Airbyte, a $1.5B unicorn startup, are pivoting to bet that agent infra is the future of their business.
Their CEO Michel Tricot came on my Chain of Thought podcast to explain why and talk about how context poisoning can kill your agents + how to make them more productive.
youtu.be/tYJmgpIEd-Y?...
I just spoke with the White House after another horrific shooting by federal agents this morning. Minnesota has had it. This is sickening.
The President must end this operation. Pull the thousands of violent, untrained officers out of Minnesota. Now.
Himes: "I was delighted to hear that Tom Cotton, chairmen of the Senate Intel Committee, has been in regular contact with the admin. I've had zero outreach and no D I'm aware of has. So apparently we're now in a world where the legal obligation to keep Congress informed only applies to your party."
Image shows a person-size smiling fire emoji costume sitting on a large shelf with a window view in the background
The Mojo mascot costume in the Modular offices is already staring at me like the Green Goblin mask.
I NEED to wear it.
Glad you enjoyed the thread!
I plan to do a deep-dive into AI code review during October on my Substack as well: conorbronsdon.substack.com
Definitely not - larger players will always try to scoop up innovators
LinearB's AI code review + workflow automation is a game-changer! 🚀 But with heavyweights like Coderabbit and GitHub's Copilot, staying innovative is key. Adapt, evolve, dominate! 💪 #TechInvesting #
Full deep-dive analysis Free on my Substack ⤵️
conorbronsdon.substack.com/p/what-dxs-1...
- DX's influence machine breakdown
- Why LinearB & Jellyfish have new opportunities
- Who will be acquired next?
- What the platform wars mean for buyers
Enjoyed this thread? Follow me for more!
Key lesson for founders:
Are you building features platforms can replicate? Or strategic advantages they must acquire?
DX built what's hard to replicate:
- Community and authority
- Strategic relationships
- Research credibility
- Trusted brand
Product alone isn't enough.
Cybersecurity company acquisition diagram showing Check Point ($15B valuation) at top with connected companies below including Fireblocks, SentinelOne, Cato Networks, Imperva, Orca, and others. Below that, Palo Alto Networks ($56B) with its acquired companies including Netskope, Desc.ope, Normalyze, Authomize, Infodefense, CyberAnalytics, ENDOR, Neosec, and Eureka. Each company shows acquisition values in billions. Source credited to Dror Davidoff/DrorAnalyst
Pattern Recognition: this playbook works everywhere
Same consolidation pattern:
- Martech: Hubspot acquiring specialized tools
- Security: Palo Alto Networks buying cloud security, identity management
- Now: Dev tools
Specialized solutions get absorbed during rapid tech change.
Bar chart titled 'DevOps Global Market Report 2025' showing market growth from 2024 to 2029. Teal-colored bars increase from $12.54B in 2024 to $37.33B in 2029, with a diagonal line indicating CAGR of 25.70%. Y-axis labeled 'Market Size (in USD billion).' Source attributed to The Business Research Company.
Platform consolidation is inevitable.
Pre DX acquisition, Harness acquired Propelo (Jan 2023) and Armory (Jan 2024)
With the DevOps market heading to $43.17B by 2030 (21.76% CAGR) and enterprise buyers tired of managing dozens of point solutions...
The window for strategic exits is narrowing
+ don't forget about Graphite (who I just had a great interview with on my Chain of Thought Podcast_
youtu.be/VeRQuEmLTUM?...
This market is extremely competitive, and acquisition timing will be crucial - companies can't wait too long.
News headline on bright green background: 'CodeRabbit raises $60M, valuing the 2-year-old AI code review startup at $550M.' Byline shows Marina Temkin, dated 12:00 PM PDT, September 16, 2025.
