Brian Vallelunga

from um from my experience with this crypto machine learning marketplace and managing secrets was just one of them that was like super painful in all these weird interesting ways um it was weird from a developer productivity side because i always felt like i was copying and pasting things in but sometimes the code would get into production faster than the secret force at an outage um i had a couple of developers that i was working with on this project i was like really painful to sync all these secrets with them like i would literally slack them and email them

from um from my experience with this crypto machine learning marketplace and managing secrets was just one of them that was like super painful in all these weird interesting ways um it was weird from a developer productivity side because i always felt like i was copying and pasting things in but sometimes the code would get into production faster than the secret force at an outage um i had a couple of developers that i was working with on this project i was like really painful to sync all these secrets with them like i would literally slack them and email them

the secrets and I like my heart would cringe every time I do that. Like, oh, that didn't feel right. But that's the only thing I have at my disposal to do. And there was actually one time where we dropped the crypto part of the marketplace because it wasn't working. We just did straight up machine learning marketplace using Stripe.

the secrets and I like my heart would cringe every time I do that. Like, oh, that didn't feel right. But that's the only thing I have at my disposal to do. And there was actually one time where we dropped the crypto part of the marketplace because it wasn't working. We just did straight up machine learning marketplace using Stripe.

And I had the Stripe production key in staging and the staging one in prod. And it took us a month to figure out why we weren't doing any transactions. And it was because of that, because the Stripe testing key rejects all live credit cards. It only uses test credit cards. And we didn't realize that for a long time. And so I was like, okay, this is a real problem.

And I had the Stripe production key in staging and the staging one in prod. And it took us a month to figure out why we weren't doing any transactions. And it was because of that, because the Stripe testing key rejects all live credit cards. It only uses test credit cards. And we didn't realize that for a long time. And so I was like, okay, this is a real problem.

And so I come back from Cancun and I go to this dinner that Stripe was hosting that had a bunch of founders and developers at it. And we were all going around the room talking about what we were thinking about. And I just asked them openly, am I a shitty developer? Is the world broken? I just can't tell anymore. Are you guys having this problem too?

And so I come back from Cancun and I go to this dinner that Stripe was hosting that had a bunch of founders and developers at it. And we were all going around the room talking about what we were thinking about. And I just asked them openly, am I a shitty developer? Is the world broken? I just can't tell anymore. Are you guys having this problem too?

And like 60% of them were like, yes, this is a very big problem for us. And one woman in particular, like literally comes running up to me right afterwards. I thought she was going to trample me. And she says, I've had three outages this week. Have me a solution by Sunday. And I was like, no, no, no, no, no. Like I'm not even started yet. And this is a Wednesday. There's no way that's happening.

And like 60% of them were like, yes, this is a very big problem for us. And one woman in particular, like literally comes running up to me right afterwards. I thought she was going to trample me. And she says, I've had three outages this week. Have me a solution by Sunday. And I was like, no, no, no, no, no. Like I'm not even started yet. And this is a Wednesday. There's no way that's happening.

She goes, I don't give a fuck. Have it by Sunday. And I was like, okay, there are some interests here. People want it. Um, But we didn't obviously have it by Sunday. That never happened. But what we did is we started doing a lot of research and we found that individual developers are struggling because there wasn't tools made for developers.

She goes, I don't give a fuck. Have it by Sunday. And I was like, okay, there are some interests here. People want it. Um, But we didn't obviously have it by Sunday. That never happened. But what we did is we started doing a lot of research and we found that individual developers are struggling because there wasn't tools made for developers.

Medium sized companies are struggling building their own things and large companies were buying hash core vaults, which really isn't meant to solve this problem and still struggling. So like everyone's struggling. And I was like, okay, we can build something that's developer first instead of just purely security first. And we got our first version working in three weeks.

Medium sized companies are struggling building their own things and large companies were buying hash core vaults, which really isn't meant to solve this problem and still struggling. So like everyone's struggling. And I was like, okay, we can build something that's developer first instead of just purely security first. And we got our first version working in three weeks.

And we got a set of customers right after that by just dragging them to Chipotle and saying, hey, I'll get you anything on the menu as long as I get a rant at you for about two hours. And that got us our first set of customers and off to the races we were.

And we got a set of customers right after that by just dragging them to Chipotle and saying, hey, I'll get you anything on the menu as long as I get a rant at you for about two hours. And that got us our first set of customers and off to the races we were.

Yeah. Anyway, but turned out to be a good business.

Yeah. Anyway, but turned out to be a good business.

Yeah, I would probably index and be like, okay, are other people that I know that also do podcast recording asking for this tool? Does it continuously get better and better the more I mount onto this hodgepodge of a product? And is that value going up exponentially, not linearly?

Yeah, I would probably index and be like, okay, are other people that I know that also do podcast recording asking for this tool? Does it continuously get better and better the more I mount onto this hodgepodge of a product? And is that value going up exponentially, not linearly?