Slack Insights

Tech leaders share their experiences implementing AI-powered development tools like Cursor and Devin.ai, discussing adoption rates, productivity impacts of 25-30%, and methods for measuring engineering efficiency gains.

Announcement of an upcoming masterclass on May 28, 2025, focused on using AI to build features within existing enterprise codebases, with strong community interest shown through 65 reactions.

Announcement of a masterclass on using AI to build features within existing enterprise codebases, with strong community interest shown through 79 reactions and follow-up questions about access and recordings.

A discussion about achieving ISO27001 and GDPR compliance for a very small AI startup (<5 employees) with various members sharing their experiences with different compliance tools and services, including Vanta, Secfix, Kertos, and consultancy options.

Tech leaders discuss strategies for optimizing observability setups to balance costs against debugging capabilities, sharing experiences with self-hosted solutions versus managed services like DataDog and Azure Monitor.

Announcement of a Masterclass on using AI to build features within existing enterprise codebases, with details on date, time, and focus on maintaining established conventions while delivering business value.

A discussion about DKB (German bank) implementing OpenAI's Agentic AI raises concerns about European organizations using US-based AI services for privacy-sensitive data, with participants debating sovereignty issues and suggesting EU-based alternatives.

A discussion among tech leaders sharing their experiences implementing Model Context Protocol (MCP) in different contexts, with offers to exchange notes on implementation challenges, security considerations, and SDK choices.

Community members share their hands-on experiences with Lovable.dev, highlighting its strengths for quick prototyping and UI generation while noting limitations like error loops and debugging challenges.

A tech leader seeks experiences with authentication and authorization for Agentic AI implementations (both first-party and third-party tool calling), prompting community members to share emerging standards and protocols worth exploring.

Tech leaders discuss their experiences implementing Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers and clients, sharing resources and addressing authentication challenges in federated environments.

A discussion about recommended software translation tools that integrate well with development workflows, featuring experiences with Localazy, Phrase, Transifex, and Lokalise with focus on CI/CD integration capabilities.

Alert about a vulnerability in the GitHub MCP Server with a brief discussion on its severity and exploitation conditions.

A discussion about the practical usage, costs, and effectiveness of Devin AI in mature software projects, with mixed feedback about its performance and value compared to alternatives like Codex, Jules, and Cursor AI.

Discussion about the release of Claude 4 and Claude Code 1.0.2, focusing on model capabilities, increasing costs, and comparative performance against other AI models like Gemini and OpenAI.

Tech leaders discuss their experiences implementing Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers and clients, sharing insights on security, authentication, and technical approaches while offering to collaborate on solutions.

A tech leader at a Microsoft-centric company (~500 employees) seeks advice on implementing Microsoft Project company-wide for cross-functional teams, receiving a detailed response about implementation challenges, cultural considerations, and the gap between executive expectations and practical realities.

Discussion about replacing expensive ATS software with more affordable alternatives like Notion or Asana for a company of ~45 people hiring 1-3 roles per month, with participants sharing experiences from Personio, Asana, and custom Notion setups.

A community member shared EthanGPT, a custom GPT created by former Amazon VP Ethan Evans that serves as a CTO/VP mentor by leveraging his newsletters, LinkedIn posts, and YouTube video transcripts.

A member seeks recommendations for security auditing firms to check for potential backdoors left by a contractor in a food business's critical IT systems, receiving several specific company suggestions from the community.

A thread sharing an ArsTechnica article and research revealing how Meta has been deanonymizing Android users by monitoring all browser activity through local ports and connecting it to Instagram and Facebook user identities.

The thread shares experiences with Hetzner's GEX44 GPU server for privacy-sensitive LLM workflows, including setup details with Docker, Ollama, and LiteLLM, with participants discussing performance compared to OpenAI and sharing alternative UI options.

A discussion on extracting specific information from large PDFs where community members suggest more efficient alternatives to RAG, including OCR+NER pipelines and two-step approaches with specialized tools.

Discussion of an article claiming OpenAI's actual costs are 10x what customers pay, raising concerns about the sustainability of LLM-based business models and the importance of avoiding third-party dependencies.

A community member shared comprehensive open-source resources from their Prompt Engineering Workshop including a GitHub repository, interactive Streamlit app, and presentation slides that received positive engagement from the community.

