Developer-Led Startups

Tyler Jewell, Managing Director at Dell Technologies Capital, has an interesting investment thesis he calls “developer-led investing.” His LinkedIn post in July had some thoughts on the future of DevOps:

I believe the next wave in DevOps will be the move toward more autonomous software development.

Software systems are more complicated due to tool and programming language fragmentation, API sprawl, microservices, and the layering of big data, analytics, ML, and reactive user experiences into projects. Along with this growing complexity, continuous delivery has shortened the feedback loop while providing deeper insights to developers for each change.

Machines are better equipped than humans to act on continuous feedback and recommend changes for extremely complex systems. In the next decade, as machines become more involved in software construction and the market grows, I expect the first $1 billion autonomous software vendor to emerge. DTC’s investments in OpsMx (continuous validation of software systems) and MoogSoft (machine-driven software operations) are two examples of companies creating building blocks for this autonomous future.