Slack Insights

A tech leader seeks connections to payment systems experts for guidance on building a payment system from scratch for an Upwork/Toptal-type business model, receiving multiple offers for introductions and resource recommendations from the community.

Warning about a compromised popular GitHub action (tj-actions/changed-files) that is exfiltrating repository secrets, requiring immediate attention from teams using this component.

A tech leader seeks direct Cloudflare contacts to address a serious security issue where someone created fraudulent domains mimicking their brand to distribute malware to business partners, with another member offering to share the Cloudflare CTO's contact information.

CTOs discuss moving away from US-based cloud providers due to geopolitical tensions, sharing experiences with European alternatives like OpenTelekomCloud, StackIT, and Exoscale, with particular focus on PostgreSQL DBaaS and Kubernetes compatibility.

A detailed cost optimization case study comparing Google Cloud Run and Compute Engine VMs, showing how switching between instance-based and request-based billing models resulted in 71% savings for some microservices and 47% average savings for services with constant traffic.

Announcement of two AWS-hosted GenAI-focused events in Berlin specifically for CTOs and tech leaders, offering implementation strategies, risk management insights, and networking opportunities.

A shared article from Tim O'Reilly highlights how senior engineers effectively use AI coding tools by applying their expertise to shape AI outputs, while junior engineers may accept AI suggestions too readily, creating unstable 'house of cards code'.

A tech leader shares positive experiences using Devin.ai as an AI assistant for handling well-defined development chores like dependency updates and code migrations, noting its Slack integration and repository configuration capabilities that improve team focus and productivity.

A user shares their positive experience using Claude AI Engineer to quickly recreate a PHP extension with better code quality than previous tools like Windsurf or Cursor.

A community member shared comprehensive YouTube links to the AI Engineering Summit recordings featuring talks from industry leaders at OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and others covering AI agents, enterprise implementation, and evaluation frameworks.

A tech leader shares their successful implementation of a hybrid template-AI approach for newsletter generation using Laravel and Filament, with specific AI applications for content creation and Beehiiv integration.

OpenAI's SWE-Lancer benchmark reveals that even the best AI models (Claude 3.5 Sonnet) achieve only 26.2% success on individual contributor tasks and 44.9% on manager tasks when tested against real-world freelance programming jobs.

Community members share recommendations for tech leadership coaches, discussing options ranging from certified executive coaches to informal peer coaching, with considerations for remote availability and budget constraints.

A discussion on practical approaches to meet ISO27001 certification requirements for privacy screens in offices, with multiple participants sharing alternatives to installing screen foils everywhere, including rearranging seating, using curtains, and questioning whether such measures are actually required.

Discussion evaluating whether engaging with Gartner is worthwhile for a tech solution provider, with experienced members highlighting significant costs, enterprise visibility benefits, and regional effectiveness differences.

Tech leaders share their experiences with various AI code review tools including Qodo, Coderabbit, Elipsis, CoPilot PR, and Greptile, highlighting strengths and weaknesses of each solution.

Discussion about implementing organization-wide AI/LLM training programs, with participants sharing various approaches from internal repositories of common prompts to external workshops and resources.

A developer shares enthusiastic feedback about Sonnet 3.7's transformative impact on programming efficiency across various tasks, while noting its significant cost per developer.

A discussion on establishing criteria and policies for addressing data privacy and security concerns when using third-party AI services like LLMs and copilots, with participants sharing compliance requirements and assessment frameworks.

Multiple tech leaders share frustrations with Personio HR software implementation, citing poor support, bugs, and unmet promises, while discussing potential alternatives like BambooHR and HiBob.

Members discuss whether formal CTO training programs costing $23K-$35K provide sufficient value compared to self-directed learning, with several sharing positive experiences with MBAs that broadened their knowledge beyond tech.

Discussion of AI-powered tools for transcribing and summarizing German language sales calls with Salesforce integration, featuring recommendations for Gladia, AssemblyAI, NEXT, tldv.io, meetjamie.ai, and modjo.ai.

A tech leader warns about suspicious automated GDPR deletion requests from a company starting with 'w' that appears to be attempting to lure companies into paying for their services.

A discussion about managing BYOD devices within ISO27001/C5 certification requirements, particularly whether mobile devices must be integrated into MDM systems and how companies balance security requirements with practical access needs.

A community member seeks recommendations for short-term H100 GPU access, receiving multiple provider suggestions including Paperspace, Lambda Labs, OVH Cloud, major cloud providers, and budget-friendly alternatives like vast.ai.

A tech leader seeks advice on addressing concerns from international team members in Germany who fear the rise of right-wing extremism and potential immigration policy changes following recent elections.

A discussion seeking tamper-proof or offline backup archiving services that comply with DORA regulations for protecting cloud data (10+ TB in GCP and Azure) from ransomware attacks, with suggestions including WORM storage and S3 compliance lock.

A tech leader seeking recommendations for on-call management solutions receives several alternatives to PagerDuty including incident.io, which they decide to evaluate in a PoC alongside PagerDuty.

