Inside Vercel: The $3B giant that’s changed coding forever

About this episode

Eric Ries interviews Guillermo Rauch about Vercel and the impact of open source on software development and growth.

In this episode of The Eric Ries Show , I’m joined by Guillermo Rauch, CEO and founder of Vercel—a company powering the front end of the internet for brands like OpenAI, Nintendo, Chick-fil-A, and many more. Guillermo’s journey began far from Silicon Valley, in Argentina, where a Red Hat Linux CD changed the course of his life. We talk about how open source gave him a way in—and why he still believes it’s the ultimate growth engine for companies and careers. Guillermo shares what he learned from building developer tools used by millions, and how Vercel became the go-to platform for the AI era. In our conversation today, we talk about the following topics: • How open source paved the way for Guillermo’s career • The case for open source as a growth strategy • What makes Silicon Valley special, and how online communities can unlock similar opportunities • The gap between how elite companies ship software and how most others do • How Vercel became the go-to for AI startups • The future of the web: agents, AI clouds, and software 2.0 • Guillermo’s take on vibe coding and why it’s more than just prompts to code • How recursive founder mode helps Vercel stay fast while scaling • The…

People in this episode

Host: Eric Ries

Guest: Guillermo Rauch

Topics covered

• open source
• developer tools
• AI startups
• Silicon Valley
• software development
• growth strategies

Keywords

• Vercel
• Guillermo Rauch
• open source
• AI
• developer tools
• Silicon Valley
• software development
• growth engine

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Vercel, OpenAI, Nintendo, Chick-fil-A, Red Hat

Places: Argentina

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