Essays by Ry Walker

Essays on AI, startups, and software engineering by Ry Walker, founder of Tembo and Astronomer.

all agents ai apis architecture

astronomer automation bottleneck build-vs-buy business-model code-review coding-agents communication competition context context-engineering coordination culture customer-development customer-success data decision-making developer-experience developer-tools devex economics engineering enterprise evaluation experience founders fundraising future go-to-market governance growth gtm human-in-the-loop incentives infrastructure integration intuition judgment knowledge-management knowledge-work kubernetes leadership learning maintenance management market marketing measurement memory moats nuance observability open-source operationalization operations outbound personal personal-agents personalization phases pitching platform platforms playbook process procurement product prototyping quality rag reasoning recommendations retention review sales security seed shipping skills software-engineering startups storytelling strategy

tembo tooling trust unit-economics workflow

May 6, 2026	Because I Had To The story of leaving safe jobs and building companies — Differential, Astronomer, and now Tembo — because I had no other choice.
Feb 10, 2026	Podcasts I Love A curated list of podcasts that have shaped my thinking on startups, technology, and building companies.
Feb 5, 2026	The Underrated Power of a Positive Attitude A case for genuine positivity in leadership: it compounds encouragement, builds resilience, and avoids toxic positivity.