Lessons from Guillermo Rauch, founder and CEO of Vercel

On Engineering and Product Development

"Make it work, make it right, make it fast." A classic engineering principle that Rauch often shares, emphasizing an iterative approach to development. [1]
"Progressive disclosure of complexity." This core design principle of Vercel and Next.js means creating technology that is approachable for beginners but powerful enough for experts. [1][2]
"Minimize the number of concepts & modes." Simplicity is key to a good developer experience. [1]
"Feedback must be given to users instantly." Whether it's in the development process or the final product, immediate feedback is crucial. [1]
"Sweat every word of product copy you render." The language used in a product is a critical part of the user experience. [1]
"You're never done working on performance." Performance is an ongoing effort, not a one-time task. [1]
"Software ages like milk, not wine." Continuous improvement is necessary to prevent software from becoming obsolete. [1]
"Errors must have globally unique codes & hyperlinks." This makes debugging easier and more efficient. [1]
"Demo your software frequently to fresh eyes." Getting regular feedback from new users can reveal blind spots. [1]
"Visualizing traces of time is the best way to optimize it." To improve performance, you must first be able to see where time is being spent. [1]
"Ship frequently and strive to build in public." This practice fosters transparency and accelerates the feedback loop. [1]
"React was like the engine, but companies needed a car. They didn't want to assemble every single piece of the stack every single time." This explains the motivation behind creating Next.js as a comprehensive framework. [3]
"We're not just building tools; we're creating an ecosystem that empowers developers to focus on what they do best - creating amazing web experiences." This quote highlights Vercel's broader mission beyond just providing tools. [4]
"The best thing to do is to not create a product that has every single feature for every single type of workflow out there. Instead we want to educate users on how to use the product in the best way possible." This speaks to the importance of having an opinionated product and guiding users. [5]
"When you see something good you ask yourself how did they build that. It's almost like a primal instinct." This encourages curiosity and learning from the work of others. [6]
"I think of that job almost as translation... from a sketch or a mockup into a working front end." This analogy describes the role of a front-end developer in bringing designs to life. [3]
"The trend has been away from the implementation detail which is the code. and towards the end goal which is to deliver a great product or a great experience." The focus should be on the outcome, not just the code itself. [6]
"Everything that you do not monitor decays over time. Everything that you monitor becomes better." This underscores the importance of metrics and observation in maintaining and improving systems. [7]

On Open Source

"Open source is the best thing that's ever happened to me. It was the most open platform for learning in the world." A testament to the power of open source for personal and professional growth. [4]
"The best thing that could happen to Next.js is for the pie to get so large that we're just really happy to have a slice." This illustrates Vercel's philosophy of focusing on growing the entire ecosystem rather than just their market share. [2]
"You invest a lot in a certain solution, but you have to realize at some point it'll exhaust its evolution, and it can't grow any further. The smart thing to do is leave it alone, and start anew, start fresh." A crucial lesson for knowing when to move on from a project in the open-source world. [5]
"We have to continue to find ways that people can learn and contribute to open source, and then make that a complete system." This highlights the need for sustainable models in open source that benefit creators. [5]
"Over the long term, open source will win, more often than not." A strong belief in the enduring power and value of open-source models. [3]

