Alex Vacca Profile picture
Aug 4 18 tweets 5 min read Read on X
Before AWS existed, one company ran the servers for Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook's entire app ecosystem.

They owned Node.js, invented containers 8 years before Docker, and Peter Thiel even backed them.

Then something happened...
In 2004, a cancer researcher turned entrepreneur named Jason Hoffman started a cloud company called Joyent.

While Amazon was still figuring out AWS, Joyent was already hosting the internet's hottest startups.

Their client list would make your jaw drop. Image
Twitter's early infrastructure ran on Joyent servers.

LinkedIn scaled on Joyent.

When Facebook opened to third-party apps in 2007, Joyent partnered with Dell to host them all.

But that's not even the craziest part. Image
Thousands of Facebook apps (and their millions of users) ran on Joyent's cloud.

Some accounts suggest Joyent even helped power Facebook's chat feature.

They were literally everywhere. Just invisible.

And they had technology that wouldn't exist anywhere else for 8 years. Image
Joyent built their own operating system called SmartOS. It used "container virtualization" via Solaris Zones.

This was in 2005.
Docker didn't exist until 2013.

But here's why being 8 years early was actually their biggest curse.
Their containers were so efficient that one Joyent server could handle what took multiple Amazon EC2 instances.

Industry experts called it "way better than AWS."

But they made one technical choice that would haunt them forever. Image
They built it on Solaris. Developers wanted Linux.

While Joyent was fighting this compatibility battle, they made a hire in 2010 that should have changed everything.

They brought in the creator of something you probably use every day. Image
Ryan Dahl. Creator of Node.js.

Joyent became the steward of what would become one of the world's most important developer platforms.

Today NASA uses Node.js. Netflix uses it. LinkedIn, Uber, PayPal all use it.

Yet somehow, owning Node.js wasn't enough.
Because Jeff Bezos had a philosophy.Image
"Your margin is my opportunity."

AWS slashed prices constantly. They opened data centers globally. They spent billions.

Joyent tried to match Amazon's pricing. But they were fighting a company with infinite money.

And Amazon understood something about developers that Joyent completely missed.
Amazon built an empire on developer evangelism.

Free tiers for startups. Massive documentation. Global conferences like re:Invent. One-stop shop for everything.

Joyent stayed niche. Elite, but niche.
Then they made the decision that sealed their fate.
Joyent chased big enterprise and telecom customers like Telefonica.

Amazon chased everyone. Every startup. Every developer. Every student learning to code.

By 2010, "cloud" meant AWS. Joyent was already forgotten.
The acquisition offer that came next was insulting. Image
2016: Samsung acquires Joyent for ~$125 million.

For context, AWS was worth $100+ billion by then.

The company that invented containers and owned Node.js sold for pocket change.

But Samsung's ownership made things even worse. Image
Under Samsung, Joyent limped along for three more years.

2019: They shut down their public cloud entirely.

The company that once powered Twitter started helping customers migrate to AWS.

The irony gets worse when you see what their technology spawned. Image
Joyent's DNA is everywhere. Every Node.js application. Every Docker container. Every Kubernetes cluster.

They invented the future of cloud computing. They just couldn't sell it.

Want to know the real gut punch? Image
Samsung paid $125 million for technology that influenced over $1 trillion in market value.

AWS is worth $100B today. Docker hit $2 billion. The Node.js ecosystem generates billions annually.

Joyent captured none of it.
The lesson?

In tech, being first doesn't matter. Being best doesn't matter.

Scale matters. Distribution matters. Pricing matters. Ecosystem matters.

Joyent had the technology to change the world.

Amazon had everything else.
Thanks for making it to the end!

I'm Alex, co-founder at ColdIQ. Built a $6M ARR business in under 2 years.

We're a remote team across 10 countries, helping 400+ businesses scale through outbound systems. Image
RT the first tweet if you found this thread valuable.

Follow me @itsalexvacca for more threads on outbound and GTM strategy, AI-powered sales systems, and how to build profitable businesses that don't depend on you.

I share what worked (and what didn't) in real time.

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More from @itsalexvacca

Jul 31
Facebook once bought a VPN app for $120M and turned it into a surveillance tool that spied on 33M+ users' entire phones for years.

This app helped Zuck buy WhatsApp for a whopping $19B and break Snapchat's encryption.

Thread
The name of this Israeli app was Onavo.

