Oh my god, it’s already been 6 months since I joined CodeRabbit.

A lot of friends have asked me, how is it going at CodeRabbit? and my answer remains the same, it feels like a dream, there was a time, I was doing everything as a passion.

No doubt it was too much sometimes and I went through multiple burnouts.

The Difficult Start: Priorities in Personal Life

Honestly, I asked myself more than once whether the timing was right to make this move. The first month was chaotic. I was working through driving lessons, preparing for multiple exams, and starting my first role as a Developer Advocate all at the same time. Everything felt important and I had very little time to give to any of it.

What helped was that my manager Aravind and the rest of the team were incredibly supportive. I was given a clear plan for my first three months, and looking back, I am glad I stuck to it , it gave me structure when everything else felt uncertain.

One habit I have always kept is staying close to my manager through regular feedback check-ins. I want to know early if something is not working, not after it becomes a problem. Since Developer Advocacy is now both my passion and my job, I also have to remind myself to see things through the lens of what is good for the organization, not just what I find personally exciting.

What I Do at CodeRabbit

This is one of my favorite questions to answer, and the honest answer is: it varies a lot. At a fast-growing startup, your week rarely looks the same twice.

A typical week includes:

• Traveling to conferences and representing CodeRabbit
• Planning and creating content
• Writing code for the CodeRabbit product
• Contributing to Open Source (including some PRs for ngrx)
• Talking to Open Source maintainers and supporting them with funding
• Helping the team at the booth during conferences
• Discussing strategy to grow CodeRabbit adoption
• Running live streams
• Writing my weekly newsletter

What I Shipped So Far

Here is a snapshot of what I have accomplished in the first six months:

• Added 45+ new Open Source sponsorships in 6 months, bringing our total to nearly 110 projects
• Shipped 70+ PRs to the CodeRabbit codebase
• Attended FOSDEM, KubeCon EU, Google Cloud Next, App.js Conf, React Summit, and many more
• Partnered with Open Source maintainers and contributors across the ecosystem
• Connected multiple content creators with the team
• Launched live streams and published 14 editions of Weekly Five
• Increased social media following to 30k on Twitter and 18k on LinkedIn
• Published multiple blog posts for CodeRabbit and on my personal blog, including a deep dive on monorepo vs polyrepo strategies

What I Learned

Developer Advocacy was always a passion for me, and I will be honest: sometimes I still miss writing code. I have been shipping code for close to 18 years. But for the past few years, my job has been about helping developers succeed, first by working on standards and tooling across the monorepo in my Staff Engineer role, and now by helping the broader developer community get more out of tools like CodeRabbit.

One of the biggest realizations has been how central communication is to this role. I talk to developers at conferences, connect with Open Source friends, and help people understand how CodeRabbit can fit into their workflow. It is tiring at times, but every conversation where you genuinely help someone makes it worth it.

I have also learned that community relationships are built on respect, not pitches. At CodeRabbit, we love hosting dinners and events at conferences. One rule our manager Erik set early on: when you are out for dinner with community folks, no talking about CodeRabbit. I love that rule, it makes people feel like guests, not leads.

Social media has been another growth area for me. After spending about 18 months focused on recovering my health before joining CodeRabbit, I had let my online presence slip. Building that back up has been a deliberate effort, and seeing the numbers grow has been encouraging.

The hardest adjustment has been the pace. Coming from enterprise environments where I would plan months ahead, startup speed is a different mindset entirely. We are an AI company moving fast, and there are days I feel like I am falling behind. But I am taking that feeling as motivation, not a verdict.

What’s Next

I am excited for the next 6 months, everyone is so motivated at CodeRabbit to make it one of the best products for Code Review, while helping Open Source. I am excited to work with the community and grow more in this role. A huge thanks to my teammates: Aravind, Erik, Hendrik, Ritvi, Juan, Aleks, and Konrad. And a special thanks to Harjot for all the trust and for being a great leader.

If you are using CodeRabbit or thinking about getting started, I would love to hear from you. Feel free to send me a DM or reach me at santosh@coderabbit.ai