LinearB's differentiation: combo AI code review w/ workflow automation + productivity measurement
But competition is fierce
- @coderabbitai.bsky.social hit $550M valuation with sophisticated multi-agent architecture
- Qodo leads open-source
- @github.com's Copilot = native integration advantage
There is also a surprising opening for DX competitors -
@atlassian.bsky.social ecosystem means DX will optimize for Jira + BitBucket
@github.com & @gitlab.com orgs need alternatives
Creates an opening for cross-platform solutions - LinearB is particularly well-positioned here if they can execute
DevOps toolchain landscape diagram organized into four horizontal sections: 'Plan & Code,' 'Build, Test, Integrate,' 'Release & Deploy,' and 'Operate & Monitor.' Each section contains numerous vendor logos arranged by category including issue tracking, CI/CD, testing, monitoring tools, and more. Bottom row shows 'Developer Productivity' and 'Supply Chain Security' categories with additional vendor logos
Likely targets:
- LinearB
- Jellyfish
- Or or combo of smaller player (Swarmia, etc) + AI code review startup like @coderabbitai.bsky.social
+ expect @gitlab.com to snap up the other, and perhaps we'll see another acquisition of a smaller competitor like Allstacks as with Harness + Propello
Infographic titled 'Microsoft Acquisitions' on light blue background. Microsoft logo in circle at center with text explaining their acquisition strategy since 1987's Forethought/PowerPoint purchase, noting they average six acquisitions yearly with fourteen exceeding $1 billion. Seven company logos arranged below in circles: Skype, Xbox Game Studios, Bing, LinkedIn, GitHub, Activision, and OpenAI. Source credited to FourWeekMBA at bottom.
There will be a counter-move.
@microsoft.com poses biggest threat with integrated @github.com, Azure DevOps, and Teams ecosystem
But they lack specialized developer productivity measurement capabilities.
My prediction:
Microsoft makes a counter-acquisition by mid-2026
Four square logo tiles arranged in a 2x2 grid: top left shows a blue sunburst/starburst pattern, top right displays an intertwined coral and blue abstract shape, bottom left features the black 'DX' text logo on white background, bottom right shows a white circular arc on blue background.
With 90% of DX customers already using @atlassian.bsky.social products, the distribution synergy is obvious
Atlassian now has AI-powered tools AND the intelligence layer to measure their impact
Complete software delivery intelligence within a single ecosystem. No competitor can match this.
With DX's differentiation + rapid growth off minimal fundraising (~$5M raised ➡️$40M+ ARR), and the AI measurement gold rush, the $1 billion for @atlassian.bsky.social to purchase DX almost starts to feel cheap.
As they said "Engineering Intelligence for the AI Era"
bsky.app/profile/atla...
Bar chart showing the growth trajectory of AI software spending from 2022 to 2027. Dark blue bars represent market size in USD billions, starting at approximately $125B in 2022 and growing to about $300B in 2027. An orange line overlay shows year-over-year growth rates, starting at 17.8% in 2023 and increasing to 20.4% in 2027, with the right y-axis scaled from 0% to 21%. Source credited to Gartner Digital Markets.
Then you add timing - we're in an AI measurement gold rush.
Companies are pouring money into @github.com's Copilot, @cursor.com.web.brid.gy & CLaude Code
The question: "Are these AI tools actually making developers more productive?"
Someone needs to answer that. DX positioned perfectly
Together, this multi-layered advantage created an echo chamber effect. You heard DX's perspective everywhere.
- Right message
- Strategic backing + allies
- Influence machine to evangelize
- Differentiated product
- Research-driven authority
Each layer reinforced the next
DX positioned as developer champions with a survey-first approach.
This messaging defanged resistance + made developers ADVOCATES in enterprise purchasing decisions.
It was strategic product positioning solving the category's biggest adoption barrier.
Article header from The Pragmatic Engineer titled 'Measuring developer productivity? A response to McKinsey' with subtitle explaining it's about the consultancy's methodology for measuring software developer productivity and offering a more sensible approach. Authored by Gergely Orosz and Kent Beck, dated August 29, 2023. Engagement metrics show 665 likes, 23 comments, 52 shares.
DX's message was a brilliant wedge.
Here's what killed most competitors: developers RESIST being measured. It feels like surveillance.
DX's genius: framing as "improving developer experience" vs "measuring developer output"
Same data. Completely different narrative.