Tech leaders discuss their experiences implementing Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers and clients, sharing resources and insights about security, authentication, and practical implementation approaches for larger organizations.

A first-time CTO seeks and receives community advice on creating an effective 30-60 day onboarding plan for their new role at a small company, balancing technical understanding with strategic business leadership.

A poll asking tech leaders how many days per year they dedicate to 'pure fun' team-building activities revealed most teams spend 3-5 days annually, with one leader sharing their practice of quarterly 1-3 day remote team offsites focused on relationship building.

A member requested recommendations for German-speaking lawyers with expertise in company law, IP, and open source, resulting in multiple community members sharing specific lawyer and law firm suggestions based on personal experiences.

Discussion comparing talon.one and Voucherify as voucher discount management systems, with insights on pricing (talon.one at 50-100k p.a.), implementation experiences, and relative advantages.

A tech leader seeks recommendations for German cloud hosting providers that can handle highly privacy-sensitive data with strict compliance requirements, receiving multiple suggestions including Stackit, Ionos, Codesphere, and OpenTelekomCloud.

A member seeking legal advice for their startup in Berlin received multiple specific lawyer recommendations from the community, including contacts at Orrick, RSR Law, VOY, V14, and PXR Berlin.

A CTO seeks insights on European Accessibility Act compliance for app development, receiving practical advice on treating it as ongoing work, using tools like Google Lighthouse, and implementing standards systematically.

Announcement and follow-up for an alphalist Masterclass on building high-impact remote teams, featuring practical rituals and leadership patterns for distributed teams, with recording shared after the event.

A CTO of a growing team (~15 engineers) seeks advice on how to effectively delegate responsibilities and maintain momentum while scaling, receiving recommendations on team structures, management approaches, and helpful resources like Team Topologies.

Discussion on approaches to protect against malware in file uploads for SaaS products, including cloud-based solutions like AWS GuardDuty and Microsoft Defender, on-premises options like ClamAV, and alternative security strategies.

A member seeks recommendations for security auditing firms to check for potential backdoors left by a contractor in a food business's IT systems, receiving multiple suggestions including Cure53, Recurity, SR Labs, TNG Tech, and Vaadata.

A developer expresses frustration over Google's new Photos API restrictions that block non-Google apps from syncing photos automatically, forcing users to manually select each photo and prompting consideration of alternatives like Immich.

Discussion about whether ISO27001 certification requires criminal background checks (Polizeiliches Führungszeugnis) in Germany, with multiple companies sharing their varied approaches to compliance and candidate experience.

Discussion about the release of Claude 4 and Claude Code 1.0.2, including pricing details, token cost analysis, and recommendations for using custom modes with different AI models for specific tasks.

Multiple tech leaders report disappointing experiences with Google's Jules AI tool, citing high latency, failures to complete tasks, and poor performance compared to GitHub Copilot Workspace.

Discussion about how AI tools trained on Stack Overflow content are now making the original platform increasingly irrelevant for developers seeking coding help.

A warning about MCP servers running on public IPs sparked a technical discussion about authentication issues and multitenancy concerns when implementing MCP servers, particularly with Snowflake integration.

Discussion about integrating GitHub MCP Server with AI coding tools like Windsurf and Cursor to automate GitHub actions such as issue creation, branch management, and PR generation.

Discussion about the upcoming Cursor v0.50 release and its continued lack of browser preview and Chrome Developer tools integration, with participants sharing alternative tools like Stagewise and Windsurf that offer these capabilities.

Article shared about Alibaba's ZeroSearch technology that enables AI to simulate search instead of using external search engines, potentially reducing training costs by 88% and democratizing AI development.

A community member shared an upcoming O'Reilly online event about coding with AI featuring notable speakers like Kent Beck and Gergely Orosz, followed by a post-event summary highlighting diverse perspectives on AI coding workflows.

A discussion on whether low-code/no-code platforms like Retool are becoming less relevant as AI-driven natural language coding emerges, with mixed perspectives on their continued utility depending on user technical expertise.

A tech leader at medavis is seeking recommendations for AI solutions to automate customer support channels (email, chatbot, phone), receiving suggestions for specific tools like flowiseai, Ultimate.ai, and lautmaler.de.

Discussion about seven.io incorrectly flagging valid mobile numbers, with Vonage suggested as an alternative before identifying the root cause as a carrier routing change.