It promised to “secure your data” and reduce mobile data usage.

When Facebook bought it in 2013, Zuck said the app would help them connect more people to the internet.

Facebook even promised to keep Onavo running as a standalone brand. Image
But Onavo operated as a VPN that routed all your phone's internet traffic through Facebook's servers before sending it anywhere else.

Facebook could see:

• Every app you opened
• How long you used it
• Which websites you visited
• And at what time you used each app
Read 13 tweets
Jul 24
You know those AI apps that always work? They all use JSON prompts.

Started using the same format for my AI prompts and my outputs became shockingly consistent.

Here's exactly how to write JSON prompts (with code, screenshots, real examples):
What you'll learn in this thread:

→ What JSON is & why LLMs love it
→ Basic JSON prompt structure
→ API modes that guarantee valid output
→ Templates for extraction, generation, analysis
→ Production patterns & error handling
→ Real automation examples

Let's start:
JSON = JavaScript Object Notation

It's just data with labels. Think of it like a form where every field has a name.

Why it works: LLMs are trained on millions of JSON files from APIs and code. It's their native language. Image
Read 23 tweets
Jul 21
AI just made experienced developers 19% SLOWER.

Not faster. SLOWER.

New study: 16 developers, 246 coding tasks, best AI tools available.

Everyone predicted 20-40% productivity boost.

The reality Silicon Valley doesn't want you to see🧵 Image
These weren't random coders. Average 5 years on their specific repositories. 1,500 commits each. Working on codebases with 1.1 million lines of code.

The kind of developers who know their code so well they can navigate it blindfolded.

What happened to them was... unexpected.
Before the experiment started, researchers collected predictions.

- ML experts said 38% faster
- Economics experts said 39% faster
- The developers themselves said 24% faster

They were all wrong. But not in the way you think. Image
Read 15 tweets
Jul 17
BREAKING. An ex-OpenAI engineer published the most revealing insider account of how the $100B AI giant ACTUALLY operates.

They tripled to 3,000 employees in ONE year.
No email. No roadmap. Run entirely on Slack.

Highlights from the most important tech blog of the year: 🧵 Image
The blog is written by Calvin French-Owen, who sold Segment for $3.2B (back in 2011), worked extensively with OpenAI, built Codex, then quit.

He wrote a blog sharing his first-hand experience at OpenAI.

Here's what he revealed: Image
1. One Codex feature burns the same computing power as Segment's entire infrastructure.

Think about that. Segment processed billions of events daily. Thousands of enterprise customers. Massive scale.

At OpenAI? That's a single feature. Not even a main one. Just a "niche" add-on.Image
Read 18 tweets
Jul 14
OpenAI was all set to pay $3B for Windsurf.

So how come Google stole Windsurf for a lesser price ($2.4 billion)?

The actual villain is Microsoft.

How a secret Microsoft clause on OpenAI's IP is helping Google win the AI race: 🧵 Image
Microsoft (OpenAI's biggest investor) has a clause: they get access to any IP that OpenAI acquires.

On the other hand, Microsoft owns GitHub Copilot, which is a direct competitor of Windsurf.

Do you see the problem? Image
Windsurf had built the best "agentic coding" AI - it can write, debug, & fix code autonomously.

Over 1 million developers were using it.

Most importantly: Windsurf had logged interactions from all those developers.

Selling it to OpenAI could've given Microsoft access to all. Image
Read 16 tweets
Jul 10
JUST IN: Grok 4 drops after the wildest 48hrs in the history of X:

- Nazi posts
- CEO resigns
- X Worth $11B less than paid

Musk's now claiming Grok 4 is PhD-level in every subject + scores 45% on impossible tests.

Here's everything Musk revealed at the Grok 4 launch🧵⬇️ Image
1. Grok 4 scored 45% on the "impossible" AI test

Humanity's Last Exam has 2,500 expert questions across 100+ disciplines. GPT-4 gets 3%. Gemini gets 21%.

Grok 4 hit 45% - more than double the previous best. Think PhD-level questions in physics, medicine, philosophy. Image
2. Uses enough electricity to power 300,000 homes

Colossus supercomputer runs at 300 MW.
For comparison, ChatGPT uses about 28 MW.

That's 10x more power for roughly 2x performance.

Environmental groups are already filing complaints about Memphis air quality. Image
Read 16 tweets

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