My new startup – Console – the best tools for developers

I started this blog at the end of 2017 with an aim to write ~weekly on tech and startups. At the time I was still running my SaaS company, Server Density. I find writing a good way to learn, research, and formalise my opinion on particular topics, so used this blog as way to better understand topics on my mind.

Server Density was acquired by StackPath in 2018, and in 2019 I left to do a Master’s degree. The subject of the MSc was added as a new topic to this blog: environmental technology. This developed into several academic peer reviewed articles in 2020, with more in the pipeline for 2021.

Having finished the MSc at the end of 2020, the question then became: what next?

Sustainable computing research #

In the final half of my MSc, I focused on energy policy and technologies. This involved learning about how energy systems work including a detailed understanding of the renewables transition. I was able to combine this with my experience of tech and cloud computing to begin researching sustainable computing and data center energy. My thesis was on the energy intensity of video streaming, which I hope will be published this year.

Academia is very different from being in a startup, and business in general, but as I have enjoyed the research and writing process it is something I would like to be able to continue.

Although it has been obvious for many years that digital and cloud are the future, our reliance on technology sector was accelerated with the 2020 pandemic. The sudden switch to work-from-home has highlighted the importance of energy efficiency, transparency, and the critical infrastructure that underlies it all. Understanding how to make that sustainable is a major open question.

The good news is I am going to be able to continue to contribute to solving this problem! I have joined Uptime Institute as a part-time Research Affiliate focused on sustainable computing.

Uptime Institute is an independent advisory organisation focused on efficiency and reliability of critical infrastructure, particularly IT and data centers. They work with all the major tech companies and are a big contributor to how IT infrastructure is designed, built, and managed. My work there will be mainly writing reports on sustainability.

Much of this will be reposted here on my blog and my first report on renewable electricity and data centers will be out shortly.

My new startup – Console #

I have also started a new company: Console – a free weekly email digest of the best tools and beta releases for developers.

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.

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.

This will be my full-time focus, alongside my two co-founders. There are no plans to raise money, but I will be continuing my angel investing and pro-bono advisory work at Seedcamp.

It’s exciting to be building a company again!