A brief exchange about alternative tools for non-core product services where Front is recommended as a superior support inbox solution over Pylon and Plain due to its personal inbox integration capability, with Linear also mentioned for product management.

Announcement of Ayzeo, a new tool designed to optimize websites for both traditional search engines and AI systems like ChatGPT, with a special discount offered to community members.

Discussion about a court order requiring OpenAI to permanently store all ChatGPT conversations, including API calls, raising significant privacy and legal discovery concerns.

Four tech leaders share their negative experiences with Jules AI, citing issues with simple task failures, timeouts, and lack of a local client compared to alternatives like Claude Code.

Tech leaders share and demonstrate their experiences with cutting-edge AI content generation tools Mirage (for video/lipsync) and Suno (for music creation), highlighting the impressive quality and time-saving benefits.

Tech leaders share hands-on experiences with Factory.ai, comparing its capabilities to alternatives like Claude Code and Windsurf, ultimately finding it functional but not superior to existing tools.

A developer shares their detailed process of building a personal website using AI tools like v0 and Cursor, from requirements gathering to deployment, with another member sharing a similar approach using alternative tools.

A community member announces an upcoming Vibe Coding masterclass with a relatable video about programming challenges, generating interest from other members who inquire about registration.

A tech leader seeks advice on migrating from Flutter to React Native or NativeScript to simplify their tech stack and leverage their React developers, receiving feedback about the benefits of React Native with Expo ecosystem despite some limitations.

A brief exchange about using Heyflow for funnel prototyping, including its benefits for quick go-to-market strategies and limitations that eventually led to developing internal tooling.

A tech leader seeking recommendations for headhunters specializing in manager-of-managers positions in Munich received several personal referrals to specific recruiters and agencies from community members.

A tech leader seeks recommendations for email service providers after experiencing recurring deliverability issues with Mailgun for Microsoft domains (Hotmail), considering Twilio/Sendgrid as alternatives based on past positive experiences with their Microsoft relationships.

A member seeking advice on regulatory requirements for a p2p payment startup receives offers to connect with fintech experts, including a former CFO of Nuri (formerly Bitwala).

Tech leaders discuss whether low-code/no-code platforms like Retool are becoming obsolete as AI-driven natural language coding emerges, with perspectives on security, target audiences, and market viability.

Tech leaders discuss their experiences with Claude Code, praising its capabilities despite its cost and occasional performance issues, while finding alternatives like Gemini CLI disappointing.

A brief discussion comparing OpenCode.ai with other AI coding assistants like Claude Code and Google's Jules, with feedback on their relative maturity and usability.

A tech leader shares their custom-built voice assistant for Google Calendar using Elevenlabs and n8n, sparking a discussion about the capabilities of Elevenlabs versus no-code voice AI platforms like Vapi.

A shared resource on effective coding agent usage based on Devin's experience with 250,000 merged PRs, prompting community interest in comparing different AI coding tools like Claude Code and Gemini CLI.

A request for prompt engineering resources suitable for non-technical company staff received recommendations for customized workshops and OpenAI's academy courses.

A tech leader expresses disappointment about Windsurf potentially shutting down after being acquired by OpenAI, as Anthropic is restricting access to Claude Sonnet 4 which was the only AI model producing acceptable code for their needs.

Tech leaders discuss concerns about Windsurf's future following OpenAI acquisition, Claude Sonnet pricing changes, and compare alternative AI coding assistants including OpenAI models and Gemini.

A community member shared an insightful article about how Cursor prompts work, providing useful tips for creating effective prompts, which was appreciated by other members.

Discussion about Cursor's newly released background agents feature that enables parallel execution of tasks through Slack messages, including its privacy settings, security implications, and practical limitations discovered through usage.

A user shares how to leverage Azure OpenAI deployment with startup funding to use GPT-4.1 with a 1M context window in Cursor for free, noting it's particularly valuable for larger projects while Claude Sonnet remains better for smaller changes.

Members share and discuss an unconventional approach using MP4 video files instead of vector databases for data storage and retrieval, with links to the GitHub repository and an explanatory article confirming it actually works.

Discussion about Anthropic restricting Windsurf's access to Claude AI models, with developers comparing experiences using different AI coding assistants like Claude Sonnet, Gemini 2.5 Pro, and ChatGPT.