A discussion about how consultants handle the significant contractual penalties in NDAs when performing tech due diligence for VCs, with suggestions including liability insurance, penalty renegotiation, and alternative contract structures.

A tech leader seeking affordable Identity and Access Management solutions for ISO 27001 compliance receives recommendations ranging from Excel spreadsheets to mid-tier solutions like Cakewalk and AccessOwl as alternatives to the expensive Conductor One.

A community member shared an open-source tool called Fire Scribe that addresses the frustration of lacking a phpMyAdmin/pgAdmin equivalent for inspecting and modifying FHIR data directly on servers.

Discussion on DORA-compliant, offline or tamper-proof backup archiving services to protect cloud data from ransomware attacks, with suggestions including WORM/immutable backups and S3 Files with compliance lock.

Discussion about GitHub Copilot's new code review feature potentially disrupting specialized AI code review tools like Qodo, Ellipsis, and CodeRabbit, with participants sharing their current usage and plans to evaluate these tools.

Community members share excitement about Cursor's update that makes Agent mode standard, adds Claude-3.7-sonnet support, and introduces 'Yolo Mode' for multi-context programming.

A community member shared AnythingLLM, a user-friendly application that allows for quick implementation of Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) without extensive setup requirements.

A shared tweet from Brian Armstrong reveals that Coinbase has fully onboarded all software engineers to Cursor and will attach AI-generated PRs to every new ticket, generating significant positive community interest.

Tech leaders discuss efficient methods for tracking R&D efforts that comply with Dutch WBSO tax incentive requirements while minimizing administrative burden.

A tech leader seeks validation on pricing quotes from Cynet AIO (€64.94/endpoint/year on 3-year contract) and SentinelOne (€48.34/endpoint/year on 1-year contract) for approximately 2100 endpoints, receiving a benchmark response of €51/endpoint for SentinelOne from another member.

Discussion on implementing LLM-powered invoice data extraction pipelines with human-in-the-loop fallback mechanisms, sharing experiences with OCR preprocessing, tool selection, and architectural approaches.

Discussion of an article about the software engineering identity crisis, highlighting how economic factors, AI tools, and SaaS maturity are pushing engineers to become more business-oriented and less purely technical.

Discussion about automating context gathering for LLMs in legacy corporate applications through screenshots or data extraction to reduce manual input and increase adoption.

Announcement of the trade/off Summit 2025 in Heidelberg on May 13, focusing on AI, Business Growth & Decision Intelligence, with a special 50% discount code for alphalist members.

A discussion about a Twitter thread showing someone who built an application using AI tools, only to later face security breaches, highlighting the limitations of AI-generated code in production environments.

A tech leader shares their underwhelming experience with Lovable.dev for a personal project, highlighting both promising features and significant limitations that led them to switch to Cursor instead.

A community member shared Sesame's voice demo, sparking discussion about its impressive capabilities, open-source status, and practical implementation challenges for voice bots.

A discussion comparing experiences with various AI browsing tools including OpenAI Operator, Browser-Use.com, BrowserBase, and Convergence.ai, highlighting their capabilities, limitations, and practical applications.

OpenAI released their Agents SDK with new APIs and tools for building AI agents, sparking discussion about the implications of using third-party platforms as agent runtimes for business applications.

A tech leader seeks recommendations for a tool that can reliably extract answers from a 250-page legal document based on questions in an Excel sheet, after unsuccessful attempts with Gemini and ChatGPT models.

Discussion about significant leaks of proprietary system prompts from AI companies v0 and Manus, including links to the leaked materials and a follow-up about replicating Manus' browser sandbox.

Announcement and discussion of Windsurf editor's new feature that allows previewing local websites in the IDE and selecting elements as context for Cascade conversations, with users sharing feedback about limitations and expressing interest in similar functionality for other tools.

A community member shared an impressive Multi-Context Processing (MCP) use case where a Cursor agent automates food ordering on Uber Eats, complete with source code and implementation details.

A tech leader is seeking recommendations for someone to review their BI architecture and advise on whether to stay with PowerBI or migrate to Microsoft Fabric, receiving clarification that PowerBI is actually a component of Fabric.

Community members share recommendations for data room solutions for VC due diligence, ranging from specialized platforms like Carta, DocSend, and idgard to general-purpose tools like Dropbox and Notion.

A request for Wiz.io experiences led to feedback about its high pricing compared to alternatives like Lacework (80% of Wiz cost) and Aikido, with additional concerns about Wiz's complex UI and aggressive sales tactics.

A tech leader seeks cost-effective alternatives to Tuple.app ($30/user/month) that retain the valued draw-on-screen functionality, receiving suggestions including VSCode with Excalidraw, ZED, pop.com, and Gather Town.

A request for publishing-specific CRM recommendations yielded both general options like Pipedrive and Hubspot as well as specialized enterprise solutions like Klopotek and Censhare, with an offer to connect for deeper industry insights.

A co-founder seeks advice on selling company shares to buy a family home after becoming a father, receiving supportive feedback from another founder who emphasizes family priorities.

A tech leader seeks advice on selling approximately 100 used ThinkPads and MacBooks, receiving recommendations ranging from specialized vendors to employee auctions and charitable donations with tax benefits.

