The blog · since 2015

Insights for founders,
CTOs & investors.

Essays, playbooks and field notes from our CTOs, architects and leads. Written for people shipping real product.

Latest posts

Engineering

Ignoring revisions when using git blame

Tired of git blame pointing to useless formatting commits? Learn how to ignore revisions with --ignore-rev or .git-blame-ignore-revs to keep Git history accurate and helpful.

AI

Automatic pull request reviewing with Cursor's Bugbot

Pull requests are invaluable for sharing knowledge and improving code quality, but in small teams reviews often get rushed or skipped. AI reviewers like Cursor’s Bugbot step in to bridge the gap. For teams short on review capacity, it can add meaningful value.

Leadership

The show must go on: building bridges to prevent and work with silos

What can theatre teach startups about silos? That rehearsed collaboration beats chaos every time. madewithlove supports SaaS companies with CTO coaching, audits, and software engineering: discover how to keep your teams working together at the heart of your business.

Engineering

A Rubber Duck’s Guide to Better Engineering: Part 2

Professor Quacks is back with five more principles for better engineering: build tools that help, move with healthy urgency, plan wisely, work well with others, and lead by example. These aren’t just coding tips, they’re culture-shaping lessons.

Leadership

What should tech companies do to hire a more diverse workforce?

Building diverse tech teams takes more than good intentions. From job ads and interviews to flexible work and international hiring, discover how we try to embed inclusion into every stage of the hiring process, subtly, sustainably, and deliberately.

Due diligence

You can't delegate accountability: what the NIS2 directive means for boards

Here’s an uncomfortable truth: board members can’t delegate accountability. Not for budgets. Not for legal compliance. And no longer for cybersecurity.

Engineering

Learning from OSS: configuring your Link component via a Provider (Braid)

Learn how SEEK’s Braid Design System uses a linkComponent provider to flexibly support routing across React apps. A great pattern for design systems, and one madewithlove engineers keep coming back to when building scalable front-end libraries.

AI

Smart is not enough: three criteria to select AI tools

When selecting AI tools, companies must go beyond productivity and consider compliance, community support, and team management. Discover madewithlove’s pragmatic approach to responsible, scalable AI adoption.

AI

Using Cursor background agents

Cursor’s new background agents feature lets Pro users spin up cloud-based environments that clone your repo, complete small tasks in parallel, and create PRs without touching your local setup.

Engineering

Redux is legacy - modern ways to approach state in React

Stuck in Redux boilerplate for a simple React task? You're not alone. Learn how tools like Tanstack Query, nuqs, and react-hook-form help you replace Redux with simpler, more maintainable solutions—backed by madewithlove's engineering expertise.

AI

Your next hire will use AI in their technical test. Obviously.

As AI becomes a standard part of every developer’s toolkit, tech hiring needs to evolve from policing its use to understanding how candidates apply, evaluate, and collaborate with it.

AI

Claude as tester using Playwright and GitHub MCP

Claude can now test your frontend. With a bit of config, the Playwright MCP server lets Claude run browser tests, find bugs, and even generate reusable test code. This could be a game-changer for startups without QA.

Leadership

Fitness for purpose: taking risks with quality

When product teams obsess over perfect quality, they risk standing still, but by embracing a 'fit for purpose' mindset and planning for instability, they can move faster and smarter.

Leadership

Offboarding: The security hole nobody wants to talk about

Offboarding is a crucial part of security. Forgotten accounts and overlooked credentials can expose your systems to risk. This post offers real examples, a checklist approach, and clear steps to make offboarding more reliable across teams.

Due diligence

These questions will be answered after technical due diligence

Investing without technical due diligence is like buying a used car without opening the bonnet. This article demystifies the audit process, shares what red flags we look for, and explains why investors should care deeply about code, processes and product.

AI & agentic tooling

AI-first engineering

We use AI and agentic workflows daily. From coding agents to AI strategy, we help teams adopt what actually works.

Read our AI insights

Engineering leadership

CTO Insights

We <3 sharing content for CTOs, senior engineers and founders with real-world insights.

40+ expert authors

For investors & VCs

Due diligence done right

Technical audits, codebase assessments, and risk analysis for portfolio managers making investment decisions.

Explore our investor content
CitizenLab Teamleader Combell Fixform Gearjot Miners.ai MobieTrain Izix Publiq Impact Us Today
Subscribe