This Company Spends 75k on AI tools

20VC with Harry Stebbings · 0m · transcribed 17h ago

Section Insights

# 0:00

Developer Salary and Tooling Costs

What percentage of developer salary is spent on tooling?

The run rate is at least 75k per engineer.

Tooling costs are significant, averaging around 75k per engineer.
Understanding tooling expenses is crucial for budgeting in development.

# 0:07

Usage of Development Tools

Which tools are being used by the development team?

The tools used include Devon, Claude, Codex, and Town, with Devon being utilized for bug fixes and simpler tasks.

Devon is a primary tool for handling bugs and minor visual adjustments.
A variety of tools are employed to address different development needs.

# 0:15

Team Experience with Tools

How does the team experience with Devon affect its usage?

The team finds the experience with Devon and Slack to be very good, leading to its frequent use.

Positive team experience with tools enhances their usage.
Collaboration tools like Slack complement development tools effectively.

# 0:23

Performance of Front-End Tools

What is the performance comparison between Codex and Claude?

The usage is currently about 50/50 between Codex and Claude, with Codex gaining popularity due to its performance.

Codex and Claude are both important tools, with Codex's performance improving its adoption.
Tool performance can shift team preferences over time.

# 0:31

Evolution of Tool Preferences

How have tool preferences changed over the past months?

Five months ago, Claude was the preferred tool, but the new Codex has significantly improved, especially for mobile.

Tool preferences can evolve rapidly based on updates and improvements.
Continuous evaluation of tools is necessary to optimize development processes.

Transcript

0:00 What percentage of developer salary do you spend on tooling? >> I mean the run rate is at least 75k per engineer. >> Wow. >> Split between >> Devon, Claude, Codex, and then Town. >> We use Devon a lot for a lot of bugs that come in. For a lot of like simpler little things or little like visual tweaks, we are kicking off Devon cuz we just find the team experience and Slack's really really good. We have a few people who use Cursor for like more visual, the front end. The model's really fast, right? Composer's really fast for front end. And then I would say it's probably 50/50 right now between Codex and Claude. And that's obviously changed a lot. Like I think 5 months ago I would have said it was mostly Claude, but the new Codex Codex is really good.

0:35 The mobile experience is really good.

Summary

The discussion focuses on the allocation of developer salaries towards various AI tools, highlighting the significant investment in these technologies to enhance productivity and streamline tasks. The speaker notes a shift in preference among tools over time, indicating a dynamic landscape in developer tooling.

- Developer salary run rate is at least $75k per engineer.
- Key tools used include Devon, Claude, Codex, and Town.
- Devon is favored for handling bugs and minor visual tweaks due to its effective integration with Slack.
- Cursor is utilized for more visual front-end tasks.
- The balance between Codex and Claude is currently about 50/50, with Codex gaining popularity.
- Codex has improved significantly in the past five months, particularly for mobile experiences.