A tech leader inquires about Cybervadis, a security assessment platform requested by a potential customer, leading to a discussion about the growing trend of third-party security audit middlemen and their business implications.

Community members recommend and share experiences with letter scanning services in Germany, including Caya, Dropscan, and DHL's enterprise solution, while noting potential reliability issues with mail forwarding.

Announcement of Qdrant's new Startup Program offering discounts and benefits for startups seeking high-performance open-source vector search solutions.

Discussion validates the 'trimodal distribution' of tech compensation across different company types, with additional insights on regional differences between US-style tech companies and traditional European firms.

Discussion about whether AI approaches mentioned in Tobi's tweet are legally feasible in Germany, particularly considering the potential complications posed by workers councils (Betriebsrat) in larger companies.

A community member shared their excitement about the ability to define custom keyboard shortcuts in Cursor (or VS Code), which was well-received with multiple positive reactions from other tech leaders.

A brief discussion about Microsoft Loop usage experiences compared to Notion, highlighting Loop's integration benefits with Microsoft products despite some feature limitations compared to Notion.

A tech leader seeks and receives recommendations for automating the completion of B2B security questionnaires, with ChatGPT emerging as a solution when provided with company documentation.

A team seeking alternatives to TestRail's poor user experience receives a recommendation for Browserstack based on positive implementation experience at another company, along with an offer to connect with the QA lead who managed the transition.

A request for recommendations on VR development agencies for educational products received three helpful suggestions from community members, including MaibornWolff, a personal connection with VR expertise, and Demodern with an offer for CEO introduction.

A discussion seeking industry benchmarks for cloud/IT costs using metrics like percentage of revenue or cost per employee/developer, with participants sharing their experiences from different company contexts.

Announcement that Bjarne Stroustrup (C++ creator) will be speaking at code.talks in November, with a request for speaker suggestions and connections to potential speakers related to the driving topics for the event.

A tech leader seeks recommendations for MDM solutions compatible with multiple platforms (Mac, Linux, Windows, iOS, Android), receiving suggestions for 1Password Device Trust, Microsoft Intune, JumpCloud, SOTI, and Jamf along with pricing insights and implementation experiences.

A member seeks recommendations for software and cloud infrastructure engineering agencies in Latin America, receiving specific company suggestions and personal connections from the community.

The author announces the publication of 'The Intentional Organization,' a practical leadership and management guide for founders, executives, and managers that offers immediately applicable frameworks without fluff.

A brief announcement highlighting Anthropic's focus on coding capabilities with Claude 3.7, similar to Mistral's strategy, driven by the fact that over 40% of their traffic is coding-related.

A tech leader seeking recommendations for a visa agency to relocate an Indian employee to Germany received a direct solution from Localyze's co-founder.

A brief announcement of OpenAI's new o1 Pro model highlighting its impressive 200k context window while questioning its value proposition given the high price and speed limitations.

A community member shared Anthropic's status page link for those who might be wondering about service availability or issues, receiving positive acknowledgment from others.

A GitHub repository for Sidekick was shared, but users reported significant bugs and crashes when testing it, particularly with m4max and 70b models, as well as non-functional Apple Intelligence integration.

A tech leader inquires about experiences replacing dedicated designers with AI-powered UX tools like uxpilot.ai, suggesting they might serve well as design assistants for frontend engineers.

A user seeking support for their down n8n.io cloud instance for 4 days eventually received a response, while expressing they remain a fan of the product despite the support delay.

A brief exchange seeking and receiving a recommendation for an Office IT provider ('Systemhaus') in Frankfurt am Main for outsourcing physical network management and local security.

A brief exchange about the difficulties of reducing multi-year committed volumes with Google Workspace, highlighting poor customer service experiences when attempting to negotiate.

A community member requested recommendations for a proactive SOC2 auditor who can work with tight schedules, receiving a specific suggestion for Tempo Audits who successfully completed an ISO27001 certification in approximately one month.

A discussion about experiences with unanswered direct messages in the community, where members share their perspectives on DM etiquette and suggest strategies to improve response rates.

A community member requests an introduction to someone at Contentful, and another member suggests a potential contact within their network.

A brief discussion on organizational approaches to sharing business logic with LLMs, coding assistants, and PR review systems, with one participant sharing their experience using RAG to improve automated support solutions.

A brief exchange expressing appreciation for AI technology, followed by clarification that the user is utilizing a paid OpenAI account rather than managing free tier limitations.

A tech leader inquires about companies that have moved away from Slack or similar chat apps due to operational security concerns and user adoption challenges, generating interest but limited detailed responses.

Announcement of The Swarm's Product Hunt launch, offering an API for relationship data and network connections with a request for community support and upvotes.

Request for assistance with technical interviews for a Perl engineer position at an eCommerce business with legacy systems while they plan a technology transition.

A brief exchange critiquing an article that distinguishes between programmers and software developers while suggesting AI is replacing programming jobs.

A brief inquiry about the value of Cloudflare's Enterprise Plan compared to the Business Plan for application services, security, and performance, with one member indicating their intention to upgrade to Enterprise this year.