LinkedIn post by Laura Tacho, CTO at DX, sharing an article from The Pragmatic Engineer about how 18 top companies measure AI's impact in engineering. Grid displays logos and bullet-pointed metrics for companies including GitHub, Google, Dropbox, Glassdoor, Webflow, Toast, Microsoft, Monzo, Atlassian, eBay, CircleCI, CarGurus, Adyen, Booking.com, Grammarly, Vanguard, T-Mobile, and Ramp. Post shows 40 comments and 83 reposts with engagement metrics visible
At the core of this approach was founder-driven brand building
Abi Noda grew his LinkedIn to 25K+ followers with consistent valuable content, while Laura evangelized.
Hard to do as a busy founder, but massive leverage when done right.
And their message? Pro-developers.
Table titled 'The Core 4 framework' showing developer productivity metrics organized in a 2x4 grid. Four orange column headers (Speed, Effectiveness, Quality, Impact) with two rows below: 'Key metric' row lists PR throughput, Developer Experience Index (DXI), Change failure rate, and % of time spent on new capabilities. 'Secondary metrics' row in lighter peach shows additional measurements under each category. Footnotes indicate measurement levels and attribution to Lenny's Newsletter.
They created frameworks (Core 4), published with @github.com, hired key influencers (Laura Tacho as CTO)
A layered influence machine where every move reinforced their message - & was spread by their allies (like @lennysan.bsky.social)
Brilliant execution!
www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/introducin...
Marketing banner for DX (Developer Intelligence Platform) featuring a stylized eye logo made of horizontal lines with one blue line highlighted. Headline reads 'Developer intelligence for the AI era' with subtext explaining DX helps measure developer productivity and navigate AI-augmented engineering. Below shows logos of companies using the platform including Toast, Block, Algolia, Pinterest, ADP, BNY, Fiserv, Indeed, and GitHub, labeled as 'Powering the world's top companies.' Black 'Get a demo' button centered below main text.
This isn't just fundraising. It's strategic network acquisition. Influence as moat.
While competitors built dashboards, DX positioned as THE research authority on developer experience measurement.
They led with developer experience --> productivity, and did deep research
The Strategic Network Effect:
DX recruited software engineering's most trusted voices as investors + advisors including @gergely.pragmaticengineer.com
Nat Friedman (ex Github CEO)
Will Larson, CTO of Imprint
Jason Warner, CEO of Poolside.ai - now on @atlassian.bsky.social's board post-acquisition
DX's playbook wasn't just building better features. It was strategic positioning + creating a flywheel.
I wrote a memo 2+ years ago at LinearB.io flagging DX as our biggest competitive threat thanks to their perspective + strategic execution
Here's what they did differently👇
Infographic showing Atlassian's acquisition strategy with bubbles of varying sizes arranged in a circle around the Atlassian logo. The largest acquisition is DX for $1B in 2025, shown in red. Other major acquisitions include Loom for $975M in 2023, Statuspage for $425M in 2016, and Opsgenie for $295M in 2018, all highlighted in blue. Smaller acquisitions are shown in white bubbles arranged chronologically from 2008 to 2022, including companies like Trello (2017), HipChat (2012), and Bitbucket (2010). Blue labels indicate acquisition prices ranging from $2.6M to $1B, with years listed beside each company.
And @atlassian.bsky.social has never been afraid of large acquisitions to enhance their platform capabilities - Trello ($425M), Opsgenie ($295M), AgileCraft ($166M), Loom ($975M), BrowserCo ($610M) and now DX for $1B
But what got DX to a $1B valuation (and rumored $40M ARR)?
Bar chart showing the growth trajectory of AI software spending from 2022 to 2027. Dark blue bars represent market size in USD billions, starting at approximately $125B in 2022 and growing to about $300B in 2027. An orange line overlay shows year-over-year growth rates, starting at 17.8% in 2023 and increasing to 20.4% in 2027, with the right y-axis scaled from 0% to 21%. Source credited to Gartner Digital Markets.
When a company hits unicorn status off less than ~$5M raised, it reveals something bigger than stellar execution. It reveals an exploding market.
The developer productivity space is entering its consolidation era, accelerated by AI measurement becoming mission-critical.
A week after @atlassian.bsky.social's $1B DX acquisition (their biggest ever), the strategic implications are becoming clearer.
This isn't just about one deal. The entire dev productivity market is entering a new phase & more acquisitions are coming!
Here's what it means🧵👇
