Scaling Sonar to 100K Developers

Developer Relations Strategy for Perplexity's API Platform

Colin Lowenberg

Developer Relations Leader | Platform Ecosystem Builder

Why I'm the Right Fit

85,000+

Dabl Club Developers
Scaled from 0 to massive community

50+

Meraki Partners
Built platform ecosystem from scratch

300+

Global Events
Organized worldwide developer engagement

10x

Akash Growth
Competing against AWS/Google

"I don't just build communities - I build movements"

The Sonar Opportunity

Search-First AI

The unique advantage Perplexity has over OpenAI & Anthropic

❌ The Problem

LLMs hallucinate
Outdated training data
No source verification

✅ Our Solution

Real-time search
Always current
Built-in citations

🚀 The Result

50% less hallucination
100% verifiable
10x better for facts

90-Day Transformation Plan

📊
🚀
🌟

Days 1-30: Listen & Learn

  • Shadow 10 customer calls
  • Audit developer journey
  • Competitive analysis
  • Interview 20+ developers
Deliverable: "State of Sonar" Report

Days 31-60: Build & Ship

  • Launch "Build with Sonar" showcase
  • Create interactive playground
  • 5 technical deep-dives
  • Weekly live coding sessions
Deliverable: 50% faster onboarding

Days 61-90: Scale

  • $50K hackathon launch
  • 3 conference talks
  • Champions program (100+)
  • 5 key integrations
Deliverable: 500 new developers

Content That Converts

"Show, Don't Tell" - Real code, real results

🎯 Quick Wins

  • 5-minute quickstarts
  • Copy-paste solutions
  • Interactive playground
  • Video walkthroughs

🔬 Deep Dives

  • Architecture patterns
  • Performance optimization
  • Cost comparisons
  • Migration guides

⚡ Live Content

  • Weekly "Sonar Live" streams
  • Office hours
  • Community showcases
  • Hackathon demos

🏆 Social Proof

  • Developer spotlights
  • Success stories
  • App of the week
  • Community wins

Goal: Every piece of content = working code developers can use TODAY

Community-Led Growth Engine

🏆 Sonar Champions

100 developer advocates in 90 days

  • Early feature access
  • Direct engineering line
  • $10K annual credits
  • Conference speaking

💰 Bounty Program

Get paid to build with Sonar

  • $500-5K per project
  • Integration bounties
  • Content rewards
  • Bug bounties

🎪 Monthly Hackathons

$10K prize pool every month

  • Different themes
  • Virtual + in-person
  • Winner showcases
  • Media coverage

🚀 Startup Program

Accelerate AI startups

  • $25K in credits
  • Technical mentorship
  • GTM support
  • Investor intros

Winning Against OpenAI & Anthropic

The Challenger Playbook

I've beaten AWS/Google at Akash. I know how to position the underdog to win.

🎯 Focus on Strengths

  • Real-time data vs stale training
  • Citations vs hallucinations
  • Cost efficiency vs expensive tokens
  • Speed vs slow responses

🔥 Target Pain Points

  • Developers frustrated with hallucinations
  • Apps needing current information
  • Businesses requiring citations
  • Startups watching costs

💡 Create Categories

  • "Search-First AI" positioning
  • "Grounded Generation" term
  • "Real-time RAG" pattern
  • "Citation-native" development

Measurable Impact

Clear metrics for explosive growth

Q1 2025

500 New developers
< 5 min Time to first call

Q2 2025

5,000 Active developers
10x API call volume

Q3 2025

25,000 Developer community
50+ NPS score

Q4 2025

100,000 Developers reached
#1 Search-AI leader

What I Bring to Perplexity

My Vision for Sonar

Make Sonar THE default choice for any developer building applications that need real-world, current information. Not just another AI API - but the foundation for a new category of "grounded AI" applications.

Let's Build Something Amazing

Together, we'll make Sonar the developer's first choice
for AI-powered search applications

Colin Lowenberg

AI Developer Relations & Platform Ecosystems
15+ years building developer movements

View Full Strategy

Questions for Perplexity

📊 Strategic

  • What's Sonar's unique edge vs OpenAI?
  • Current developer adoption rate?
  • Biggest friction points today?
  • Enterprise vs indie developer focus?

🎯 Tactical

  • Current time to first API call?
  • Developer feedback mechanism?
  • Content/documentation gaps?
  • Community platform preferences?

👥 Team

  • DevRel team structure?
  • Collaboration with product/eng?
  • Resources available?
  • Success metrics for role?

🚀 Vision

  • 12-month vision for Sonar?
  • Key partnerships planned?
  • International expansion?
  • New features roadmap?