How Vercel found product-market fit: Guillermo Rauch on dynamic web app development

Vercel is an open-source platform that helps front-end developers build and ship dynamic web applications leveraging Jamstack (https://jamstack.org/). Last valued at $2.5B, Vercel was founded in 2015 by CEO Guillermo Rauch and now serves over 30,000 companies. 

In this episode, guest host Wei Lien Dang (General Partner at Unusual Ventures) interviews Vercel CEO and Founder Guillermo Rauch about their path to product-market fit.

Join us as we cover:

• (1:24) How Guillermo came up with idea for creating Vercel
• (7:31) How Guillermo identified the opportunity for dynamic front-end development by analyzing gaps within the existing technology and infrastructure
• (12:43) Why he decided to pursue the open source path for Vercel
• (17:16) How Vercel drove adoption and built an early enthusiastic user base 
• (24:25) The use cases and aha! moments for early adopters using Vercel
• (30:18) How Vercel built a go-to-market strategy aimed at developers
• (33:31) Vercel’s content marketing strategy for developers which includes details about how their technology works
• (34:56) Guillermo’s perspective on the current open source ecosystem and market
• (36:45) How to build a commercially viable business using open source technologies

Sandhya Hegde is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in modern SaaS companies with a focus on AI. Previously an early executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at [email protected] and 

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/sandhya

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandhyahegde/

Wei Lien Dang is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in open source software, developer tools and cybersecurity. Previously the co-founder of Stackrox, Wei can be reached at [email protected] and 

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/weiliendang

•  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weiliendang/

Guillermo Rauch is the CEO and founder of Vercel. He was the CTO and co-founder of LearnBoost and Cloudup, acquired by Automattic in 2013. He's the creator of several popular Node.JS open-source libraries like socket.io, mongoose and slackin. 

Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building the next generation of software companies. Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Webflow, Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood and Harness. Learn more about us at https://www.unusual.vc/.

Further reading from the Startup Field Guide:

• Starting an open-source company: https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/start-an-open-source-software-company
• Developing open-source customers: https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/developing-open-source-customers
• Building open-source GTM: https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/open-source-gtm