In this episode of Velocitea, Emily and Forrest tackle a spicy question: Are we trying to kill Developer Relations? (Short answer: no.) The two unpack how DevRel has evolved from 2019’s conference-circuit celebrity era into something deeper, more technical, and far more human.

They dive into burnout, invisible labor, and what great DevRel actually looks like: bridging product, marketing, and community in ways that can’t be neatly boxed in a company org chart. Along the way: • why the “next Kelsey Hightower” probably wouldn’t get hired today • the difference between DevRel and DevEx (and why the term “relations” makes people squirm) • and who makes it onto their personal DevRel Mount Rushmore.

A mix of inside-baseball humor, empathy, and hard truths for anyone trying to build or support a developer community.

This week on Velocitea, Emily and Forrest are joined by the one-and-only Kendall Miller: community-builder, meetup-runner, connector-of-humans, and self-described “bubbly business guy.” Kendall talks about the art of getting the right kind of attention in tech, why “mid” products still win all the time, and how delight (or lack of it) shows up in the products we build.

The conversation dives into the controversial startup Cluely and whether going “full chaos marketing mode” actually works in B2B SaaS. They discuss why influencers exist in the first place, how product teams lose their spark, and why founders should never design anything by committee.

Plus: • bald ponytail CTO lore • the Slack-to-Enterprise pipeline • and Kendall’s new startup Maybe Don’t, AI (yes, that’s really the name).