Meet Devansh: Lessons Learned While Building a Community of 193,000 Subscribers

Content creation and networking lessons from a wildly successful freelance tech writer

Oct 24, 2023

Hi everyone!

This is my first article in a series where I learn from other members of the tech community. I’ve always thought the best way to learn is by speaking with others and learning from their experiences.

Please subscribe if this interests you!

-Logan

I had the opportunity to speak with an incredibly successful freelance writer and AI consultant, Devansh. Devansh has built a community of over 193,000 subscribers to his newsletters where he breaks down complex technical topics to make them easier to understand. Devansh shared his journey with me and we chatted about the lessons he’s learned about networking and content creation along the way.

Some of Devansh’s accomplishments include:

193,000 newsletter subscribers
Top 15 on Substack’s Top Tech publications list
Top Voice in machine learning on LinkedIn
Top Writer Status on Medium
Hosting tech get-togethers as a traveling tech nomad

I highly recommend joining his community of 193,000+ subscribers by subscribing to his newsletter:

You can also subscribe to his other newsletter: Technology Made Simple.

Devansh’s Journey

Devansh started writing on Medium to simplify complex machine learning topics for readers. His articles gained traction and he achieved Top Writer status. His writings were shared by The Gradient and a Nobel laureate. He also designed courses on machine learning and reached out to educational institutions to help people learn.

After observing the Google searches Devansh made, Google invited him to participate in their Foobar challenges. He posted his solutions to Reddit and attracted the attention of engineers trying to tackle coding interviews. He then helped someone get a job at Facebook and shared the experience in his writing. Others desired the same help so he created a Substack as a way to help people prepare for their technical interviews.

He created a second Substack, Artificial Intelligence Made Simple, to share machine learning knowledge outside of Medium. He now works as an AI Consultant and hosts AI events in the cities he travels to to share his knowledge with others. As part of his AI consulting, he offers a free month of consulting to businesses wanting to integrate AI with their products. If this interests you, reach out to Devansh.

Lessons Learned

Devansh shared some hard lessons he learned during his years writing that helped him improve as a writer and grow his network:

Network outside of the internet: Devansh joked that social media was “Anti-Devansh”. He couldn’t quite figure out the algorithm for social media networks, so he took his networking offline. He found the best way to build meaningful relationships and help others learn from his writing was to teach them in person. He doesn’t rely on any social media platform and attracts subscribers by proving the value of his information up front.
Create what you think is important: Devansh’s goal of his writing is to help other people understand complex topics that are important for them to know. He made a really good point regarding choosing topics for his writing: His readers subscribe to him because they trust him to write about what he thinks is important.
Don’t be emotionally attached to responses to things you create: Any time you create something of value, there are individuals won’t view it that way. Devansh emphasized not becoming emotionally attached to negative feedback. Some feedback will be valuable, and some of it is noise, but being emotionally attached to any of it will harm your ability to create what is important.
Create content for your audience, not for the people you want to be part of your audience: There was a point in Devansh’s career where he had a writing crisis. He debated quitting because the topics he thought were most important caused some readers to unsubscribe. He felt like he didn’t know who he was writing for. It was at that point he decided he would never write for a following and instead just focus on writing the highest quality articles he could. Devansh said this was super scary because he didn’t know if it would resonate with readers, but in the long run it worked out better for him. Writing directly for his readers has helped him grow more quickly than if he was writing empty articles on the latest trending topic solely with the purpose to gain a following.

I believe the lessons Devansh has learned through his writing can apply to all types of content creation. A huge thanks to Devansh for sharing this info with me. Opening up about these topics and sharing them with others is how we all learn and grow together.

Need AI Consulting?

Devansh’s company is currently offering a free month of consulting to businesses looking to integrate AI into their products. This service is available to all businesses from established companies to indie SaaS devs. Contact Devansh to learn more.