Creator Blog
Neill Gernon - 13/06/2025
Creators That Code
The developer support system we forgot to name
If you have ever felt that you sit somewhere between developer, educator and community builder, this is about you.
I have long struggled to describe the people who quietly build the scaffolding developers use to learn and grow: developer bloggers and YouTubers, technical writers, podcasters, course creators, meetup organisers, conference speakers, streamers, open-source maintainers and DevRel practitioners.
There is no shared identity for this work. Industry labels divide it into separate roles and miss the common function.
So here is one: Creators That Code. Creators That Code are people who use relevant technical knowledge or experience to create useful content, engage developer communities, or do both—and help that work reach others.
They may work independently, inside companies, through open-source projects or within technical communities. Their contribution defines them, not the size of their audience.
The common foundation is:
Technical credibility: knowledge or experience relevant to the subject.
Useful creation: turning that knowledge into content, examples, projects or community contributions that help others.
Distribution: the ability to help useful information reach the right people through an audience, community, company channel, search, AI-assisted discovery or another relevant path.
Independent creators are the clearest public expression of the idea. Engineers, founders, DevRel practitioners, customers and community experts also contribute when they share useful technical knowledge, content or community insight.
Creators support the entire developer journey
Developers depend on other developers to learn.
They use tutorials to start coding, documentation and walkthroughs to understand frameworks, comparison content to evaluate tools, community discussions to troubleshoot and expert commentary to stay current.
Creators That Code sit across that journey. They are educators, mentors, interpreters and trusted guides. Their work forms part of the support infrastructure around software: the layer between a product’s formal documentation and the lived experience of trying to build with it.
Writers were doing this before the phrase “creator economy” existed. Blog posts, forums, READMEs and documentation have long been how developers share knowledge and shape practice. Video, streaming, newsletters, social platforms and online communities expanded the formats and made independent technical education more visible—and, for some, economically sustainable.
New platforms have made this work more visible and created sustainable career paths around it. Naming the group makes those hybrid careers legible and gives creators, companies and the broader ecosystem a shared reference point.
From community contribution to serious careers
Developer culture has always combined knowledge sharing with peer support. Open-source communities, forums, local meetups and early DevRel programs made contribution part of how the ecosystem learned and grew.
One of my earliest memories of this model was watching Twilio launch in London in 2012, led by James Parton as he built DevRel across EMEA. Supporting local meetups created distribution, trust and access to tightly connected word-of-mouth networks.
That early DevRel model built credibility through contribution and support.
Publishing platforms then gave technical educators direct access to audiences. A developer could turn tutorials, courses, newsletters or community work into a meaningful part of a career—and sometimes the career itself.
Brad Traversy was one of the people who made that shift visible to me. While I was attempting my own transition into software engineering in 2012, I came across his practical development tutorials. What began as a side project grew into a substantial education business and helped countless developers learn new technologies.
Creators like Brad became educators, technical communicators and translators of a fast-moving software world. Their work shaped how developers acquired skills and formed preferences about tools.
The changing of the guard
From 2021 onwards, several forces accelerated the rise of Creators That Code.
Developers were building in public. Technical YouTube expanded. Blogs and newsletters multiplied. Reddit, Hacker News and social platforms grew louder, denser and more opinionated. As the volume of information increased, trusted curators and teachers became more valuable.
Companies increasingly valued distribution alongside technical credibility. Steven Tey is a useful example. He grew a substantial developer audience through educational content while at Vercel, then founded Dub with content and audience as part of its distribution advantage.
His work demonstrates why the category is difficult to contain inside a conventional job title. The same person can be an engineer, educator, storyteller, founder and distribution channel.
AI-native tools such as Claude, Cursor and Replit have since lowered the barrier to building software. More people now create products and prototypes without identifying as traditional developers. The line between writing code, prompting code and managing coding agents will continue to move.
The population building with software is broadening. More builders and faster-moving tools increase the need for people who can test, interpret and teach from relevant experience.
Why the identity matters
Without a shared definition, this work gets split into disconnected boxes.
A writer is treated as content capacity. A YouTuber becomes paid reach. A meetup organiser becomes community. An engineer who teaches becomes an employee advocate. These labels describe individual outputs while missing the common value: credible people helping developers make sense of technology.
