The rise of developer relations

Geertjan Wielenga: The whole world is now so different, as you mentioned earlier. Developer relations as a service is really a sign of the times. Would you agree that companies understand developer relations more now?

Tracy Lee: It's interesting because when I talk to traditional marketing people, it's typically because a founder or chief technology officer (CTO) said, "We need a developer relations person." Suddenly, the marketing team wants to spend some budget on advocacy, but they don't really get it; they don't really know what developer relations is.

Eventually, they think, "Oh, you're just like our PR firm. You do the things that our PR people do, but you do them for developers."

I've never thought about it that way because we're obviously not a PR firm, but often, that's the way companies find they can relate to us. That's an interesting way to look at it. You could see...