Announcement of an upcoming online Masterclass on July 17th, 2025, focused on FinOps principles that align cloud spending with business goals, sponsored by DoiT.

Tech leaders discuss optimal European locations for establishing engineering offices, weighing factors like talent availability, proximity to customers, language, costs, and regulatory considerations.

A member seeks an Atlassian ecosystem expert who knows the marketplace well for due diligence on a potential acquisition of an Atlassian marketplace partner, receiving several personal and company recommendations from the community.

Tech leaders discuss approaches to handling expensive hardware requests from developers, specifically whether a €2000 49" monitor is reasonable for a home office setup.

A discussion seeking governance strategies for low-code/no-code platforms in large enterprises, particularly when non-engineering teams can build their own applications, with suggestions to look at existing commodity application patterns.

A tech leader seeks benchmarks on Microsoft Enterprise Agreement discounts for a ~1000 user organization with M365 E5 licenses (including Copilot) and additional Microsoft products totaling $800k annually.

A tech leader seeks timeframe estimates and experience sharing for MDR certification of machine learning/LLM medical decision support software, receiving advice about dual certification requirements and a recommendation for a specialized consulting firm.

A tech leader seeks recommendations for European-based, embeddable e-signature alternatives to DocuSign for integration into SaaS software serving data-sensitive customers, with responses suggesting FP Sign and d.velop as viable options.

A tech leader seeks recommendations for travel booking and expense management platforms for a 500-employee company, with specific requirements including good UX, virtual credit cards, flexible approvals, SSO, and SAP integration, receiving feedback on TravelPerk, Navan, and Lanes & Planes from peers.

Discussion about strategies for meeting German electrical safety testing requirements (DGUV) for home office equipment, including shipping pre-tested chargers and organizing in-office testing days.

A tech leader seeks recommendations for compliance automation platforms specifically designed for GenAI/LLM systems, receiving suggestions for heydata.eu (for EU AI Act compliance) and promptarmor.com.

Discussion comparing Coolify's strengths for simple self-hosting with its limitations for complex Rails applications, leading to a recommendation of Kamal as a better alternative for multi-worker deployments.

A tech leader seeks community input on migrating from Flutter to React Native or NativeScript to align with their React stack, with responses favoring both React Native with Expo and staying with Flutter.

Tech leaders discuss whether traditional low-code/no-code platforms like Retool are becoming obsolete as AI-driven natural language coding emerges, with most suggesting these platforms will fade in relevance except for specific security-focused use cases.

A developer shares their new open-source project 'Open Agents Builder' that enables quick creation of AI agents with business-friendly UI components, seeking community feedback and GitHub stars.

A community member shared information about an upcoming O'Reilly online event on Coding with AI featuring prominent tech leaders like Kent Beck and Gergely Orosz, with positive reception but limited follow-up discussion.

A brief discussion about a tweet from Fiverr's CEO regarding AI disruption and the need to become exceptional at your craft to avoid career obsolescence, with varying interpretations among participants.

OpenAI has reached an agreement to acquire startup Windsurf for $3 billion, representing a significant acquisition in the AI industry.

A tech leader seeks recommendations for better alternatives to incumbent non-core product service tools like Intercom and Chargebee, receiving suggestions for Front (described as a 'game changer') and Linear for product management.

A member requested recommendations for a freelance PPC consultant to help with cleaning up accounts and setting up new Google/Microsoft Ads campaigns, receiving one specific LinkedIn recommendation.

A brief discussion about Task-Master.dev, an AI-driven development tool using PRD-based approach, where one user reports instability issues that led them to build their own simpler alternative.

Brief exchange about AI coding tools where one member asks about Blitzy and Factory.ai, with others sharing their experience with Devin.ai and plans to try OpenAI's Codex.

Announcement of Windsurf's new AI model lineup including SWE-1 with frontier-level capabilities (free for Pro users), SWE-1-Lite replacing Cascade Base (free for all), and SWE-1-Mini for tab completion.

A tech leader seeks help accessing North Data to benchmark their company's financial performance (EBITDA, revenue) against the German market, offering payment for assistance while exploring alternative data sources.

A request to connect with others using Hubspot for both marketing and sales in larger organizations (50+ sales people), with one respondent sharing positive past experiences and current CRM evaluation process.

A brief exchange about initial experiences with the Cursor 1.0 release, focusing on improved UX, privacy mode limitations, and hesitation to use it on company repositories.

