Simplifying Distributed Systems: Dapr with Mark Fussell
Mark Fussell (@mfussell) is the co-creator of Dapr, the open-source runtime system designed to support cloud native and serverless computing. Dapr provides APIs that simplify the development of distributed applications, providing essential functionalities like service invocation, pub/sub messaging, and observability. Subscribe to Contributor on Substack for email notifications!In this episode we discuss:The difference between Dapr and a service meshHow Dapr is beneficial for platform engineering teamsFrom Microsoft to Diagrid in the startup worldThe significance of Dapr’s graduation from the CNCFLinks:DaprDiagridKEDAPeople mentioned:Yaron Schneider (@yaronschneider)Other episodes:Istio with Sven MawsonLinkerD with William MorganRobust Observability: OpenTelemetry with Austin Parker
2025/5/16
40:29
Messages, Not Metadata: Session with Kee Jefferys
Kee Jefferys (@JefferysKee) is the technical co-founder of Session, the end-to-end encrypted messenger that emphasizes user confidentiality and anonymity. Session uses a blockchain-based decentralized network for message transmission and is open-source, so the system can be run entirely by its community. In this episode, Kee explains the importance of reducing metadata, the challenges of centralization, and the role of incentives in creating a decentralized network. Contributor is looking for a community manager! If you want to know more, shoot us an email at eric@scalevp.com.Subscribe to Contributor on Substack for email notifications!In this episode we discuss:Why the demand for better privacy has increased How Session differs from other encrypted messaging platforms Combining encryption and incentive modelsWhy open-source is so critical to messaging applications trying to prove their securityHow Session could outlast its developersLinks:Session
2025/3/05
39:33
Moving Money: Formance with Clément Salaün
Clément Salaün (@superzamp) is the co-founder and CTO of Formance, the open-source platform which is building an agnostic infrastructure for the future of the financial Internet. Formance is divided into several modules which allow fintech engineers to build and operate complex flow of funds, weaving together multiple payment rails with internal ledger accounts. Tune in to find out what it takes to build a scalable and extensible financial core system.
Contributor is looking for a community manager! If you want to know more, shoot us an email at eric@scalevp.com.
Subscribe to Contributor on Substack for email notifications!
In this episode we discuss:
How Clem got into fintech through Minecraft
Thoughts on the European open-source scene
Formance’s ratio of community size to Github stars
The influence of crypto on Formance
What it means to split an open-source project into many repositories
Links:
Formance
2025/2/05
35:36
LLM Evaluation: Opik with Gideon Mendels
Gideon Mendels (Github: @gidim) is the co-founder and CEO of Comet, the end-to-end model evaluation platform for AI developers. Among the tools in the Comet ecosystem is Opik, an open-source solution for evaluating, testing and monitoring LLM applications. Opik allows users to log traces and spans, define and compute evaluation metrics, score LLM outputs, compare performance across app versions, and more. As a true open-source project, its full featureset is available for use by anyone, completely free.
Contributor is looking for a community manager! If you want to know more, shoot us an email at eric@scalevp.com.
Subscribe to Contributor on Substack for email notifications!
In this episode we discuss:
How Opik’s popularity blew up beyond the Comet team’s expectations
Why CI/CD is especially important in an end-to-end platform
Gideon’s “severe allergy” to “fake open-source” offerings
Why the number of dedicated machine learning engineers is actually going down
Eric’s thoughts on what it means for venture capital to invest in the LLM space
Links:
Opik
Comet
2025/1/15
37:59
Mobile Observability on OpenTelemetry: Embrace with Hanson Ho
Hanson Ho (@bidetofevil) is an Android Architect at Embrace, the mobile-first observability solution built on OpenTelemetry. Embrace began as a proprietary platform but went open-source at the end of 2023. Hanson shares about how the project is still at the beginning of its open-source journey and why his team is committed to collaborative development with the larger community of OpenTelemetry.
Contributor is looking for a community manager! If you want to know more, shoot us an email at eric@scalevp.com.
Subscribe to Contributor on Substack for email notifications!
In this episode we discuss:
The missing piece in mobile observability tooling
How Embrace switched its perspective after going open-source
3 use cases for Embrace
Links:
Embrace
OpenTelemetry
Other Episodes:
Robust Observability: OpenTelemetry with Austin Parker
South Africa