Welcome to The Developer Facing Startup

Next course set to start on May 19th

Sign up now to guarantee your place

Apply for the next course starting on May 19th, 2025. If approved, you'll be added and pay once guaranteed a position. Places are first-come, first-serve.

This is an 8 week course where you will prepare the essential materials for a go-to-market plan and execute it, while being mentored by Adam Frankl, and receiving feedback from your peers.

To apply for this course you will need to fill out an application. Payment will only be required upon admission.

The tuition is $3000 USD. A full refund is guaranteed within the initial 30 days.

Apply Now 

Still not sure?  Schedule time with Adam.

The Developer Facing Startup is designed to make founders of early-stage developer facing startups successful.

- Tom Ohtsuka and Kasumi Nogawa, Co-Founders, Teammately. 

Developers are Different

Standard B2B growth marketing tactics for early-stage startups can backfire if you try them on developers. Marketing strategies for business executives do not work with developers. Developers think differently, often ignore typical marketing messages, and are deeply skeptical of vendor claims. 

So, how can you introduce your product to an audience that doesn’t believe they need it and especially doesn’t need you to tell them they need it?

Apply Now 

Still not sure?  Schedule time with Adam.

Founders Community Coming Soon 

The community will be a place exclusively for founders to solve their toughest problems by interacting with peers, experts, and Adam through a series of live-events. More information will be made available in the following weeks.

The Community will host weekly online sessions including:

• Peer discussions.
• Expert workshops.
• Feedback from Adam and peers.
• Guest speakers on topics relevant to developer facing startups.

Attend this course to learn:

• How developers make technology adoption decisions.

• Why talking about the solution is not a usable sales strategy.

• The elements of a good story and how to develop it.

• A surprisingly simple way to get attention around your product.

• The words you never want to use in your marketing campaigns.

• What you need to do to build your developer adoption pipeline.

• How to build your startup–and your funding potential.

• And more… 

- Zhenni Wu, Co-Founder, PuppyGraph.

This course helps founders create widespread adoption, traction, and momentum among developers, and position their startups for unicorn growth. It is explicitly designed for early-stage startups like yours. 

There is no fluff–just straightforward, practical guidance for dev-facing business development born from years of successful startup front-line experience.

- Stelios Sotiriadis and Dimitris Kargatzis, Co-Founders, Warestack. 

- Adam Frankl, Author and Founder of The Developer Facing Startup.

Adam Frankl has cofounded or been an early executive at 12 VC-backed developer-facing startups, including three unicorns: JFrog, Neo4j, and Sourcegraph. He is the chair of the developer-facing track at Alchemist Accelerator and has coached dozens of developer-facing startups. He holds a BSE from Princeton University and is a U.S. Army veteran.

Course Schedule

The course will run for 8 weeks. Every week the course content and assignments will be released every Monday at 10 am and two live workshops will run on Wednesdays and Fridays at 10 am (PDT) - to cover assignment questions and feedback. There will be a one week break to catch up on content in the middle of the course.

• Week one. May 19th. Introduction: Developers are Different
• Week two. May 26th. Customer Development for Developers
• Week three. June 2nd. The Technical Advisory Board
• Week four. June 9th. Articulating Developer Pain
• Mid-course break.
• Week five. June 23rd. Build your Story 
• Week six. June 30th. Product Packaging and Pricing
• Week seven. July 7th. Developer Adoption Process
• Week eight. July 14th. Fix your Website & Final Review

Apply Now 

Still not sure?  Schedule time with Adam.

FAQs 

Q: What is taught in this course?

This is a company building course, not a skills building course. Over 8 weeks, you will prepare the essential materials for a go-to-market plan and execute it, while being mentored by Adam Frankl, and receiving feedback from your peers.

Q: Why should I buy this course?

This course is for founders of developer-facing startups who want to build and execute their go-to-market plan. These founders are typically devs who have a vision for the product, but don’t have a background in marketing and sales, but need to learn go-to-market quickly.

Q: What is your refund policy?

100% refund in the first 30 days.

Q: I am not a founder. Can I still take this course?

If you are the head of marketing at a developer facing-startup, sure. If you are an individual contributor at a more mature company, this course is not for you.

Q: I have not incorporated yet. Can I take this course?

If you are committed and are willing to put in the time, yes.

Q: How much time will this course take?

You should be prepared to invest 5-8 hours per week into this course for 8 weeks.

Q: I am already admitted to YC or Alchemist. Do I need this course?

This course is designed as a supplement to standard accelerator curriculum, tailored to the needs of a startup facing developers as a primary audience.

Q: What if my competitor is enrolled?

If you do not want to take this course with another startup that you may compete with, you can receive a 100% refund during the first 30 days.

If you still haven't bought a copy of the book, get it now. 

Available on Amazon.

If you are having trouble signing into your account or any other technical problems, please reach out to: [email protected] 

For other issues please reach out to: [email protected]