A brief discussion about Google's new Flow tool, highlighting its limited availability (not in Germany) and requirement for personal Google accounts.

A request for recommendations to find a mathematician specializing in optimization theory received suggestions to check universities or contact the CTO of DBtune who works with database optimization algorithms.

A community member seeks recommendations for physical book scanners with OCR capabilities, receiving suggestions ranging from software solutions to creative hardware approaches, though finding affordable options for glued books remains challenging.

Discussion about using Qodo Cover and similar AI tools to automatically generate tests, with participants sharing experiences and debating the balance between automation benefits and quality concerns.

A community member shared a YouTube video featuring Marty Cagan discussing the intersection of product management and artificial intelligence, which received positive engagement through multiple reactions.

Discussion about organizing and synchronizing various markdown configuration files (Cursor rules, Agents.md, Claude.md) for different AI coding assistants, with suggestions to use Claude's hierarchical file system or create a deployment script.

A user shared an entertaining prompt that instructs ChatGPT to roleplay as a CIA investigator analyzing the user's chat history and behavioral patterns, which received positive reactions from the community.

A member shared a link to insights about how Anthropic uses Claude code internally, with another member providing the full PDF document for easier access.

A tech leader is seeking high-level contacts at Hetzner to resolve hosting issues, while another member shares negative experiences that led them to migrate away from the provider due to recurring network outages.

Discussion about finding privacy-compliant analytics solutions for German health data, with PostHog being considered as an alternative to the inadequate Matomo, potentially requiring on-premise hosting for compliance.

A tech leader seeks recommendations for more cost-effective consent management solutions than Usercentrics for B2C sites, receiving suggestions for consent.io and termly.io as simpler alternatives.

A tech leader is seeking recommendations for cybersecurity and automated pen-testing tools, specifically asking about Aikido and what other companies are using for dynamic security testing.

A tech leader seeks to exchange Oracle BI pricing information with peers who have 100-200 licenses to gain negotiation leverage with Oracle.

A tech leader is looking for Dynamics 365 BC experts to discuss expanding their ERP system from finance to manufacturing/warehouse operations, with another member offering to connect them with a potential resource via direct message.

A community member is sharing information about Exasol Lakehouse Turbo, a new solution that integrates with Databricks as an alternative query engine to Photon, promising cost savings and workload acceleration for Databricks Lakehouse users.

A shared article about the potentially high costs of LLM tools for developers ($50k/year per developer by 2026) received positive reactions from community members.

A member shared an article discussing how ChatGPT could potentially become a dominant distribution platform similar to Google for web and Facebook for social media, receiving positive acknowledgment.

A community member shared an article from Lenny's Newsletter about Cursor's development and future industry direction, which was appreciated by others who follow the podcast.

A community member shared a valuable article about prompt engineering strategies specifically tailored for startup companies.

A brief announcement of OpenMemory MCP, a tool that helps maintain context between AI sessions, powered by Qdrant.tech.

A request for tech leaders to complete a brief survey about AI Inference API providers with focus on European alternatives, data sovereignty, and performance considerations, with promise to share aggregated findings.

A tech leader is seeking recent hands-on experience with COBOL-to-modern-system migrations to understand the difficulty level and required COBOL expertise.

A tech leader seeks resources to help non-technical team members learn automation tools like n8n, Make, or Zapier to replace manual Excel processes, with one response suggesting automation or self-service tooling instead of upskilling.

A user seeks recommendations for unsupervised tools to identify themes in 500 email bodies after finding jsLDA's implementation of topic modeling too limited, with a brief response noting that o4-mini also uses LDA.

A brief exchange seeking experiences with Google Cloud air-gapped environments, where one participant shared they have experience with other air-gapped setups but not specifically with Google Cloud.

A community member shares a link to Claudia (positioned as Claude's "female partner"), prompting a humorous movie reference and brief exchange about potential usage, but lacks detailed user experiences.

A community member shared a YouTube video resource that received positive reactions from other members.

A community member shared a Twitter/X post that resonated positively with others, as evidenced by the two joy reactions it received.

A lighthearted inquiry about where to purchase NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell 96 GB hardware sparked humorous responses about the difficulty of finding such specialized equipment.

A community member asks for feedback on Sintra.ai, with another user expressing interest in learning more about the tool, but no actual experiences were shared in the thread.