For creators, the identity validates careers that sit between engineering, education, media and community. It creates a clearer basis for sustainable partnerships and pricing.
For developer companies, it encourages a more complete view of creator strategy based on expertise, format, community context, audience relevance and the role a person can play in the developer journey.
The category provides a useful standard: relevant credibility, useful creation and a path for the work to reach others. Audience size is only one part of that equation.
Creators now influence discovery as well as learning
The original model was clear: creators combined content and distribution. They made useful technical information and brought it to an audience.
That remains the foundation. What has changed is the number of ways the work can be discovered.
A tutorial may reach subscribers directly, surface in search, be shared in a community, become the basis of an article, support an ad or appear as a source in an AI-assisted answer. Strong technical content now has a longer and less linear life.
Credible, accessible information now has more routes into the developer decision journey. Citations, rankings and adoption still depend on many factors, and attention alone does not establish trust.
Creators That Code matter because they produce the human layer those systems circulate: explanations, examples, opinions and practical experience.
Inside companies and outside them
Independent creators remain the centre of the category. They often bring an established voice, editorial autonomy and direct audience relationships. They can place a product in the context of the broader tools and workflows they understand.
Credible technical creation also happens inside companies. Engineers, founders and DevRel practitioners bring deeper product knowledge, direct access to internal expertise and the ability to contribute continuously. Customers and community experts add evidence from actual use.
The right voice depends on the subject, audience and objective. Their common contribution is translating technical understanding into something useful and helping it reach the developers who need it.
What good partnerships look like
Developer companies often reduce creators to follower counts, formats and prices. A useful partnership starts with fit:
Does this person understand the problem?
Do they have credibility with the developers who matter?
Can they form and express an independent point of view?
Is the proposed work genuinely useful?
Is the value exchange fair?
Treat creators as collaborators and partners: give them enough access to understand the product, room to maintain their voice and a clear reason to participate. The strongest partnerships improve as both sides build context and learn what the audience values.
Building the category through community
Creators That Code names a real function in the developer ecosystem: people who help others learn, navigate change and make better decisions about technology.
Some will be full-time independent creators. Others will be engineers, founders, advocates, customers or community leaders who create as part of a broader role. A useful contribution can matter without an established audience.
The phrase gives this hybrid work—part educator, part creator, part engineer, part community builder—a clear place in the infrastructure through which developers and software builders learn, adopt and grow.
A shared name can support stronger communities, more sustainable careers and better relationships between creators and the companies that depend on their work.
If you create technical content, teach developers or build communities around software, you are part of its infrastructure. And now we have a name for it.
Creators That Code:
People who use relevant technical knowledge or experience to create useful content, engage developer communities, or do both—and help that work reach others.
FAQ
Creators That Code
What does “Creators That Code” mean?
Creators That Code use relevant technical knowledge or experience to create useful content, engage developer communities, or do both—and help that work reach others. Credibility, useful creation and distribution are the three defining dimensions.
Do you need a big following to be a creator that codes?
No. Relevance and credibility matter more. Distribution may come through a personal audience, a technical community, company channels, search or another credible route.
Can creators that code work inside companies?
Yes. Engineers, founders and DevRel practitioners can contribute relevant expertise, create something useful and help it reach the right developers. Independent creators remain the clearest public expression of the category.
How do you become a Creator That Codes?
Start by teaching what you know, through blog posts, repo READMEs, short videos, live coding streams or text threads across social platforms. Choose a medium that suits you. Focus on helping others. Whether you're publishing for a company or on your own, consistent, useful content builds momentum.
Why are Creators That Code important to DevTool marketing?
Because they explain complex tools in real-world terms. Whether internal or independent, creators help bridge the gap between product and developer driving education, trust, and adoption. They’re often the most effective way to show how a tool works in practice.
Where do Creators That Code typically publish?
Platforms include YouTube, GitHub, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, Dev.to, Hashnode, Twitch, newsletters, reddit, hackernews and company blogs or documentation sites. The format depends on their strengths—writing, coding, speaking, or visual explanation.
How do Creators That Code grow their influence or earn income?
For independents: sponsorships, affiliate programs, courses, and paid content. For in-house creators: career advancement, speaking invites, and visibility across the dev ecosystem. In both cases, content builds trust, which often leads to new opportunities.