On Startups and Entrepreneurship

"For a startup to succeed, you have to come to market with a great product. You only have a short amount of time that you can say, 'Well, I am a startup and this is an early product.'" This emphasizes the need for high quality from the very beginning. [7]
"Startups need to be able to solve that Catch 22 of, 'We are very few but we have to make something that is really high quality and it has to work really well,' while still staying innovative and taking risks." This captures the fundamental challenge faced by new companies. [7]
"The antidote to micromanagement and to a sense of the lack of direction... is that we are all on the same page about what we want to accomplish and how we measure it." Clarity of goals and metrics is essential for autonomous and effective teams. [7]
"We want to empower the individual within the company, we want to empower the small team within a company. So that they don't have to worry about all this technology for scale and performance." This is a core part of Vercel's mission to democratize access to powerful infrastructure. [8]
"The key lesson for founders is to identify what you're uniquely positioned to solve for and build upon that foundation." This advice encourages founders to leverage their specific strengths and passions. [9]
"Sometimes what you really need to do is understand that certain technologies are just generational. They're poised to change the world. The right thing to do is build on top of them and become an expert in them." A strategic insight on identifying and capitalizing on major technological shifts. [9]
"One of the things that helped us along the way is we have always been genuine. When we recommend something, when we sell something and when we deploy something, we really believe it is a great product." Authenticity and belief in one's product are key to building trust. [7]
"A founder's job is to bring their customers to the 'promised land' of their vision, step by incremental step." This describes the iterative process of realizing a long-term vision for a product. [10]

On AI and the Future

"Don't marry yourself only to one model. Buy the index fund of all AI, instead of picking one stock." A recommendation for developers to maintain flexibility and not get locked into a single AI provider. [3]
"What happened to translators... I believe that for a lot of people building software... we're just automating 100% of that task." A prediction on how AI will transform the work of front-end development. [3]
"People are becoming full stack product builders." With the help of AI, individuals can now handle all aspects of product creation. [6]
"The AI is actually typing the stuff and you're thinking about what are the principles and what's the architecture that you want it to to write." The role of the developer is shifting to a higher level of abstraction. [6]
"Every company will have to rethink itself as a token factory." This highlights the emerging importance of how companies interact with and are consumed by AI models. [11]
"Vibe coding is making software creation accessible to everyone (not just engineers)." A term for the new, more intuitive way of building software with AI. [11]
"The errors that we would give humans needed to have a lot of like visual context. AIs just need a stream of bytes." The way we design developer tools needs to adapt for an AI audience. [11]

On Personal Growth and Vision

"I have a sense of urgency and that tomorrow is not promised that stems from my childhood experience growing up in Argentina." This personal background has shaped his drive and work ethic. [3]
"My dad would always say 'Yeah, these other industries are super interesting, but if you are not combining them with software, then we are not going to be effective long term.'" Early inspiration that set him on his career path. [7]
"I'm building a platform that should not be intimidating for your first line of code, and gives you the superpower that you could be one day a top 30 internet website with the same infrastructure." The ambitious vision for Vercel's accessibility and scalability. [12]
"You have to strive to learn from everybody." A humble approach to continuous learning from all sources. [13]
"It's not just about learning but it's about giving back." The importance of contributing back to the communities you learn from. [13]
"Big markets are big and what do I mean by this is that sometimes we think that there's only space for one but there's always a lot of space especially when the markets are huge." An optimistic view on competition and market opportunities. [13]
"Our vision is that anyone in a company will be able to complete an entire product or experience and deploy by themselves." A powerful statement about empowering individuals to create and deploy. [5]
"I think back in the time, my mom was basically telling me the same thing about the American company she worked for - they're documenting things great." An early lesson on the importance of good documentation. [4]
"I don't think I would identify today even as a coder... my ego and my identity became tied up with 'I code'... and yet I think what I was lucky to have is also that aspiration to build products." A reflection on the evolution of his own identity from a coder to a product builder. [6]
"You have to be aware that when you press enhance prompt somebody else is giving you ideas they're not necessarily yours." A caution about maintaining one's own creative voice when using AI tools. [11]
"We want to inspire people to push the web forward and build wonderful user experiences." A core mission that drives his work. [7]
"The way that we measure our success is obviously getting more people to put their work out there and be more productive by changing that stuff more frequently." Success is measured by the empowerment and productivity of users. [5]

Learn more:

Lessons from Guillermo Rauch, founder and CEO of Vercel

On Engineering and Product Development

On Open Source

On Startups and Entrepreneurship

On AI and the Future

On Personal Growth and Vision

Written by Antoine Buteau

Lessons from Martin Gonto, GP of Hypergrowth Partners

Lessons from Kyle Asay, VP Global Sales at LaunchDarkly