I’m David, Co-founder of Console.

I’ve been building software since 2001, when I learned to code whilst still in school. I built a few websites over the years, then in 2009 I started a server monitoring software company, Server Density. This was initially a project to learn Python, but I ended up raising money and hiring a team to help me scale the product. The company was acquired in 2018, by which point it was used by hundreds of customers to collect billions of time series metrics from millions of servers.

After selling my company, I completed an MSc in Environmental Technology. I continue to be involved in researching the environmental impact of computing, but also wanted to get back into the developer community.

Whether it is a new CLI, cloud service, API, or even a new language, it is difficult to stay up to date with the latest tools and technologies. There is always something new to play with. I really enjoy trying new tools, but unless you constantly live on Twitter, Reddit, Hacker News, and developer forums, it is easy to miss the best things.

And so I decided to launch Console.

Console aims to become the place developers go to find the best tools. Starting as a weekly newsletter, each week we will pick out the most interesting tools and new releases. We keep track of everything - dev tools, devops, cloud, and APIs - so you don't have to.

Selection criteria

Our selection criteria for the newsletter are explained below - we focus on picking only the best and most interesting things. We have a high quality filter so our audience can trust us to only send them the best and most interesting things. Otherwise we expect them to unsubscribe!

The more of these questions we can answer positively, the more likely a tool is to be featured. We try to be objective but there is always a subjective element to deciding what we think is the best, most interesting set of tools each week:

• Is this interesting and useful to developers?
• Is there a self-service signup?
• Would this form part of a daily-use set of developer tools?
• Does it make me a better developer?
• Does it solve a problem I have experienced? How well does it solve it?
• Would this be used by advanced, power-users?
• Is the tool high quality?
  Does it do the job it claims? Does it have a good graphical and/or command line interface? Shortcuts? Accessibility? Is it being actively maintained with regular bug fixes and updates? Does it have good documentation? Is it fast?
• Does it have any negative impact on security or privacy?
• How would I feel recommending this to my friends? Would I tweet a link to it

Beyond the newsletter

Over time our goal is to build a community where developers can find the best tools. This will include long form research, discussion, and exclusive early access to beta programs and new releases.

We aim to support Console through this last one - partnering with vendors to provide extras to our audience, such as exclusive access to beta programs or bonus credits, and we may be paid a referral fee for these. Our editorial process is independent from our vendor partnerships. We do not accept payment for product inclusion.

We will use this blog to provide regular updates on our progress, and talk meta about Console itself. We aim to be open and transparent so everyone can see what we're building.

Interested? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter below! And if you spot (or are working on) something you think we should include, email me: david@console.dev.