Behind Built for Devs
We believe developers deserve better tools—and the dev tools building for them deserve to know exactly what’s getting in the way.
Founder
Why I built this
I've spent nearly 20 years in tech—10 of them in developer relations. Twitter. Snapchat. Lacework. Pantheon. And before all of that, engineering.
That means I've sat on both sides of this problem. I've been the developer hitting a wall with someone else's product and quietly moving on. And I've been the DevRel lead watching adoption numbers flatten with no real explanation for why.
The frustrating part? The tools to actually understand what developers experience have always been either too expensive, too hard to configure, or too limited to tell the whole story. So teams guess. They rewrite docs. They simplify onboarding. They ask their network. And the numbers barely move.
I ran Built for Devs as a DevRel agency—bringing in real developers to try my clients' products and share candid feedback. Those sessions consistently drove the biggest impact of anything I did. Bigger than strategy docs. Bigger than campaigns. Watching a developer hit a wall with a product—in real time—gave teams exactly what they needed: clear, specific insight into what was breaking their developer adoption.
So I pivoted to focus entirely on that. And then I kept asking the next question: what if you didn't have to wait for an evaluation to know something was broken? What if you had that signal continuously?
That's what Built for Devs became.
Mission
Better dev tools. Happier developers.
Every dev tool that figures out why developers are dropping off becomes a better product. And every developer who finds a tool that actually works stops wasting time and keeps building.
That's the loop I'm trying to close.
Dev tools that use Built for Devs get the data, the human insight, and the recommendations to improve their developer experience. The developers who try their products get better, less frustrating tools as a result. And the developers in our evaluation network get paid to do something they'd probably do for free—try new tools and say exactly what they think.
Everyone wins. And that's the point.
Principles
A few things we hold true
Developers don't owe you feedback. When they drop off silently, it's not because they're difficult—it's because your product didn't give them a reason to stay or a way to tell you why they left. That's on the product, not the developer.
Data alone doesn't tell the whole story. Numbers show you where developers drop off. Real humans show you why. Both matter.
Dev tools that improve developer experience make the whole ecosystem better. We're not neutral on this. We actively want your product to get better.
How we're different
Fiona
GTM & Product, AgentQL
"Tessa's passion for the DevRel work was very much a differentiating factor. In our conversations, her enthusiasm for a good Dev Experience and DevRel function stood out. It gave us confidence that she's not only skilled at her craft but also cares deeply about the quality of her work."
Stephen Goldberg
CEO, HarperDB
"Tessa's difference factor is that she shows up with empathy and understanding while knowing her shit really really well."
John Vajda
DX, Deepgram
"Tessa's coaching has turbocharged my growth in DevRel leadership, leveling up my skills 10x. Her insights have been a game-changer, sharpening my strategic thinking, communication style, and my ability to build solid stakeholder relationships—boosting the value and impact of my DevRel team."
Matt Cano
Developer Partnerships, Snapchat
"The first thing that comes to mind is that Tessa inspires better than pretty much anyone I know. A combination of her energy, her optimistic outlook and technical depth make her really effective at inspiring people to see what is possible or what could be accomplished by working together with her."
Alston Cheek
Director of Partnerships, Snapchat
"The first thing that comes to mind about Tessa is that she deeply understands the wants and needs of the developer audience and is able to empathize with them and advocate for them with internal teams. To say another way, she's great at ensuring the teams that build products for developers do so in a way that is developer-friendly and gets at the core of the problem they're trying to solve. As a bonus, I think she's great at putting all of this into detailed strategy, documents, and plans that are easy to follow and help rally a team behind her to solve."
Chris Lema
CEO, Motivations.AI
"Dogged persistence is what I think separates Tessa from everybody else. The difference is, when she's on the trail for her client, she's going to run as hard as she can. She'll break every barrier and push through every issue to deliver for them. This level of partnership is unlike anything they've ever experienced. If I were talking to them, I'd say, 'Listen, there will be many people who can do this. Here's the difference you're going to see from Tessa: dogged pursuit.'"
Let's build better dev tools together
If you're building a dev tool and you're tired of guessing why developers aren't adopting it—you're exactly who Built for Devs is for.