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Vercel’s Guillermo Rauch | Bold Visions Delivered Incrementally | S3E13 | Spotlight On | AccelVC
@ Accel
06/03/25
Takeaways
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
We need to be mindful of how to meet people where they are today and incrementally bring them to the promised land.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
Vercel builds frameworks and infrastructure for people to ship amazing products on the web, from websites to AI agents.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
Chick-fil-A runs the operational logistics backend for 4,000 stores in the US on Vercel.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
I remember the joy of getting new software onto the computer, which was much harder back then, and it was a miracle to see it run successfully.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
One of the challenges was getting developer tools running, which was a huge pain, especially on Windows. A breakthrough for me was switching to Linux at a young age.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
The web allowed me to throw a couple of files into a folder, boot up my web server, and share a hyperlink with anyone in the world, which got me hooked on coding.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
I started contributing to an open-source project called MooTools, which became a popular JavaScript-based UI library and opened many doors for me.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
I dropped out of high school to begin my journey as a software engineer after being offered a job at a startup in Switzerland.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
I realized that JavaScript could do amazing things on the client side, but you also need the server side, which is why I went all in on Node.js.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
I created an ORM to access MongoDB to build my applications because Node.js was missing basic things needed on top. I realized there was an opportunity to give developers a chat application in just seven lines of code, massively abstracting away the pain of infrastructure they would have to build themselves.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
To innovate, you need really awesome deployment infrastructure. If you have an idea, you should be able to convert it into a URL as soon as possible.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
When I started my company, I wanted to begin with open source foundations, focusing on real-time web applications and making things fast.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
Creating a website and bringing it online was terrifyingly difficult, requiring weeks of work to deploy state-of-the-art technology.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
I realized that if it was so difficult for me to deploy, companies like WordPress would have massively benefited from having awesome deployment infrastructure.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
Before writing a line of code for Next.js, I outlined seven principles of what the ideal state-of-the-art web would be, including instant loading and real-time data.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
I think founders often have a moment where they realize nobody is solving the problems they see, and they decide to create the solution themselves.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
The initial response to Next.js was mixed; there was a huge positive reaction, but some people weren't aware of the problems they would face.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
In the early days, we learned that the internet can be a nasty place, constantly under attack from botnets and scans.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
The best mix is to have optimism about how things will play out while recognizing that opening services to the internet can be a wild environment.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
The magic happened when we aligned the needs of those wanting simplified deployment with those wanting simplified React and web application building. I struggled in the beginning to deliver the vision incrementally and meet the market where it was, which at the time was very static.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
I was fixated on the web at its best, which was highly dynamic, bringing data and personalization instantaneously to the user.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
If I hadn't made the effort to bridge the gap to where people were at the time and deliver incrementally, we wouldn't have the principles we have today at the company.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
Every time we have a big idea about the future, we need to be mindful of how to meet people where they are today and incrementally bring them to the promised land.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
We didn't compromise on making things easy, and because I relied on a foundation of principles, it was scalable to the largest applications on the internet.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
The realization that our technology could work for both hobbyists and enterprises was pivotal when we received an email from Zillow about rewriting everything on top of Next.js.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
It's crucial that a new user experiences an 'aha' moment that feels personal, which is why many CTOs and VPs of engineering also felt the need to create their own websites using our platform.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
We always have to capture the spirit of the time and understand what's around the corner that people will need soon, providing that 'aha' moment.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
The new 'Hello World' might just become an AI agent, automating tasks for users and providing a delightful experience as quickly as possible.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
We've made 750 million deployments to date, and each deployment without Vercel would require significant effort.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
It's a huge privilege to be behind the scenes of so many great companies, powering their e-commerce businesses without interruptions, especially during peak times like Black Friday.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
Companies like Nintendo have moved to Vercel, attributing their seamless scaling during high traffic events to our platform.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
Demos over memos is one of my principles; I prefer to show what we've built rather than just writing it down.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
We have to have a strong foundation to build on; if there's a crack in the foundation, adding more will only exacerbate the problem.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
It's important to outline the principles for what great looks like before writing any code, ensuring clarity and direction from the start.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
Having a thick skin and being open to both positive and negative feedback is essential for growth and improvement in software development.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
The next priority for us is AI, as the world is being completely overhauled by it, and we need to create our own AI innovations that align with our strengths in front-end and design.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
The AI SDK is like the Next.js of AI; it allows developers to connect to various models without locking them into a specific one, providing a great experience for application developers.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
Security is crucial as many people are concerned about bots scraping content and the visibility of their traffic, especially as we serve agents operating on behalf of users.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
I want to make it easy for developers to build and ship to the web, similar to how Stripe simplified financial infrastructure for developers.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
Vercel powers major companies like Stripe and Notion, providing them with the infrastructure to host their workloads and scale effectively.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
We created Vzero to help entrepreneurs go from zero to one by coding, and it's exciting to see it succeed in the enterprise space.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
Seeing companies at massive scale in highly regulated environments get excited about Vercel is highly rewarding.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
Iteration velocity matters more than anything else in today's world, especially in the rapidly evolving AI landscape where every idea and product is up for grabs.
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Guillermo Rauch
06/03/25
@ Accel
Every piece of software today is ripe for disruption, and you just have to go after it and build with Vercel.