, Quinn lays out the hidden costs of conventional wisdom and the contrarian moves that actually unlocked growth. Expect straight talk and immediately actionable takeaways for builders who refuse to play by yesterday’s rules.

When you’ve spent your career judging code quality, how do you suddenly assess marketing copy, GTM models or a sales forecast? In this candid fireside chat, HashiCorp co‑founder Mitchell Hashimoto retraces the mental rewiring that let him evolve from open‑source engineer to enterprise leader. Expect pragmatic frameworks for making “non‑technical” decisions, tactics for staying close to the product while scaling the business, common blind spots that stall technical founders after launch, and behind the scenes challenges you won’t read in funding press releases.

The early days of a technical startup often blur titles - everyone builds, everyone pitches, everyone leads. At some point though, paths diverge and roles and responsibilities become more well defined. Will you become CEO, CTO, or no CxO at all? Our panel will unpack how leadership paths emerge inside deeply technical companies, what founders learn about themselves and their companies as their responsibilities shift, and how power, trust, and organizational culture are negotiated in real time. Join us as we explore the exquisite messiness of growing a company while growing as a leader.

In this DevGuild: Founder Fundamentals finale panel, three exceptional founders settle in for a discussion about their own journeys from ideas, to category leaders. We'll explore some of the most critical moments of change each experienced as founders, how they honed their skills marketing and selling their technical products, and how they as individuals, their roles as leaders, and their organizations at large have evolved to meet every new challenge. This isn’t a highlight reel, it’s an honest reflection on what it takes to lead a market-defining startup.